Police State Britain

Police officers paid £150m in bonuses for doing their job

2010-08-16T15:09:00.000Z

More than £150million is paid to police officers every year for what Paul McKeever, the chairman of the Police Federation, describes as “doing your duty.”

Five officers at Northumbria Police, the force which conducted the hunt for the gunman Raoul Moat, shared performance-related bonuses last year of £115,500.

In Durham, one chief picked up an £18,700 bonus in 2009-10. In South Wales another received £14,300, and in South Yorkshire four senior officers shared £69,000.

Half of the country’s 144,000 officers received an average of £2,200 each in payments last year, totalling an estimated £145 million.

The payments were introduced by New Labour in 2002.

70 year old widow threatened with £2,500 fine for smoking a cigarette

2010-08-16T14:48:00.002Z

Sheila Martin, a 70 year old widow living in Oldbury, has been warned that she could be prosecuted and face a fine of £2,500, plus costs, for smoking a cigarette at a bus stop.

While waiting for the number 446 bus on May 26, 2010, Mrs Martin decided to enjoy a cigarette.

During the course of enjoying here cigarette, she was approached by an official from Sandwell Council, who issued her with a £75 fine for 'littering', due to some ash falling from Mrs Martin's cigarette end.

She said: "I still can't believe what happened. I was just sat at a bus stop quietly enjoying my cigarette and from nowhere a warden appeared and accused me of littering. I couldn't believe it, I was only smoking a cigarette. It is one of the few things I have left that I can afford to buy myself. I can't work out why the council would be so vindictive over such a petty matter. I'm so upset and angry."

Mrs Martin refused to pay the £75 fine, and has now the elderly widow has been issued with a 'Final Warning' from Sandwell Councils Prosecution Team, threatening her with prosecution, and a fine of up to £2,500.

Mrs Martin has vowed to fight on, and has stated that she would rather go to prison than pay this ridiculous charge.

Last year, an official from Sandwell Council issued a mother with a £75 fine, for feeding ducks with her son in a park.

Avon and Somerset Police taser innocent man in groin for no reason.

2010-07-21T12:22:00.002Z

Peter Cox, 49, had 50,000 volts fired into his groin by a police officer in Bridgewater on the 13th of July, 2010.

Mr Cox was on his way to do some landscaping work at the home of a friend when he noticed a police patrol car was following him.

He pulled over outside friend Donna Allen's house in Bridgwater, Somerset, but after a short conversation with police officers collapsed to the ground after being shot in the groin.

Eyewitnesses say the male officer pointed the taser gun at Peter Cox "for more than 20 seconds" before lowering the weapon.

But the weapon discharged "accidentally" and Peter dropped to the ground in agony after one electric probe missed his genitals by two or three inches.

Mr Cox said: "I got out of the car and asked the police what they wanted. I then asked them to park on the other side of the road because we were working on the front garden.

"The officer didn't say anything, but he got out of the car and pulled out a taser and pointed it at me.

"I didn't know this at the time so I just went on with what I was doing and got a bag of stone for the garden out of the boot. Then he shot me.

"I wasn't looking but Donna says he had it pointed at me for 20 seconds before it went off.

"I was really shocked and I didn't know what was going on. I got one in my groin and one in my ankle.

"It really hurt. It just stunned me completely and felt like someone was stabbing me with a fork all over my body.'

The electric taser probes hit Peter in the groin and his right ankle.

Paramedics treated Peter, who suffers from debilitating Guillain Barri syndrome, on the front lawn of the property.

Father-of-one Peter denies acting aggressively towards the officers and was completely dumbfounded as to why he was tasered.

A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset police said that officers had wanted to speak to Mr Cox as they suspected the BMW he was driving was not insured.

But Peter called his insurers immediately after the incident and it was confirmed the car had valid insurance.

Peter now plans to sue the constabulary for damages and is seeking the advice of solicitors.

He added: "After it happened the driver of the police car came up to me and said, 'The reason we wanted to talk to you was because your car came up as no insurance."

"But I checked and there definitely is valid insurance.

"To this date they haven't contacted me or any of the other witnesses or neighbours. I would like an apology."

Donna Allen, 47, added: "When I asked them if they were going to take statements the sergeant actually said to me they wouldn't need to because the officer admitted accidently discharging the gun."

Man arrested for email he didn't write, council and police believe they acted correctly

2010-01-24T15:06:00.002Z

A businessman was arrested at home in front of his wife and young son over an email which council officials deemed ‘offensive’ to gipsies – but which he had not even written.

