Errol Denton

Errol Denton, a crank who insists on going by Dr. Errol Denton, or, to give his full medical title, Errol Denton, is a "Harley Street medical professional." Denton claims that he is able, using live blood analysis and iridology, to "cure" diseases through alkaline diet and liquid chlorophyll. He claims to have cured cancer, arthritis, Crohn's disease, and the common cold, and also claims to have treated royalty. He trained under "Dr." Robert O. Young, whose degrees come from Clayton College of Natural Health, alma mater of copromancer "Dr." Gillian McKeith. The only credential he claims on his website is from the "prestigious" London School of Iridology, which as of April 2016, hasn't got quite as far as setting up a website. It has also, thus far, escaped the notice of the Skills Funding Agency.

His company Fitalifestyle has been listed by the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority as a non-compliant online advertiser, due to repeated failure to amend false claims.

Denton has made a number of claims using figures which are, to put it charitably, not well-researched.

A good example of Denton's peerless advice comes from his article on avoiding the common cold: Common sense tells us that wild animals such as Gorillas do not get colds and flu. We do not see them walking around sneezing coughing or blowing their noses in handkerchiefs!

[…]

Keep your colon clean. This is where the bacteria that cause the cold in your nose and throat live. Do not combine carbohydrates with proteins this is a sure way to clog your colon. Notice how many people get colds after the Christmas period this is due to bad food combining leaving the colon like a festering sewer ideal breeding ground for bacteria.

Do gorillas get colds and flu? Yes, they do, both human and ape-specific. In fact, they can die from these. Some primates don't, but gorillas do. Well-chosen example, there, to reinforce the breathtaking ignorance of the statement that colds are caused by bacteria that live in your colon &mdash; which is presumably why it's called "rhinovirus," just to confuse everybody about the nature and location of the pathogen. Dashed cunning, these viruses bacteria.

The curious case of the "racists"
Denton claims that he is the victim of RACIST (always in capitals) bloggers, specifically Jo Brodie and Josephine Jones. Denton's petition against Brodie and Jones states that "They have stated that [Denton] should not be working in Harley Street with absolutely no reason other than he is black". This is denied by both Jones, who pointed out that she made it very clear why she opposed his practice, which sells quack cures for cancer, and Brodie, who pointed out that she has made similar complaints about other live blood analysts, regardless of their ethnicity.

Denton has made great efforts to publicise this "Campaign Against Racist Bloggers" (CARBS) under considerable opposition from presumably equally-racist service providers and site admins: his Wordpress attack blog was closed for ToS violation; a Facebook group was closed down by Facebook; and a petition on Care2 was closed down (their abuse ticket #782130). Finally, Denton was able to create a lasting presence with a petition on the website thepetition.co.uk, which has managed to remain online thanks to the site's well-known support of victims of harassment. Well, not that well-known. This petition website is, in fact, quite singular. The domain was registered with WHOIS privacy on 14 November 2012, coincidentally just after the Denton petition was last removed from Care2. It was originally hosted by Heart Internet but, following complaints, was replaced with a blank WordPress installation, then resurrected at a different web host.

Of the active petitions listed at thepetition.co.uk, only Denton's appears to be actively promoted. The others appear to be copied from other locations. According to skeptic observers, an MTurk task to sign the petition was terminated by Amazon, but if you need $0.05 in a hurry the seeker "Errol" will pay you to sign via a similar task on ShortTask. But hurry! ShortTask 368612, which the Google cache shows asked the same thing, appears to have been nuked.

Ron Lewis, the "sceptical letter writer", talks of "Errol Denton's pretend petitions" and notes the curiously-transient nature of his campaign on sites that have strong terms of service.

Early in 2013, Denton used a DMCA request against the 21st Floor skeptical website for supporting Brodie and Jones against his accusations. This resulted in the site being down for many weeks.

Conviction under the UK Cancer Act
Denton was convicted in absentia in March 2014 for breaching the UK Cancer Act 1939 with “twisted” and “immoral” claims on his website that he could cure cancer. Westminster Magistrates’ Court fined him the maximum of £1000 for each of 9 counts and £10,000 costs.

In the Not Doing Himself Any Favours Dept., in an earlier session Denton employed the always-popular Freeman on the land defence in court — "I'm not 'Mr' Errol Denton. I'm Errol of the Denton family, not 'Mr,' the corporate fiction". Josephine Jones' blog provides more links and coverage.

In April 2018, Denton was further convicted of two counts of "engaging in unfair commercial practice" and one of "selling food not of the quality demanded", for selling a bottle of colloidal silver drink to an undercover trading standards officer in February 2016, after examining a drop of her blood and from it claiming that she had dislocated her shoulder. He was made the subject of a Criminal Behaviour Order, fined £2,250 and ordered pay £15,000 in costs.