There are many things in this world that I really, seriously dislike.

I don’t like racists.

I don’t like bullies – and naturally it follows that I really don’t like racist bullies.

But more so even that racists and bullies I really, really dislike people who try to use false accusations of racism to bully their critics and deflect attention away from their own failings and misdeeds. It’s not clever. It certainly isn’t funny and, more often than not, the people who get hurt the most by this kind of behaviour are the genuine victims of racism and racist bullying whose complaints don’t get taken seriously because far too many people take the existence of false accusations and allegations as an indication that even genuine complainants are likely to be cynically ‘playing the victim’ for some sort of personal gain.

Let me introduce you to Errol Denton.

Errol is a quack.

Now, of course, that’s not what is says on his business website, where he describes himself as a “certified nutritional microscopist” but a quack he most definitely is and a particularly unpleasant one at that for reasons that will shortly become abundantly clear.

Errol’s particular brand of quackery is called, amongst other things, ‘Live Blood Analysis’. To save time, I won’t go in to the full ins and outs of live blood analysis here because the detail has already been admirably covered here, by Prof. Edzard Ernst, and here, by Mark Crislip at Science Based Medicine. Mark’s pithy summation of the truth about live blood analysis is well worth noting and committing to memory:

Live blood analysis is a remarkable combination of artifacts being diagnosed as pathology combined with an imaginary pathophysiology that is completely divorced from reality. It is microscopic paradolia, with the practitioners seeing their own imagining in the structures on the slides. When I was a child, before I learned to cursive writing, I would make squiggles on paper occasionally crossing a ‘t’ and dotting an ‘i’. It was gibberish but I called it real writing. I didn’t realize I was in training to be a live blood analyst.

Live blood analysis does not resemble most alternative medicine modalities, but is more akin to high tech reading of tea leaves or the entrails of pig to divine the future. It is the cargo cult of quackery, with the trappings of science but none of the substance.

In short, the diagnostic value of live blood analysis is zero, but there’s more because Errol Denton is also a follower of Robert O Young, an American cancer quack with, shall we say, a rather interesting history.

One way to judge someone’s credibility is to examine the nature of his education. Young’s Web site includes the following information:

Before Dr. Young began his extensive nutritional research, his love for sports and science led him to the University of Utah—where he studied biology and business in the early 70’s. . . . His education was temporarily interrupted by an ecclesiastical mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He successfully served for two years in London, England.

In the 80’s, following his mission and schooling at the University of Utah, Dr. Young studied medical microbiology—training under Dr. Robert Bradford at the Bradford Research Institute in Chula Vista, California. Dr. Bradford is now a trustee and professor at Capital University in Washington, DC, where he teaches live and dry blood microscopy. Dr. Young also studied darkfield microscopy. . . .

In 1993, Dr. Young received a MS in nutrition from the American College in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1995, he received his D.Sc. with emphasis in chemistry and biology. . . . In 1997, Dr. Young received a Ph.D. from Clayton College of Natural Health. His Professor, James E. Harvey from San Diego State University, reviewed and accepted his dissertation as completing all the requirements for a doctorate of philosophy degree in nutrition. Continuing his studies and research, Dr. Young later received an additional doctorate degree in naturopathy (ND) from Clayton College (1999).

I can’t judge the extent and quality of Young’s undergraduate education in biology. However, the rest of his training is smoke and mirrors. Robert Bradford, who was convicted of laetrile smuggling in the 1970s, was not even a college graduate. His alleged “doctoral degrees”—two of them—were acquired from credential mills. For nearly 30 years, he operated a network of enterprises that included a Mexican clinic that offered quack treatments, a company that marketed dubious drugs and dietary supplements, a “research institute” that did no significant research, and a non-accredited “medical school” that operated for about five years. In 2011, Bradford, his wife, and their company (American Biologics, doing business as C.R.B., Inc) were convicted of conspiring to violate federal food and drug laws and defraud individuals seeking medical care. The indictment states that he marketed bogus Lyme disease products and a microscope system that was falsely claimed to diagnose the disease.

