Monthly Archives: July 2011

Hell In A Handcart

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I have been relatively chilled out recently whilst watching the ongoing ACPO debacle in the Met over the phone hacking thinking about how nice it is for senior officers to face the type of crap we ordinary cops face. However, we are facing them at the sharp end rather than at some pre-arranged afternoon luncheon paid for by the press or some other ACPO meeting which must be held to prevent the end of the world. Then I read the Daily Wail Mail and nearly choked on my porridge. I’ll provide a link to the story…. here ….. before I go on.

Open Mouth.....Try to Engage Brain!

This is a story about a Judge called Mary Jane Mowat who, in sentencing a paedophile teacher, said in court that, “I don’t criticise you for being a teacher who’s attracted to children.” She went on to say, “Many teachers are but they keep  their urges under control both when  it comes to children and when it comes to images of children.”

Now, I don’t pass comment on the crime or the sentencing but I do wonder at the intelligence of a Judge who makes a remark like that. Surely, to become a Judge someone has to have sufficient intelligence and be educated at the same time. How can she be allowed to remain in charge of the serious business of presiding over criminal trials?

As you all know, in the police an erroneous remark is career threatening for the Federated ranks. Particularly so when the remark is embarrassing and offends the high moralistic thoughts of the ACPO brigade. I wonder why there is no similar application of public justice to barmpot judges who make similarly stupid comments!

Double Standards

Nicholas Mostyn and Elizabeth Saunders leave their Love Nest

We all know that when a police officer uses his powers to his own ends he faces criminal charges of Misconduct in a Public Office amongst other matters. However, Judges can seemingly use their own courts to provide extra protection of their own extra marital affairs. Sir Nicholas Mostyn dumped his wife for that woman whose barrister husband was shot dead by the police in London when he was firing/aiming a shotgun out of the window of his home address. She had worked closely with him in the past and the belief is that they were an item during the Inquest where they tried to criticise the police actions.

According to the Daily Wail Mail (I know this is 2 quotes in a post ~ I am not becoming a right wing believer, honestly) Mrs Mostyn is concerned that the judiciary are closing ranks on her and she is not getting a fair and even handed, independent hearing. Extra Marital affairs are an interesting topic because we all know that Police officers  of Inspector and below cannot have them for fear of being disciplined. However, anyone above this rank can “dip their wick” with complete abandon and so it seems can the judiciary. They will all close ranks and refuse to comment, deny it and take extraordinary legal steps to gag the whistleblower.

In closing, I refer you, dear reader, back to the furore of the Protection Officer having an affair with Alan Johnson MP’s wife. Were there not calls for him to be publicly flogged because of his transgression? It was outrageous that a mere Constable had fallen for another human being who he knew and had worked with. So much so that he was suspended whilst being investigated.

I wait for news from the Mr Mostyn employment front although I will not be holding my breath that it will be consistent with the treatment of another Crown Official.

There for the Grace of God

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The hacking dilemma rumbles on with high ranking executives now either being arrested or resigning due to pressures behind the scenes. Many commentators in the press seem to revel in the fact that there appears to be a police bashing angle as, allegedly, some cops may have accepted payment for inside information. If it is true then Noble finds their actions reprehensible. However, I suspect every cheroot smoking, hard drinking Fleet Street hack will have tried to recruit some cop at some stage during their career. The press, in paying for salacious information, are just as reprehensible.

Whilst this gnashing of bones and grinding of teeth continues in the high paying executives suites of newspapers and ACPO led departments we often forget that every day officers are still risking their lives for the benefit of the general public. Yet the story of the police officer shot in Croydon overnight is a lower importance story in the Daily Wail Mail than a missive about where has our summer gone. To provide some balance it does not feature prominently in the Sun, The Mirror, The Telegraph, the Guardian or the Independent who believe that the phone hacking crisis and the resignation of Rupert Murdoch’s best mate is more important.

It has been reported in the local Croydon press and Inspector Gadget has blogged it with typical gusto. Other than that where is the interest, where is the media and press coverage? The only thing I will say is that when you face your next angry man and you consider that the options that are available include:

being shot,

being stabbed,

being battered,

making an arrest without major incident,

making an arrest which becomes a major incident,

making an arrest which results in a criminal allegation against you,

making an arrest which becomes a misconduct allegation against you,

making an arrest which becomes a criminal and misconduct allegation against everybody involved,

you might wonder why you chose to try and make the arrest in the first place. However, we are all professional people and joined because we chose to serve the public. It is a shame that the press think that listening to someone’s voicemail is more important to the general public than a shot policeman.

WTF

Everybody calm down, I've arrived!

I was going to finish my blog there but I happened across a television report in respect of patients possibly being murdered at Stepping Hill Hospital by someone tampering with saline drips. The criminal investigation is in full swing which will eventually determine what has gone on staffed by Detective Constables and Detective Sergeants with a couple of pro active Detective Inspectors. What has irked me is that ACC Terry Sweeney turns up outside the hospital purporting to be in control. Now we know from other Noble Cause Corruption blogs that have reported that these ACPO rank wallers actually know the square root of f*ck all about investigation. So why did Terry take advantage of this free publicity opportunity? Surely it wasn’t to massage an ego and make people believe that he actually is in charge of the investigation. Jerome Caminada will be turning in his grave.

