Fences make for good neighbours, the old saying goes. Perhaps. But so too does knowing a little about the person who just bought the house next door. Particularly when things start to go wrong. Just like they did in the small west Wales community of Cilcennin.
Now that Nathaniel De Vere, of Maes Yr Awel, Ty Glyn Lodge has decided to drop his appeal at Crown Court in Swansea against his conviction for assault, Cambrian News can report in detail on his crime – and highlight his chequered career as a bankrupt concert promoter who changed his identity legally by deed poll before settling in the village four years ago. And making life hell for the family next door.
De Vere had pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing in October 2025 to assaulting Michael Williams in Cilcennin on 2 April last year.
De Vere was found guilty of the assault by magistrates following the trial over two separate days in December 2025 and then January. De Vere was fined £180 by magistrates and made the subject of a two-year restraining order.
Significantly, because the trial was drawn out, Aberystwyth Magistrates also ordered De Vere to pay costs to the Crown Prosecution Service of £1,800 as well as a surcharge of £72 to fund victim services.
De Vere lodged an appeal against the verdict but withdrew it at Swansea Crown Court on 13 July – meaning his criminal conviction for assault stands ‑ and Cambrian News can now fill you in on the case and his background.
In a small, tight community, when news comes out that a neighbour is seriously ill, normal decorum would be to offer respect, empathy and assistance.
De Vere’s reaction? Paint a board black with large RIP lettering in white, pointing it towards the terminally ill patient’s home and making sure it’s prominently visible.
Cambrian News asked De Vere about the RIP sign. “You have so very much wrong,” he said. “I don’t know what you are on about except the sign which is for my cat Freya that died earlier this year. Please leave me alone. Thank you.”
In Lampeter and south Ceredigion, the 54-year-old De Vere markets himself on Facebook as the owner and operator of Run Home Jack painting and decorating, dabbling interior design as well, and claims to have been at it for 25 years.
That’s glossing over the truth.
De Vere, it turns out, is a well-known figure in the entertainment and events promotion business under his birth name of Lee O’Hanlon.
There are detailed records at Companies House in the UK and Isle of Man on O’Hanlon and his wife, Samantha, with roles as directors in firms such as TinyCow Events. That company was set up in the UK in August 2016 and dissolved by compulsory strike off just 15 months later in January 2018.
An Isle of Man company, TinyCow Events (IoM), in which the couple were associated, was behind two concerts in Douglas featuring The Jacksons in 2014 and Tom Jones in 2016. Those concerts ended in an acrimonious legal dispute with the Manx Government.
But O’Hanlon’s biggest failure came in his attempts to set up a fund-raising event and festival in Liverpool to help the victims of the Manchester Areana bombing though another company, Hope and Glory Festivals Ltd.
Samantha was a founding director of the company in October 2016, Companies House records show. They also show that O’Hanlon himself was appointed a director for eight days in August 2017. By that September, the company had called in a liquidator and eventually going bankrupt owing more than £888,000.
The idea and press hype surrounding the two-day gig sounded good. The event planned “to take over Liverpool’s city centre, hosting an array of live music and entertainment across the weekend of August 5-6.
The line-up included Manchester headliners James and the 70-piece orchestra Hacienda Classical with fellow Mancunian special guests Shaun Ryder, Bez and Tim Booth.
Speaking of the decision to donate the profits to the Manchester appeal, promoter Lee O’Hanlon commented: “I have lost count the number of times I have attended shows at Manchester Arena for professional purposes and personal enjoyment. I attended the vigil the following night in Albert Square and then attended the Simple Minds concert in Manchester that same night. I was moved like I never have been before. The defiance and strength the people of Manchester showed that night and in the days after the attack was the most powerful thing I have ever experienced. The images of children and young parents broke my heart, so goodness knows what the families are going through. I can’t begin to imagine.
“I just want us to be able to support the friends and families of those injured or who lost their lives as well as the emergency services that supported them, in any way we could. As a northwest festival with two Manchester artists as our headliners, the choice was simple. It’s simply doing what we can, standing with Manchester. These people want to change our way of lives. I grew up on the music of the northwest. These people are strong and if we can help them a little then we will.”
O’Hanlon’s business partner at the time, Iain Kerr concurred: “Lee suggested that we donate profits from the festival to the cause, and I knew in an instant it was the right thing to do.”
The event was also supposed to feature Charlotte Church’s Late Night Pop Dungeon.
Tickets for the festival were priced at £89 for adults; £59 for under 16s and £49 for under 10s.
The festival was cancelled after a disastrous first day that saw long queues, delays, fans turned away and bands pulling out. Thousands of fans were made to wait hours when St. George’s quarter became overcrowded.
Kerr was left significantly out of pocket. The bankrupt trustees show dozens of creditors receiving just 5p in the pound.
The bombing victims are not on the list of creditors owed more than £888,000.
Police were eventually called in to help manage the crowds and chaos.
