Category Archives: Crime

Chaos in Bromsgrove

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Over the weekend the M42 motorway near Bromsgrove was closed for approximately 27 hours whilst local police tried to dissuade a man from throwing himself off a motorway bridge. They succeeded in their efforts but not before the incident had caused severe traffic chaos, a complete shutdown of roads in the local area and many instances of people stuck immobile in their vehicles for as long as 6 hours.

A row has broken out following the posting of tweets and messages on various  social media by people affected by the incident urging the man to jump so that they could all get on with their journeys and daily business. In response, the local Police Chief has accused them of insensitivity and a lack of compassion which is fair enough; surely nobody could really wish death upon such an unfortunate and clearly disturbed person?

Putting all that to one side however, it’s easy to see why people would be infuriated by the incident. They are entitled to ask why it took so long for the matter to be brought to a conclusion. For example, couldn’t the Police have arranged for netting or inflatable plastic/rubber to be placed under the bridge to stop the man’s fall? Couldn’t a couple of lorries be placed underneath the bridge to reduce the height of the drop? Don’t  the Police have experts available to deal with such incidents?  Should it really have taken well-over a day to bring the matter to a conclusion? What about the pandemonium  caused to the rest of the populace? All these questions deserve answers.

Family Fraud

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A report recently published by the Marriage Foundation reveals that almost a quarter of a million people in England and Wales are pretending to live apart so that they can claim single parent benefits worth up to in excess of £7,000 per year.

One of the reasons for this fraud (other than the obvious greed and criminality) is the fact that English tax rules have created a serious imbalance so that it actually costs more for parents to stay together than apart. Couples can make money by splitting up. That is crazy and the Government needs to act, if they are truly serious about their desire to clamp down on benefits fraud.

Either they want to create a fair society where people have the incentive to work and to create a stable family environment or they don’t. Benefits fraud and tax evasion are the twin evils of modern day British economics and the law-abiding electorate are getting sick of it.

 Unless the Government delivers on its promises voters will throw their lot in with someone else who will. The trouble is, at the moment, no realistic alternative seems to be presenting itself.

Child Murder

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The story of Daniel Pelka, the little 4 year old boy who was starved and beaten to death, has shocked and disgusted us all. The nature of the crimes are horrific enough but the fact that they were carried out by his own mother and stepfather almost defies belief.

That the continued torture of such a tiny and vulnerable child took place under the noses of his school, the local social services department  and the medical staff who treated him for his injuries is both astounding and shameful. There’s something terribly wrong with a society that cannot protect its weakest  and most vulnerable members and, sadly, this is not the first such tragedy . Other children have been abused and murdered in similar circumstances.

As the inevitable enquiries and soul-searching continue no stone should be left unturned to ensure that this cannot happen again. As a nation we British are quick to be angered by cruelty to foxes, badgers and other animals. Surely it’s not too much to ask that we respond in a similar fashion when our children are the victims of such cruelty?

Paying the Price

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The brutal and savage hacking to death of a non-uniformed soldier in broad daylight on a London high street  has sickened and shocked all of us. Viewing Wednesday’s news coverage was like watching something from a grotesque horror film. The fact that one of the two murderers, literally dripping with the blood of his victim, spoke clearly and calmly into the smart phone camera of a witness made it all the more surreal and chilling.

The fact that he went on to state that none of us are safe firmly rammed home the threat of Islamic terrorism far more than any amount of televised footage of atrocities in Afghanistan or Iraq could ever do. This was far more shocking than the anonymous planting of bombs in the London attacks of July 7th, 2005. This demonstrated, for all to see, just  how far those who hate our country and our way of life are prepared to go.
The welfare of its citizens is the top priority of any civilised state and our Prime Minister must surely be aware of that. He must abandon his brazen attempts to court popularity and win voters, such as his recent promotion of gay marriage, and concentrate his mind instead on dealing with the real issues  facing the country.
For too long the United Kingdom has been too tolerant of alien cultures, welcoming into our midst religious bigots and fanatics who have no place in a civilised society. Our liberal rulers have told us to accept and even embrace cultures and religions that, in truth, are a throwback to the Dark Ages. Cultures, for example, where women have no rights and are treated as mere chattels. If we have raised any objection we have been dismissed as reactionary or intolerant. Well, we are now paying the price of that foolish and misguided tolerance. Now the chickens have come home to roost.
We are threatened by an enemy blinded by fanaticism, devoid of morality and unhindered by the restraints that are an integral part of decent normal human beings. We must confront and eradicate that enemy or, like a latter day decadent Rome with the Barbarians at the gate, we will suffer the consequences of our neglect. 

Screwing the System

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According to yesterday’s Sunday Times, nearly £70 million worth of injuries compensation has been claimed by police officers over the last 4 years. These figures were released by the Police Federation of England and Wales, the trade union of police officers, so they are hardly likely to be an over-exaggeration. MPs (the pot calling the kettle?) have expressed outrage at this latest manifestation of our corrupt “compensation culture” but is it really “news” in the true sense of the word?