Terry, stick to what you know best. Putting pins in maps and reading glossy reports about crime statistics. Like most of the ACPO rank, an investigator you most certainly aren’t.

Too Hot to Handle

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I have watched with interest the squirming of the senior (and former) officers facing questioning at the hands of the Home Office Select Committee over the phone hacking case but admit feeling a tad of sympathy for Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers. Out of the four main players today she was the only one in my opinion who came out with any sensitivity and credit even though she had to admit that out of nearly four thousand hacking victims only a handful had been informed. The other three were an embarrassment.

The first was John Yates. His evidence was described as “unconvincing.” I wonder what that meant in Parliamentary language so I thesaurised it and came up with:~

flimsy, implausible, inconclusive, lame, questionable, suspect, unbelievable, weak, bizarre, doubtful, dubious, eccentric, fantastic, fishy, forced, hard to swallow, illogical,implausible, improbable, incoherent, inconsequential, incredible, labored,preposterous, queer, recondite, strained,strange, suspicious, unbelievable, unlikely, unnatural, unrealistic

If that were a commoner rank like most of us that would invoke something more than a missive of support from the head honcho, Sir Paul Stephenson, but we all know about them all p*ssing in the same pot.

Dock Asthma

The next star was Peter Clarke who suffered a severe bout of Dock Asthma when asked a question about his period in charge of the enquiry (A definition of which can be found here). However, I think the committee let him off in the sense that his inability to answer the question posed spoke volumes about his real ability and knowledge of investigation and that they would have been better off asking the station cleaner who had about as much control and input. The common theme from him and Yates was that they did not check to ensure the job was done. In other words, they took the pay for doing bugger all.

Then came Andy Hayman. That extraordinary man who can be wined and dined by the very people who are being (or should have been) investigated criminally by his force and he sees nothing wrong in it. His dramatic belligerence at being asked whether he received payments was entertaining. I don’t believe he has but it his mock indignation was ultimate comedy value. The whole sorry affair leaves a sour taste in the throat when senior ACPO officers, unable to massage their own egoes, are found wanting in the most embarrassing of ways. I ask whether his actions have breached the misconduct allegation which covers criminal association.

A number of years ago I was aware of an officer in my force being investigated for criminal association. One of the criminals he associated with had been arrested for Kidnap but never charged. However force policy stated that this was something he should be reporting to the job via his line manager. The fact that the arrest for kidnap was in 1992 when the officer was just in the process of completing his GCSE’s, some 12 years before the officer got to know the man and ever so slightly complicated by the fact that the man was now a successful businessman and a friend of his mum and dad. In fact, the officer would still not know of this arrest today had it not been for the uPSD investigation into the officer. The offence the officer committed? He signed a passport photograph and form. Our wonderful uPSD criminally investigated him for that and he was moved from his specialist post as a consequence. Will this happen to any of the three musketeers mentioned. Nope!!

Noble Cause Corruption.

Reg 15′s are in the post

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Yates of the Yard

In an astonishing admission has John Yates  admitted a Police Misconduct offence to the world? His admission that he did not fully perform his duties in the News of the World hacking case will come as great comfort to the half dozen or so fellow officers now disciplined or sacked for failing to perform their duties in my force in the last 12 months. Mr Yates’ admission in the Daily Mail article that he is “not going to go down and look at bin bags” is typical of the senior officer rank who head investigations but, as we all know, do nothing, say nothing and generally add nothing to an enquiry except interference. We all knew something fishy had gone on. All except John Yates who simply failed to grasp the basic principle of investigation that you leave no stone unturned and that means if you need to get your coat off and get your hands dirty in a bin bag full of evidence then you do so.

Many years ago this type of enquiry would have been carried out by fully trained detectives headed by a fully trained senior detective who had experience of complex investigation. It would have done in good time and charges brought against offenders.

Now we have enquiries headed by senior officers who have no real experience of policing and are really pseudo politicians. This Midsommer Murders propensity to believe that because someone is ACPO rank that they must be a brilliant police officer is naive and crass. Most senior officers are great at writing bollocks and talking bollocks because their world is a round of non stop briefings and meetings and not real police work. Despite this commitment to ridding the world of tea, biscuits and trays of sandwiches, little else is achieved by them. It is about time that the public understood this.

I now watch this matter with interest from a police discipline point of view. Will John Yates be served regulation 15 notices and be investigated just like many of my colleagues have been in the last few years because they failed to adequately progress their crimes? Wait and see. Bear in mind that most of our colleagues had proper jobs and were going under due to the stresses and strains of their workloads which will now get higher due to redundancies and reductions in numbers. Somehow I think that this minor point will be glossed over. You know the one, the fact that a senior Metropolitan Police officer is incompetent, lazy and has brought the force into disrepute.

When he was brought in to review the previous enquiry what did he actually believe he was required to do? It beggars belief but I bet a pound to a pinch of sh*t that he survives. My colleagues will be so pleased for him.