Cambrian News provided De Vere with a list of questions over his past, his actions and his wild assertions that have added to tensions in the village, and asking him if he’d like to apologise or explain how a fund-raising event for the arena-bombing victims ended up nearly £900,000 in the red.
He declined to answer those questions, adding that his victim “has mental health problems”.
Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson said: “If the company hadn’t gone into liquidation, I would have asked Merseyside Police to investigate the financial liabilities of the Hope and Glory Festivals Ltd. As far as I’m concerned, they have a moral obligation to reimburse disappointed ticketholders who are out of pocket, and I will be making this point to the liquidators.”
The scale and speed of collapse of O’Hanlon’s event led officials at Liverpool City Council to order an independent investigation the fiasco. A copy of that report has been obtained by Cambrian News, and it says the festival was “a public failure the city of Liverpool could do without”, finding TinyCow responsible.
Among the catalogue of failures identified were the lack of an emergency evacuation plan, acts running behind schedule, and festivalgoers feeling unsafe on the site. There was also no designated area for lost children or vulnerable adults.
Event organiser O’Hanlon “left the site, was uncontactable and wasn’t seen again until the end of the day”, the report says.
The damning report concluded the city centre site was not ready when festivalgoers were allowed in and the event’s management plan was “not fit for purpose”.
Mayor Anderson said: “This report was all about learning lessons, and although our procedures have served us well for the past ten years, the context and environment for staging events has changed in recent years, so we need to be honest with ourselves and reflect on the processes and procedures that are in place and react to the recommendations put forward.
The report concluded the festival was a “public failure the city of Liverpool could do without.”
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo after it put the findings to him, O’Hanlon said: “I can’t make comment on a report I haven’t seen.”
It was also found that staff didn’t seem to have been properly briefed or prepared for the event.
A calculation in the event management plan said 4,571 people could pass through the exit gates each minute, meaning the entire site could be evacuated in three minutes. The report concluded this was a “highly dangerous miscalculation”.
Accounts and photographs reviewed for the report show people were caught in crushes at the site, creating the potential for injury.
Comments received included one attendee who said: “People could have been hurt ... very seriously. There was a complete disregard for safety from the beginning of the event.”
Another attendee described having to climb on a bin and over a wall to get in and out of Embrace’s set “because the bottleneck was terrifying”.
The festival site should have been nearly ready by Friday - however the report states that this was not the case. The chaos, the report says, was made worse by O’Hanlon organising a “secret gig” featuring Liverpool band Cast, which took place in St George’s Hall the night before the festival.
Despite it becoming increasingly clear that the festival site was not ready, respondents reported O’Hanlon “appeared more focused on facilities for the artists, to the exclusion of issues on the main site.”
Festivalgoers claimed that ticket checks and searches were “cursory” going into the site, and some attendees even said they were given the wrong wristbands upon entry, which would have allowed them full access for the whole weekend - despite only paying for day tickets.
The report found that there were substantial failings in the submitted site layout, event management plan and operational arrangements proposed by TinyCow.
In the fallout from the bankruptcy and failed event the then Lichfield, Staffordshire-based O’Hanlon changed his name legally by deed poll to Nathanial De Vere, eventually settling in Cilcennin about four years ago.
De Vere – as the then O’Hanlon – is no stranger to public spats or controversies over his failed events that leave unpaid bills and ticket buyers underwhelmed, with his then-Lichfield hometown theatre also the venue for a troubled Tom Jones concert.
O’Hanlon also played a part in a northeast festival that was cancelled in 2016. He said about the Down to the Woods festival: “We’re absolutely delighted to land an amazing line up like this. Primal Scream, Chase and Status, Catfish and the Bottlemen, loads more incredible acts and even more yet to come.”
By that June, the event was cancelled, with festival organisers putting out a statement saying they had decided not to proceed “due to the present financial climate and current ticket sales”.
O’Hanlon told the Echo he was not involved in organising the event or in its cancellation.
For Michael Williams, the victim of De Vere’s assault, the village seemed like the perfect place to he and his wife Val, to retire to after a long career as a builder in Blackburn
The couple bought a Grade 2 list former pub built in 1731 in the village, perfect as a renovation project.
Shortly after De Vere moved next door, he hired Williams to do building and renovation work. De Vere and said he was happy with the work.
Gradually, however, after a dispute over parking on Williams’ property, relations sourced.
Cambrian News understands that community relations in the village are not harmonious and residents approached by Cambrian News were reluctant to comment on matters and other disputes involving one party.
Williams, however, provided detailed information to Cambrian over the dispute that resulted in an assault charge against De Vere. Tensions grew to the point where police advised Williams to wear a bodycam, and subsequent footage of one altercation played a key role in the successful prosecution of the village interloper.
De Vere told the Cambrian News that if this story ran, he would have to move his family as there were people out to get him.
For many in Cilcennin that Cambrian News contacted, that move would not be unwelcomed.
“It can’t come soon enough,” one said.
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