Clayton College of Natural Health was a non-accredited correspondence school that advocated unscientific and quack methods. Its requirements for graduation were minuscule compared to those for accredited colleges and universities that train health professionals. It closed in 2010 after Alabama began requiring accreditation for license renewal. Moreover, no correspondence school can prepare students to give competent health advice to clients because that requires years of clinical experience under expert supervision. Young’s connections with Clayton and Bradford reflect extremely poor judgment.

Errol has plenty to say on his website about ‘Dr’ Robert O Young and his ‘New Biology’ but, unsurprisingly, neglects to mention anything at all about Young having obtained his ‘doctoral degrees’ from a couple of diploma mills, a detail that might, one suspects, be of more than passing interest to his customers. However, from a scientific standpoint, what Errol does have to say is not much better than his omissions:

Dr Robert O Young’s New Biology, most simply stated, is that the over-acidification of the body is the single underlying cause of all disease. In contrast, the old biology, based on the work of Louis Pasteur in the late 1800s, stems from the idea that disease comes from germs which invade the body from the outside. Dr. Young has found that when the body is in healthy alkaline balance, germs are unable to get a foothold.

Think of your body as a fish tank. Think of the importance of maintaining the integrity of the internal fluids of the body that we ‘swim’ in daily. Imagine the fish in this tank are your cells and organ systems bathed in fluids, which transport food and remove waste.

Now imagine we back up a car and put the tailpipe up against the air intake filter that supplies the oxygen for the water in the tank. The water becomes filled with carbon monoxide, lowering the alkaline pH, creating an acidic pH environment and threatening the health of the ‘fish’ – your cells and organs.

What if we throw in too much food or the wrong kind of food (acid-producing food like dairy, sugar, and animal protein) and the fish are unable to consume or digest it all, and it starts to decompose and putrefy? Toxic acid waste and chemicals build up as the food breaks down, creating more acidic by-products and altering the optimum alkaline pH.

All complete and utter bollocks, of course.

You should not believe that it matters whether foods are acidic or alkaline, because no foods change the acidity of anything in your body except your urine. Your stomach is so acidic that no food can change its acidity. Citrus fruits, vinegar, and vitamins such as ascorbic acid or folic acid do not change the acidity of your stomach or your bloodstream. An entire bottle of calcium pills or antacids would not change the acidity of your stomach for more than a few minutes.

All foods that leave your stomach are acidic. Then they enter your intestines where secretions from your pancreas neutralize the stomach acids. So no matter what you eat, the food in stomach is acidic and the food in the intestines is alkaline.

Dietary modification cannot change the acidity of any part of your body except your urine. Your bloodstream and organs control acidity in a very narrow range. Anything that changed acidity in your body would make you very sick and could even kill you. Promoters of these products claim that cancer cells cannot live in an alkaline environment and that is true, but neither can any of the other cells in your body.

Okay, so far we’ve securely established Errol’s credential as a quack, but not just any old quack. He’s a quack with problem is so far as he currently has four ASA adjudications to his name for promoting his business with misleading advertising and unsubstantiated claims and his business has recently been added to the ASA’s list of non-compliant online advertisers because he continued to make misleading claims in his advertising literature after the ASA told him to stop doing it.

Errol’s troubles with the ASA stem from complaints brought by Josephine Jones and Jo Brodie, both fine upstanding skeptics and scientists and its there that Errol’s recent behaviour has taken a – ahem – darker turn. In the wake of the most recent ASA adjudication, Errol started to use his personal blog to traduce the personal reputation of his critics in perhaps the most dishonest and disreputable manner one could possibly imagine short of accusing them of paedophilia. Here are just a few examples of Errol’s recent ‘work’:

Jo Brodie is a filthy dog Sociopathic RACIST who is a menace to society along with evil companion unclean Nazi Josephine Jones. Together this vile disgusting duo have waged a two year cyber bully campaign against Errol Denton of Live Blood Test Harley Street and Dubai. http://www.livebloodtest.com

