Cops in the Dock

Some time back I posted about that renowned bent cop of the 1960`s Harry Challenor, when I received a communication about bent cops are bent cops, which I wholeheartedly agree with and replied that I will be putting up more so I thought that it is time to do so.  Do we remember the furore when G F Newman`s Law & Order series was shown first in 1978?  Mary whitehouse refused to accept that coppers SWORE!!!!!!!   I remember a lovely article in the Daily Mirror just after, written by a woman journalist who recalled her delightful conversations with a Northern detective who boasted about his bribes and punch-ups, and regarded beating up youngsters, just for the hell of it, as a hoot.  Then do we remember a front page story about a man who inadvertently stopped at an ambush point for a blackmailer?  He was thrown into the back of a van and given a severe beating that put him in hospital.  But of course, this was in the golden days when anything went.  Unfortunately, this still continues to this day.  With some officers, PACE (Police & Criminal Evidence Act) only exists when they say so.

    Around here, wrong doing goes back a long time.  Allegations of Police misconduct against one CID officer, who rose high in the ranks, go back to the 50`s.  One former PC described this detective as "A complete prat!"  There was Dick Holland, who stated that he was proud of his work on the Lesley Moleseed murder and the M62 coach bombing.  In the case of young Lesley, Stefan Kisko, a vulnerable man, was convicted of the murder and spent 16 years in jail before his conviction was overturned.  He died a year later.  The outcome was that semen evidence in possession of the authorities, proved he was innocent, as tests on sperm from Kisko showed no spermheads, unlike the sperm left by the killer.  The scientist who carried out the tests, Ronald Outerridge, claimed to have told Holland and Jack Dibb the results of the tests.  They denied it.  Many years later DNA proved the killer to be Ronald Castree, who was jailed.  When remanded to Armley Prison, initially, Kisko received sympathy when telling the arresting officer was Holland.  Judith Ward spent around 18 years in jail for the coach bombing on the M62.  She was living as a down and out in Manchester, then she is transformed into an IRA terrorist.  

     But we must not forget his finest moment when he rejected the report from DC Andy Laptew who was highly suspicious of a man he had interviewed.  Threats of a career directing traffic was the response to "He fits most of the photofits".  The man he was talking about was Peter Sutcliffe.  But let us not focus entirely on one man.  How about the golden days of the 70`s in Bradford when a former senior officer laughed about how they went out targeting blacks, Asians and Irishmen.  My wife is three quarters Irish, and her uncle, from Belfast, lived here in Bradford for a short time.  One night, after leaving an Irish pub, now converted into a clothes shop, a Police van pulled up alongside him.  He woke up in hospital!!!  But some events occur that make you wonder why some people are above arrest.  One man openly admitted two serious firearm offences because, bizarrely, he was not facing any charges over them.  Possession of an illegal firearm is an automatic five year prison sentence, and on top of that, stating he walked around in public with it for a considerable length of time.  Another serious offence!  Yet, no charge.  Funny that.  I wonder why.

    Then what about the time, the cowards in uniform arrested the victim of a crime, and BLATANTLY turned a blind eye to the perpetrator. The victim was an elderly man who they heroically took away and threw into the cells for the night.  When they brought him back to his home, I was there when he was told something sickening.  The perpetrator who smashed up his car, was related to two families of troublemakers.  These "heroes" in uniform told the old man "If you do not want trouble from the xxxxxxx & the xxxxxxxx, then pack your bags and leave town!"  What fucking bravery!  These yellowbacks were giving a licence to these yobs to come down and kill him if they wanted to.  Shouldn`t they be warning the yobs?  And if they did come back and attack the old man, they would naturally deny ever saying it but would be telling their colleagues "It`s his own fault.  We told him to pack his bags and go"  Why was this perpetrator allowed to commit crime with the approval of Police?  There is only one reason for this and it would be logical to say that anybody and anything to do with these two families must be strictly hands off.  To top it off, when the spineless bastards left, the old man broke down crying.  It was a horrible thing to witness.  Well, this is the first in a series of posts on the dark side of Policing.  Stay tuned.