Well, it certainly isn’t news to me. I can remember, when I practised criminal law back in the 1980s, that a large number of police officers, usually in their mid-forties, took early retirement because of a “bad back”. It was so common that it became a standing joke. In Greater Manchester the police even had their own “tame” consultant surgeon who would sign officers on to the sick and/or permanent retirement seemingly at the drop of a hat or maybe something more valuable. I can still remember his name but I’d better not disclose it just in case he’s still alive and sipping cocktails in his Caribbean villa!
From what I learned, it wasn’t just limited to Greater Manchester and a fair proportion of our guardians of law and order, nationwide,  have been taking the mickey for a number years. This latest scandal is simply a continuation of a long running story and has come to the fore because a Norfolk police woman is allegedly threatening to sue a garage owner for compensation following a fall at his premises whilst investigating a suspected  burglary.
What is it about our society? They’re all at it, not just the police. We’ve got  MPs fiddling expenses, local politicians in the pockets of property developers, tax-avoiding fat-cat businessmen hoarding billions of pounds in off shore accounts, and benefit frauds screwing the system. Is it any wonder that so many of our youngsters are so disenchanted and demoralised by the world around them?
I’m afraid it’s very difficult these days to be anything other than mistrustful and cynical. The truth of the matter is that, when judging people in positions of power and authority, the default setting is corrupt until proven otherwise. How sad.

OJ Revisited?

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The Oscar Pistorius story has all the ingredients of a Shakespearean tragedy, complete with sub-plots. The lead actor, a man struck down by a terrible handicap, yet blessed with the courage, determination and skill of a Greek hero, picks himself up, challenges the world and wins. His reward is universal fame and adoration, untold wealth and power and a beautiful girlfriend to match. Then, it all goes horribly wrong. His girlfriend is murdered, seemingly by his own hand. He is hauled before the courts like a common criminal, his reputation in tatters, his world turned inside out.

The initial facts of the case, as presented in newspapers across the world,  seem totally convincing and damning. Pistorius, the owner of a hand gun, fires that gun four times at his girlfriend who had apparently locked herself in the bathroom in the early hours of St Valentine’s Day. Neighbours report hearing the sounds of a violent argument prior to the shooting. Nobody else was present even though Pistorious maintains that he thought he was shooting at an intruder – through a locked door. On those facts you’d be forgiven for thinking that a conviction is a mere formality. I wonder.
Oscar Pistorious has money, lots of it and he will use it all should it be required to keep him out of prison. Already (and we are only in the preliminary stages of this case)his expensively hired lawyers, the best that money can buy, have made significant progress on behalf of their client and have secured for him an unlikely bail. Even so, surely  justice will be done and a conviction will follow? I wouldn’t bet on it, money talks and the more you have the louder it talks.
 Remember that famous, wealthy American sportsman, who a few years back, seemed to have been caught  bang to rights for the murder of his wife? Well, he was acquitted after a brilliant performance by his lawyers, who managed to convince a, no doubt, star-struck and impressionable jury of his innocence. The Oscar Pistorious case could well turn out to be O.J. Simpson revisited.

Drunken Britons

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Whilst it’s always nice to write and talk about the good things in life, sometimes we have no choice but to confront the things that irritate us and affect our lives in a negative way. None of us can fail to be aware of the huge increase, in recent years, of anti-social behaviour in this country and you only have to open your national or local newspaper to see many examples of what I’m talking about.

Yesterday, a Ryanair flight from Tenerife to Manchester was delayed due to the behaviour  of one of the passengers. The 7.25am flight was already full and about to leave on time but was then delayed to enable the last passenger, a drunken Englishman, to board the plane.
Once he’d taken his seat he became abusive to both passengers and cabin crew causing the plane’s captain to take the view that he was a threat and danger to the safety of the flight. The captain aborted take-off, turned the plane around and returned to the terminal where the police boarded the plane, arrested the man and took him away. The flight was delayed by nearly an hour, 300 decent law abiding passengers were more than a little inconvenienced and  the airline suffered financial loss all because of the irresponsible and selfish  behaviour of one man.
Fortunately, the Spanish police are not so obsessed by political correctness and human rights as ours and no doubt they gave the lout a bit of rough treatment before throwing him into the cell where he belongs. With a bit of luck he will also be fined heavily and banned from flying with that particular airline, though in my opinion he should be banned by all airlines for at least a fixed period. An example surely has to be made.
The problem is that these type of incidents occur with alarming regularity on flights carrying British holiday makers and if that seems a harsh thing to say just ask any travel operative from Spain, Greece, Portugal or Turkey, for example, what they think of us British. Whilst they may say that they realise we’re not all like that there are certainly enough to cause concern and words like thug, hooligan and drunken lout come quickly to their tongues. 
That is a cause of shame for all of us, if only for the fear that we all end up being tarred by the same brush. It’s about time we and our government did something about it.

Gun Control

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It may be three thousand miles away but what happens in the USA inevitably resonates in this country . Thus, the recent murders of 20 school children and six adults in a Connecticut school evoked the same feelings of outrage and horror n this country as they undoubtedly did  over there. It may not be our problem, but who could fail to be moved by the slaughter of so many innocents and why do such atrocities seem to occur with such alarming regularity in the USA?