These disgusting faecal matter have used every dirty trick in the book to defame the name of Errol Denton because of the colour of his skin. In true Sociopathic RACIST fashion they never once acknowledged the fact that he has successfully treated TWO THOUSAND PLUS satisfied clients suffering from diseases such as; Arthritis, Cancer, Diabetes, Eczema, Gout, (sic) Hypertesion and so much more. See case studies here:

http://www.livebloodtest.com/case-studies.html

And…

Josephine Jones is a fraud and a criminal according to many of as well as sidekick pit bull terrier Jo Brodie.  Jo Brodie is a disgusting piece of dog excrement and lower than a cockroaches’ belly with the morals of a sewer rat.  Neither of these two will ever admit that they are Sociopathic RACIST scum.  Just like Jimmy Savile in denial they will go to their graves denying the truth that they are RACIST scum.  They pretend that they are decent when they are nothing but the scum of the earth lower than a cockroaches’ belly. Similarities to Jimmy Savile are frighteningly scary.  These are the evil monsters that give children nightmares. They even try to want dialogue with the black Harley Street natural health Physician who would no sooner speak to them as he would dog excrement on his shoes. Any sane person would wash it off with disinfectant and avoid it like the plague.

And…

Errol Denton has been the victim of Sociopathic Racist cyber bullies for 2 years and has not responded to their disgusting smear campaign. Josephine Jones is a particularly vile and dangerous Sociopathic Racist that hides its true identity claiming it is for protection.

The common sense facts prove this to be MISLEADING. First the Sociopathic RACIST uses subterfuge to conceal their nefarious and wicked activities. Second they use naked unprovoked aggression against their victims. Third they deceitfully attempt to “CON” VINCE the world that somehow the victim is wrong or deranged in some way so that they can continue the abuse of their victim unchallenged. Let us examine and compare these actions. First Jo Brodie and Josephine Jones use subterfuge as cover by way of the ASA to justify their campaign of RACIST cyber bullying for two years. Second they smear and defame the character of Errol Denton live blood analysis expert in Harley Street with an exemplary natural health healing record exceeding TWO THOUSAND satisfied clients. Third they conceal these glaring facts and attempt to “CON” VINCE the world that Errol Denton has done wrong by helping TWO THOUSAND PEOPLE suffering with sickness and diseases such as: Arthritis, Cancer,Diabetes, Eczema,Hypertension and may more. All along the real reason is because he has black skin and they are filthy Sociopathic RACISTS. They do not work for the ASA so have no legal right to continually harass Errol Denton. The ASA has already done it’s job. The question is what motivates them to continually use the ASA as an excuse? Answer RACISM plain and simple.

The frightening comparison to this is the Jimmy Savile case where hundreds of innocent victims were abused and were too frightened to speak up because of the fear that they would not be believed because of this aggressive monster with a fake identity/personality like Josephine Jones Sociopathic RACIST abuser. Jo Brodie also possess a fake personality being a vicious rabid Sociopathic RACIST.

These two have their allies who will now spring to their defence and try to help conceal their (sic) misdemeanours. You see just like the Jimmy Savile case there were facilitators who permitted this to happen and refused to accept the facts. Errol Denton has been victimised for TWO YEARS not by any governing bodies such as the ASA but by TWO Sociopathic RACIST bloggers named Josephine Jones (Pseudonym) and Jo Brodie filthy sewer rat. These vile RACISTS have taken it upon themselves alone to aggressively and viciously persecute and harass Errol Denton merely because of the colour of his skin.

They are like the evil child molester that says to their victim if they talk they will murder their family members to continue their vile activities unchallenged. They are like the rapist who says that the woman they raped was promiscuous and attempt to sully her character to get themselves of the hook. Josephine Jones and Jo Brodie are employing all of these filthy tactics to deflect the spotlight off of their Sociopathic RACIST cyber bullying of Errol Denton.

Needless to say, Errol is no more capable of substantiating any of these allegations than he has shown himself to be capable of substantiating any of the claims made in his advertising literature. Female readers, and especially, female bloggers, might also note that the general manner and tone of Errol’s ravings are somewhat reminiscent of the kind of extreme misogynist vitriol that too often tends to be directed towards female bloggers who dare to stick their heads above the parapet. It’s not an exact fit, of course, Errol has yet to resort to any of the common portmanteau insults, such as ‘Feminazi’, yet one could easily be forgiven for detecting more a hint of misogyny in his febrile outpourings given that he is, of course, male while both of his named critics are female.

Whatever, Errol’s motives are, perhaps, no more than a side issue.