The email, concerning a planning appeal by a gipsy, included the phrase: ‘It’s the 'do as you likey' attitude that I am against.’

Council staff believed the email was offensive because ‘likey’ rhymes with the derogatory term ‘pikey’.

The 45-year-old IT boss was held in a police cell for four hours until it was established he had nothing to do with the email, which had been sent by one of his then workers, Paul Osmond.

But police had taken his DNA and later confirmed they would be holding it indefinitely.

The businessman, who has asked not to be named, was also fingerprinted in the police investigation estimated to have cost taxpayers up to £12,000.

His computer and other internet equipment were also seized.

The email, from a computer at his company, was sent last August to a website at Rother District Council, in East Sussex, on which the public can comment on planning applications.

It referred to an appeal by gipsy Linda Smith, who wants to keep a mobile home in an area of outstanding beauty overlooking the Battle of Hastings site.

The businessman, a father of two, said last night: ‘I had a sense of total disbelief. My wife and I decided to tell my 11-year-old son I had to go with the police because I had witnessed a road accident.

‘Even though the officers were fairly pleasant to me, I was informed I would be handcuffed if I didn’t go voluntarily. They then confiscated my computer and my wife’s computer and took them to the police station.

‘I was extremely angry. I was relaxing in the comfort of my home on a Sunday afternoon and then I was in a police car under arrest – all for an innocent comment by a colleague.’

He said: ‘I have never had any criminal record and try my best to teach my children right from wrong. This was a ridiculously heavy-handed police reaction to what they perceived as a racist comment. I am not the least bit racist and neither is Paul Osmond. The gipsy family concerned did not complain.

‘I did nothing wrong yet ended up in a police cell for four hours with my DNA stored on a criminal database.’

The case finally ended last week when Mr Osmond, who had been arrested and bailed, was told there would be no further police action. The planning case is continuing.

Mr Osmond, 39, of Icklesham, said: ‘I made it clear to them I am absolutely not racist. I said I was simply registering my objection to this application because it is 200ft from the most important and historical battlefield in the country.

Sussex Police said they had arrested the businessman over ‘suspicion of committing a racial or religious-aggravated offence’.

After consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, it was decided to take no further action against Mr Osmond.

Chief Inspector Heather Keating said: ‘Sussex Police have a legal duty to promote community cohesion and tackle unlawful discrimination.

‘We are satisfied we acted appropriately in identifying the owner of the computer used and through this, the identity of the writer of the offending line.’

Police said they would hold the innocent men’s DNA indefinitely, which they said was in line with national policy.

A council spokesman said: ‘As far as we were concerned it was an offensive comment, so we got in touch with the police.’

Police powers ruled illegal - New Labour tell police to carry on regardless

2010-01-24T14:53:00.002Z

The number of stop-and-searches under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act of 2000 has trebled in a year, with police facing protests that they have targeted tourists, photographers and trainspotters under the legislation.

Yesterday the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the police right under the Terrorism Act of 2000 to question people without grounds for suspicion was illegal.

Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, vowed to fight the ruling.

The European Court ruling was prompted by the case of Kevin Gillan and Pennie Quinton, who were both searched on the same day in 2003 close to an arms fair at the Excel Centre in London's Docklands. It had been designated under Section 44 of the Act as an area where police were entitled to use wide anti-terrorist powers.

Ms Quinton was a journalist filming near the arms fair, and had already shown police her press card, while Mr Gillan was riding his bicycle past the building.

They decided to challenge the powers in the UK courts. The Court of Appeal and the House of Lords said the powers were legitimate given the risk of terrorism in London.

But yesterday the European Court of Human Rights rejected the Government's argument that Section 44 was a proportionate response. The Strasbourg judges said a police officer's decision to stop and search an individual was one based exclusively on the "hunch" or "professional intuition".

Last night the Government pledged to try to overturn the ruling by taking the unusual step of appealing to the court's grand chamber. But legal experts said the court's unanimous decision (7-0) showed government lawyers would have a steep hill to climb.

Mr Johnson said: "Stop and search under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is an important tool in a package of measures in the ongoing fight against terrorism. We are considering the judgment and will seek to appeal. Pending the outcome of this appeal, the police will continue to have these powers available to them."