For all the fact that Americans speak the same language as us they are a foreign nation and many of their customs and habits are radically different to ours. The right to bear arms is one such custom, enshrined as it is, in the Constitution dating back to 1776 when the newly proclaimed nation was fighting for its very existence. The carrying of guns made sense in those dangerous and lawless days but does it still? The USA is now the world’s most powerful nation and is, ostensibly at least, a leading light for freedom and liberty. In the 21st century isn’t the carrying of guns something of an anachronism?
The gun lobby in the USA is immensely strong and influential in American politics and any attempts by the more enlightened members of society to curb gun ownership have always been comfortably defeated by those in favour of guns. Even the President has shied away from conflict with the gun lobby but this latest atrocity, plus the Christmas killings of fire fighters in New York State by another psychopath have brought the problem to the fore yet again.
From this side of the pond the problem seems almost beyond our comprehension. The growing opposition to gun ownership is perfectly understandable but I can also understand the views of the traditionalists eager to hang on to their constitutional rights. However, surely there has to be some middle ground? If a person is a deer hunter in the wilds of Wyoming or Colorado then he or she should be allowed to own a rifle but that ownership should be firmly regulated and licensed. I can also see why somebody living in the wilds might want to keep a gun for personal protection. Moving into the cities and suburbs however I cannot see any need or justification for keeping or carrying guns for personal protection provided the police do their job properly.
As for the ownership of assault rifles capable of firing hundreds of rounds a minute, a type used increasingly in these mass murders, there can be no justification whatever. These horrific weapons by their very nature are designed purely and simply for killing people and the only place for them is the battlefield and never in the home of the ordinary citizen. Surely that must be obvious to all but the most unbalanced members of the gun lobby, though those particular members seem to be rather significant in number.
It’s incredible that, in the two weeks since the school murders, national sales of guns have actually gone up and the protestations from the gun lobby have grown louder. President Obama faces a difficult task indeed in dealing with an issue that is clearly firmly entrenched in the American psyche. In the long term he may well achieve his aims but how many more innocents will be slaughtered before his opponents finally see sense and allow the law to be changed?

Freedom and Responsibility

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At last,  Lord Justice Leveson has finally delivered his much awaited report into press regulation following the phone hacking scandal and the disgraceful behaviour of various journalists many of whom were employed by or associated with Rupert Murdoch’s News International. The scandal led, last year, to the closing down of Murdoch’s News of the World and I doubt many responsible journalists mourned its passing.

It seems to me that “responsible” is the key word in all of this, a word that seems almost archaic so rarely is it evidenced  in modern life. Responsibility for one’s behaviour or actions is an alien concept to many and certainly those journalists who hounded those victims of crime and other figures in the public eye (I dislike the use of the word “celebrity”) have much to answer for. It’s all well and good claiming the right to freedom of the press but with all rights there is an equal duty of responsibly. There are two sides to every coin.

Many people feel that the press has singularly failed to regulate itself effectively and it’s hard to disagree with that viewpoint. However, the question is should the press be regulated by Parliament with all that that entails? Is any further regulation required where victims of press intrusion have the ability to sue for libel and seek redress in the courts? In extreme cases, victims could rely on the protection of criminal law but if the CPS decided not to prosecute then the victim would have to fund a private prosecution. Unfortunately, in the absence of legal aid, the cost of court action would be prohibitive to all but the wealthy and so some protection is clearly necessary for the vast majority of the public.

Lord Leveson has proposed a new regulatory watchdog to monitor the press and whilst it may appear to be a compromise and a half way house it is probably the right thing to do. The press has undoubtedly failed  to regulate itself effectively and something had to be done to protect the innocent. So long as a proper balance is maintained between press freedom and responsibility then there should be no need for Parliamentary or Government interference. We can only wait and see.

Primitive Justice?

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More unusual news from the USA. No not that President Obama was re-elected, but instead, a throwback to bygone times and maybe something that could catch on over here.

A woman driver in Cleveland was recently filmed driving her vehicle on a sidewalk (pavement) in order to get past a school bus that was offloading children. She was ordered by a judge to stand at a road junction wearing a sign stating “Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus”. Well, it’s difficult to argue with the sentiment and many would say that the punishment ( ritual humiliation in front of her local community) fits the crime.

Of course, it’s no more than a journey back in time to when petty criminals in Middle Ages England were put in stocks and had rotten fruit and vegetables (and worse!) hurled at them by their peers or, when women suspected of witchcraft were placed on ducking stools before being immersed in the stagnant waters of the village pond.

The European Court of Human Rights would have a thing or two to say about it now but wouldn’t it be great, for example, if local louts were made to stand in town centres with signs proclaiming “Only a cowardly thug would steal a handbag from an elderly lady” or “Only a drunken low-life would hurl abuse at innocent people trying to enjoy their Friday night out”.

Better still, erect some stocks outside the Houses of Parliament for errant MPs, a notice hanging from their necks stating “Only a grubby little parasite regarding himself as being above the law of the land would fraudulently claim thousands of pounds a year in expenses in the arrogant belief that his crimes would not be detected”.  It won’t happen, of course, though more’s the pity!