What is, however, abundantly clear is that Errol is a pretty nasty piece of work who responds to criticism with outrageous and wholly unsubstantiated smears, lies and false accusations and if you’ve landed on this particular article via a search engine because you’ve been thinking about taking up Errol’s services then you might wish to consider whether this is behaviour of someone to whom you’d be willing to entrust your health and wellbeing, not to mention, of course, a fair portion of the contents of your bank account.

To be clear, by complaining to the ASA about claims made in Errol’s advertising, the only thing that Josephine and Jo have actually done is ask the ASA to ask Errol to produce the scientific and clinical evidence that supports his claims and prove that live blood analysis actually does the things that Errol claims it does.

For the moment, let’s set aside Errol’s claim that he has ‘successfully treated’ more than 2,000 people and focus solely on his use of live blood analysis. Live blood analysis isn’t a treatment, it’s a diagnostic test that Errol uses to determine whether or not his clients actually need treatment before he decides on the treatment he thinks they need. If live blood analysis works and can accurately diagnose health problems then, and only then, do we need to go and consider whether or not any of the treatments Errol prescribes have any genuine medicinal value, but if live blood analysis doesn’t work – and the scientific and clinical evidence says that it doesn’t – then we have to ask ourselves just exactly what it is that Errol has been treating and whether, indeed, his clients actually had any conditions that required treatment in the first place.

It’s actually very easy to generate large number of ‘satisfied customers’ who are happy to have received ‘treatments’ that don’t work if most of those customers didn’t have any health problems in the first place but were only fooled into thinking they needed treatment by a diagnostic test that has no scientific or clinical validity whatsoever. That is, of course, how Errol’s practice operates and, equally, the reason that his claim to have successful treated more than 2,00o people is entirely meaningless. If his test doesn’t work then he cannot demonstrate that his customers needed treatment in the first place, let alone that any treatments he might have given these people have actually worked.

And if you think that proves nothing about the validity or otherwise of Errol’s claims then, by a complete stroke of luck, I happen to have recently come into the possession of the deeds to a bridge that you might be interested in.

Errol has been given for separate opportunities to put the scientific evidence to support the claims made in his advertising and each occasion he’s failed to come up with the goods, so now he’s taking to calling his critics ‘sociopathic racist’ and developed what appears to a rather unhealthy obsession with dog faeces about which I really don’t care to speculate.

Is that really the behaviour of an honest man? Some you can trust to tell you the truth?

I’ll let you decide.

Errol concludes one of his vitriolic rants with the following observations:

TWO THOUSAND SATISFIED Clients cannot be wrong only Josephine Jones and Jo Brodie vile Sociopathic RACISTS are wrong. Just like the Stephen Lawrence murderers they cannot take legal action to deny that they are Sociopathic RACISTS because doing so would reveal that they are RACISTS. Instead they will continue to play the sick game of the abuser seeking to silence the victim. Their tactics will involve claiming it is not true but yet not taking the necessary action to prove otherwise. Another tactic will be to defame the character of Errol Denton as with a rapist defaming the character of their victim. They will continue to try to silence dissenting voices in petitions against them. All this is a clear indication of their guilt. This is identical to the Lawrence murderers who refuse to sue the Daily Mail; they also will never take action because doing so will reveal their mendacious activities. The truth will always come out in the end as it did with Jimmy Savile.

And of course, the mere that I’ve written this article will, in the parallel universe that Errol clearly inhabits, automatically make me a ‘sociopathic racist’ and co-conspirator, with Josephine and Jo, in the illusory campaign of defamation and vilification in which Errol professes to be the victim.

Nothing, of course, could be further than the truth.

Both Josephine and Jo could, if they wished, bring defamation actions against Errol Denton but, as is widely acknowledged, libel actions are both complex and horrifically expensive to bring to court and although there is no doubt whatsoever that any action in this matter would be successful, one has to consider carefully whether or not there is any realistic prospect of recovering your own legal costs before committing to the time, effort and expense of litigation.

Now, on that score Errol lays claim to a prestigious Harley Street address for his practice – Suite GR2, 1 Harley Street, London – but the impression that this is intended to create may, like everything else that Errol claims, be somewhat removed from reality.