Not a single stop-and-search under the new anti-terrorism powers has resulted in a conviction for terrorism, despite police officers in England and Wales used the powers to search nearly 200,000 people last year.

The year before 124,687 people were searched, up from 41,924 in 2006-07.

After the ruling, Ms Quinton said: "The court has shown that Section 44 is an invasion of people's right to liberty and privacy."

Corinna Ferguson, a legal adviser to the civil rights group Liberty and acting for Ms Quinton and Mr Gillan, said: "The public, police and Court of Human Rights all share our concerns for privacy, protest, race equality and community solidarity that come with this sloppy law."

Officials now have 1,200 powers of entry to private homes

2010-01-24T14:21:00.002Z

A fresh bid to curb wide-ranging powers for officials to enter private homes was launched in the Lords yesterday.

Spearheading the move, Tory Lord Selsdon said he had unearthed about 1,200 powers of entry in dozens of different Acts of Parliament.

He called for a code of practice to put strict limits on entry powers for all cases except those involving suspected serious crime or terrorism.

Introducing his Powers of Entry Bill, Lord Selsdon said he had been pursuing the issue for more than 30 years and had introduced several previous Bills.

He said the problem was that no one knew exactly how many powers of entry there were, adding: "Worse than that, the householder has no idea either. "The householder feels more and more insecure. He fears the knock on the door."

Under the Bill, entry would have to be authorised by a judge or magistrate and the householder would have to agree to it.

A maximum of four officials would be allowed in, only between 8am and 6pm on Mondays to Fridays, or between 8am and 1pm on a Saturday.

Backing the Bill, crossbencher Lord Scott of Foscote, a law lord and former Attorney General, said far too many powers of entry were exercisable not only without the consent of the occupier but also without the authority of a warrant.

Tory Lord Marlesford welcomed the Bill as an attempt to overthrow "overbearing, disproportionate and intrusive" powers. Too often, powers of entry were made without a magistrate and followed by "every officious officer", he said.

For the Liberal Democrats, Baroness Hamwee supported the premise of the Bill but cautioned that the situation required a "rather more complex and detailed, more subtle approach".

For the Tories, Lord Skelmersdale said: "Powers of entry have become so widespread and so draconian over this Government's time in office that there has arisen a considerable amount of unease to put it mildly, both in and outside Parliament." He added: "The whole purpose of this Bill is that we can't go on like this and I commend Lord Selsdon for bringing this issue forward."

Government spokesman Lord Brett suggested the Bill amounted to an "inflexible approach" towards limiting powers of entry. He told peers the Government did recognise there were "difficulties" that needed to be addressed.

He added: "What we are proposing is that any new or amending powers of entry are put before Parliament for consideration, in that case the sponsoring department must comply with a code of practice that sets out the considerations that I believe, many of the points that peers have raised today."

The Bill gained an unopposed second reading but without Government support is unlikely to become law.

Pompous oaf Peter Vaughan is too important to go shopping

2010-01-24T13:44:00.002Z

This is Peter Vaughan.

Recognise him? Probably not.

He's the new Chief Constable of South Wales police.

He believes that he is so important, that he is unable to walk round a supermarket.

Speaking to the 'Police Review' he said

"There are additional pressures now that I am a chief constable. I used to be able to walk around my local supermarket, but now someone else will do my shopping, for security reasons."

The level of pomposity and lack of self-awareness is astonishing.

I doubt anyone in South Wales could even pick him out of a line-up.

Peter Vaughan - a man who is so full of his own importance that he is afraid to walk round Tesco without a bodyguard.

WMD inspector Hans Blix told Tony Blair that there was no evidence of WMDs in Iraq

2010-01-24T13:23:00.002Z

Hans Blix, who has not been called to give evidence to Sir John Chilcot's inquiry, said his team had grown suspicious of the quality of intelligence pointing to Saddam Hussein having WMDs.

The inspectors visited many sites said by intelligence services in the UK, the US and elsewhere to contain WMDs, but had only ever found conventional weapons, documents or nothing at all, he said.

''I think this was one of the most significant things of the whole story,'' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

''We got tips not only from the UK but from other intelligence, the US as well, so perhaps some 100 all in all.

''We had time to go to about three dozen of these sites and in no case did we find any weapons of mass destruction.''

He added: ''We said if this is the best (intelligence), then what is the rest? Doubts arose from that.''

Dr Blix said he spoke to Mr Blair in February 2003, ahead of the March invasion, about his team's findings.