The premises located at 1 Harley Street, or to more precise 1-7 and 2 Harley Street, are occupied by the Harley Street Natural Therapy Centre which, amongst other things, rents out consulting rooms to visiting therapists at rates starting from a mere £35 per week. As Errol’s name does not appear on the centre’s list of resident therapists and advertises his service as being ‘by appointment only’ it seems highly likely that Errol operates as visiting therapist, renting a consulting room in the centre as when he’s accumulated enough clients to cover the rental costs and turn a decent profit. ‘Suite GR2’ which I would take to mean consulting room 2 on the ground floor of the centre would appear to the one advertised here with the following description and rental rates:

Rooms 2 and 4 (larger consulting rooms):

Weekday morning sessions of 4 hours cost £50 per week (i.e. £216.67p per calendar month) (Just reduced!)

Weekday afternoon & evening sessions of 4 hours cost £60 per week (£260 per calendar month)

Weekend sessions are £55 per week (£238.33p per calendar month) (6 hour session)

Whole day (Saturday or Sunday) is £100 per week (£433.33p per calendar month)

Reduced rates apply for full day or multiple sessions

Errol’s website also gives a ‘head office’ address in Dubai – City Tower 1, Sheikh Zayed Road – but this turns out to be nothing more than a large commercial office block with no great shortage of individual units for rent and, consequently, ample scope for short-term rentals. Rates in the building appear to be a fair bit higher than those in the Harley Street Centre and Errol would, of course, have to cover the other costs (flights, accommodation, etc.) when making a Dubai run but I imagine all that can be easily offset by upping his fees as long as, again, he’s got enough punters lined up in advance to make a trip to the Gulf worth his while.

This all fits neatly with the fact that the actual registered office and trading address of Errol’s company – Fitalifestyle Ltd – leads back to a residential address in Woodford Green, Essex and one can easily see, from the company’s financials, one reason why Errol is far from happy with the attention he’s been getting from the Advertising Standards Authority. Based on his last three set of accounts, Errol has an annual turnover of between £90,000 and £120,000 to protect which, over the same period, has generated an annual gross profit in the region of £61,000 to £76,000.

Never let it be said that quackery isn’t a lucrative business or that Errol, like other quacks, is less than skilled when it comes to the one clinical procedure that all quacks can perform with suitable alacrity – the walletectomy.

In all, in the four years he’s been actively trading as Fitalifestyle Ltd, he’s turned over a little over £390,000 and he claims have treated over 2,000 ‘satisfied customers’ – although we don’t know how many dissatisfied customers he might have had – which suggests that his fees might be somewhere in the range of £150-200 per punter, on average. That’s may not look like a huge sum of money until you realise that all he really has to offer his punters is a fraudulent diagnostic test and bit of dietary advice that they could easily get for free from their GP or an NHS Dietician. Actually that’s not quite correct as the dietary advice you’ll get from your GP or a genuine Dietician will be based on actual science not the crackpot theories of an American cancer quack – if sure you can my point.

Now, looking at the numbers you might to tempted to think that it might possibly be worth a punt at a bit of defamation litigation. There’s decent enough turnover, a solid profit to turnover ratio and maybe the guy owns the residential property in Woodford Green, so there’s a bit of collateral to play with as well. There’s certainly some cash there but not in the kind of quantities that Errol wouldn’t quickly burn through were he to find a lawyer willing to take up his case, although having seen his material his is not the kind of case that’s likely to interest even the esteemed litigators at Grabbit and Runne LLP.

All things considered, Errol’s not really worth suing. In fact the only thing that a serious threat of litigation would achieve is the removal of his allegations against Josephine and Jo from the public domain and, frankly, as he’s already doing a bang up job of trashing his own reputation with his wholly unfounded rants I don’t why anyone would think of intervening and helping the guy out by forcing him to take them down.

So, contrary to Errol’s ravings, one cannot read anything at all into the fact that Josephine and Jo have, so far, chosen not to sue the guy’s arse off, not least because by exposing his antics to the full glare of publicity it’s possible that some of potential might see him for what he actually is and think twice about taking up his services. Others may, of course, be so gullible that nothing one could possibly say to them will make a blind bit of difference but then, fortunately, not everyone is as excruciatingly thick as Jeni Barnett:

Errol is a wonderful communicator his website www.livebloodtest.com is worth a perusal.

Now when I got to work a young scientist had written to me telling me to beware of charlatans like Errol. That he and live blood analysis were a sham. Well we’ll take a punt on him. Why? Because i trust him. My acupuncturist trusts him, but then I know many scientists get the needle when acupuncture is talked about.

Words… Fail…

Yep, Errol certainly is a wonderful communicator with a truly delightful and poetic command of the English language equal to that of William Shakespeare:

Josephine Jones, Jo Brodie MISLEADING the public that you are not a RACIST is pathetic. The truth cuts like a knife to someone who is lying that is why it hurts you. If it were ludicrous that you are Sociopathic RACISTS (Which indeed you are) then you would merely laugh and ignore it. Errol Denton has been called a quack Doctor for the past 2 years by you and has laughed and ignored it. The fact that you are so desperate to try to ‘CON’ Vince everyone that you are not RACISTS speaks volumes about your shame. Sticks and stones may break ones bones but names can never harm one (unless it is the truth that is) People in glass houses should not throw stones. Stop MISLEADING the public Sociopathic RACISTS JO Brodie and Josephine Jones.

Jo Brodie Josephine Jones you are the archetypal Sociopathic RACIST NAZI. You hurl abuse and insults such as quack etc etc but you cannot take the truth when labeled RACISTS. FREEDOM of SPEECH you hurl to defame the characters of your victims. Then you say “Foul I am not a RACIST” Stop MISLEADING people you are RACISTS.

Your lynch mob will not stop the truth You ARE SOCIOPATHIC RACISTS. WHAT ARE YOU AGAIN? Oh YES SOCIOPATHIC RACISTS.

Less a certified nutritional microscopist, more a certifiable nutritional microscopist, I fear.

Errol’s understanding of how the ASA works is also, well, a little odd…

They [Josephine and Jo] do not work for the ASA so have no legal right to continually harass Errol Denton. The ASA has already done it’s job. The question is what motivates them to continually use the ASA as an excuse? Answer RACISM plain and simple.

Well yes, the ASA has done its job – it’s reviewed Errol’s claims, found them by misleading and instructed Errol to remove them from his website and marketing literature – and Errol has ignored those instructions and continued to bullshit the general pubic in order to try and keep the marks rolling in. And because Errol is refusing to play ball with the ASA, Josephine and Jo – as members of the public – are fully entitled to carry on notifying the ASA that Errol is not not complying with their adjudications and is still using misleading claims to promote his business. Rinse and repeat ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

Ideally, at this point, Trading Standard should step in a deal with problem once and for all but, unfortunately it too often seems that unless you’re complaining about someone who’s flogging knock-off Ben Shermans down the local market, Trading Standard turns out to be about as much use as a chocolate teapot – or one of Errol’s diagnostic tests.

Of course, if Errol genuine believes that he’s being defamed when I call him a quack then he too has the option of bring a defamation suit before a court against Josephine, Jo and, of course myself and, should he elect to go down that route then I can happily advise him, in advance, that the basis of my defence will be truth, justification and honest opinion and I’ll happily see him in court although I will, of course, be asking him to produce credible scientific evidence of the diagnostic validity of live blood analysis as part of that defence.

In the mean time I would just point that Errol’s status as a quack is in no sense related to his ethnic background, even if he were an Eton educated white boy who could trace his family line back to William the Conqueror he’d still be a quack and that being called a quack is nothing whatsoever like being vilified and humiliated in court by the defence counsel who’s representing your rapist or covering up the sexual abuse of children by a creepy (and now deceased) celebrity.

And so, Errol, when you accuse Josephine and Jo of being ‘sociopathic racists’ for daring to ask you, through the ASA, to back up your advertising claims with credible evidence, I can think of no more appropriate response than to quote the words spoken – actually boomed – by Burl Ives in one of my favourite films, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof…

“What’s that smell in this room? Didn’t you notice it, Brick? Didn’t you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?… There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity… You can smell it. It smells like death.”

Ironic Footnote

While drafting this article, I noticed that my spell check didn’t immediately recognise the word ‘sociopathic’. It did, however, offer up an amusing and rather ironic alternative…

Osteopathic.

Update –

One thing I forgot to mention was that Josephine Jones has put together a useful guide entitled ‘How do I complain about Errol Denton?‘, which is well worth taking a look at and contain much that should prove useful should you run across any other quacks you’d like to complain about.