''I said to Mr Blair 'Yes, I also thought there could be weapons of mass destruction', but I said 'Are you so sure? Would it not be paradoxical if you were to invade Iraq with 200,000 men and found there were no weapons of mass destruction?'.

''His response was 'No, no', he was quite convinced, the intelligence services were convinced, and even the Egyptians were convinced, so I had no reason to doubt his good faith at the time. But I was doubtful.''

And he said the Iraqis were finally making progress in opening up to inspections and should have been allowed more time.

''We warned the Iraqis that they needed to be more active and they became more active and we reported that to the (UN) Security Council, that we were actually making a great deal of progress,'' he said.

Dr Blix added: ''We could not exclude that there was still something hidden, because you cannot prove the negative, but I think they should have taken to heart that there was a change in the Iraqi attitude, that there was more cooperation and that things that were unresolved were becoming resolved.''

New Labour invents 33 new crimes every month

2010-01-24T13:11:00.003Z

Thanks to New Labour, it is now illegal to swim in the wreck of the Titanic or to sell game birds killed on a Sunday or Christmas Day – eventualities overlooked by previous governments.

New Labour has made 4,289 activities illegal since the 1997 election, at a rate of about one a day – twice the speed with which the previous Conservative government created crimes.

Gordon Brown was the worst offender, with his government inventing 33 new crimes a month. Tony Blair's administration made 27 new offences each month.

Some of the more inventive crimes dreamt up by New Labour include "disturbing a pack of eggs when directed not to by an authorised officer" and reporting the door of a merchant ship to be closed and locked when it isn't.

New Labour also introduced laws against activities which would already have been covered by previous legislation – such as "causing a nuclear explosion."

Liberal Democrat home office spokesman Chris Huhne, who brought the figures to light, will criticise the government's administrative binge in a speech tonight.

He will say New Labour has spent 12 years "suffering from the most acute and prolonged bout of legislative diarrhoea", calling the rate of 69 new Home Affairs Bills in 12 years "staggering".

Police to use military drones to spy on public

2010-01-24T13:01:00.001Z

Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the routine covert monitoring of the public, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.

The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.

The Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates UK airspace, has been told by BAE and Kent police that civilian UAVs would "greatly extend" the government's surveillance capacity and "revolutionise policing". The CAA is currently reluctant to license UAVs in normal airspace because of the risk of collisions with other aircraft.

BAE drones are programmed to take off and land on their own, stay airborne for up to 15 hours and reach heights of 20,000ft, making them invisible from the ground.

Previously, Kent police has said the drone scheme was intended for use over the English Channel to monitor shipping and detect immigrants crossing from France. However, the documents suggest the maritime focus was, at least in part, a public relations strategy designed to minimise civil liberty concerns.

"There is potential for these [maritime] uses to be projected as a 'good news' story to the public rather than more 'big brother'," a minute from the one of the earliest meetings, in July 2007, states.

Behind closed doors, the scope for UAVs has expanded significantly. Working with various policing organisations as well as the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, the Maritime and Fisheries Agency, HM Revenue and Customs and the UK Border Agency, BAE and Kent police have drawn up wider lists of potential uses.

One document lists "[detecting] theft from cash machines, preventing theft of tractors and monitoring antisocial driving" as future tasks for police drones, while another states the aircraft could be used for road and railway monitoring, search and rescue, event security and covert urban surveillance.

Under a section entitled "Other routine tasks (Local Councils) – surveillance", another document states the drones could be used to combat "fly-posting, fly-tipping, abandoned vehicles, abnormal loads, waste management".

Military drones have been used extensively by the US to assist reconnaissance and airstrikes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Their use in war zones has been blamed for high civilian death tolls.

The Electronic Police State Report - UK is joint 4th with Russia

2009-07-03T14:06:00.001Z

A report by internet security consultancy Cryptohippe has ranked the UK as being equally as repressive as Russia, in terms of having become an Electronic Police State.

This result emerges from Cryptohippie’s recently published Electronic Police State 2008 Report.

This is the first in what are intended to be a series of annual reports that will audit the "State use of electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence against its citizens".

The audit focusses on 17 factors, ranging from requirement to produce documents on demand, through to the extent to which states force ISP’s and phone companies to retain data, the blurring of boundaries between police and intelligence work and ultimately the breakdown of the principles of habeas corpus.

The UK has been ranked as having a score of 3.18 on the scale used, the same as the score obtained by Russia.

Only China, North Korea, and Belarus obtained higher scores, indicating that the UK is the most repressive electronic police state in Western society.

Police harass hundreds in Sefton

2009-06-18T16:13:00.003Z

Police in Sefton have been busy lately, harassing hundreds of innocent people under 'Operation Beekman'.

This 'operation', is the latest idea from Chief Supt Ian Pilling of Merseyside Police.

Police inconvenienced 573 people who were travelling in the Sefton area, over a period of 6 nights.

Out of all of these hundreds of innocent people who had their journeys disrupted, Chief Supt Ian Pillin proclaimed the operation a great success, noting that over the period of 6 days, they did manage to find one man who had a small piece of cannabis, and they also managed to find the time to arrest one other man who took offence to the search.

Two men assaulted and fined by Merseyside Police

2009-06-18T15:58:00.002Z

Two men were ‘handcuffed, punched and stripped’ by Merseyside Police’s Matrix team.

Andy Jones, 20, and Anthony Spencer, 21, believe pressure on officers to stop a string of arson attacks and shootings lay behind their “humiliating” ordeal.

Both men say they were quizzed about drugs, petrol bombs and weapons.

The life long friends from Waterloo were driving down South Road on Thursday, June 4, in Anthony's car when a Matrix van appeared in their rear view mirror.

Anthony had just performed a U-turn, when the van roared past his Vauxhall Vectra and eventually blocked the car in Handfield Road.

The men then watched as officers wearing tactical uniforms poured from the van and surrounded the car.

Anthony, who attended Chesterfield High School and works for Sefton Council in Bootle Town Hall as an employment adviser, said : “I was pulled from the car, cuffed, and forced to the floor. I felt a knee in my back and I remember they were screaming at me to 'stop resisting arrest.' I started screaming too, because I wanted to draw attention to what was happening, but I did not fight back.

“I remember on my way in to the van feeling terrified. You hear so many stories about people getting badly hurt in custody.

“I feared for my life. They told me that they were not from the area and wanted me to tell them about the arson.

“When the officers failed to find any evidence in my car, they realised we were not involved. The senior officer advised me to accept a fixed penalty notice rather than be arrested and have my car impounded.

“I agreed, but I am worried about having a police record.

“I am not anti - police, and I have applied to join Merseyside on two occasions. I was hoping to try once more, but not any more.”
Andy, who went to St Michael's and is now one 3 Mobile's top 100 sales men and a budding graphic designer, said: “I was cuffed too. I remember an officer walking past me and delivering a proper punch to my back. It really hurt.

“I was taken in to the back of the van too, and stripped.

“After the ordeal we both went straight to St Ann Street police station, to make a complaint.

“We were informed about the professional standards department, and advised to go straight to the Royal hospital, where we were both treated for bruising to our lower bodies.”

A spokesman for Merseyside Police said: “We can confirm that we have received a formal complaint against officers from two members of the public regarding an incident in South Road, Crosby, on Thursday, June 4, 2009.

Chief Constable escapes jail

2009-06-18T15:30:00.001Z

A police chief has been forced to return 87 computer hard drives to an expert witness.

Colin Port, Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset, had been facing contempt of court charges for delaying the return of hard drives to Jim Bates, a computer analyst whose home was searched by police last year.

The police search of Mr Bates’s home was declared illegal by the High Court in May because Mr Port’s officers had drawn up a warrant incorrectly and taken away legally privileged material.

Mr Port took legal advice about how he could avoid complying with the court order.

But on Monday night, just hours before the chief constable was due in court to answer the contempt allegation, the computer material was delivered to the offices of Mr Bates’s solicitor.

Mr Bates’s lawyers, who are to seek compensation for the illegal search of his home, said the hard copy images were contained in legal case files which were stored in his garage. They said some of the material had originally been given to him by police and prosecution authorities and dated back 10 years.

Lord Justice Stanley Burnton said Mr Bates had held all the material “in a professional capacity” and that that Mr Port’s delayed compliance with a court order was “regrettable”.

The judge added: “The conduct of the chief constable since the order was made has been of concern to us”.

Mr Bates, 68, is regarded as a pioneer of forensic computer examination and was widely used as a prosecution and defence expert witness for many years. But the Crown Prosecution Service stopped using him and in 2006 issued confidential guidance concerning him to prosecutors.

Avon & Somerset police began a fresh investigation into him last September after he was given by police a copy of the hard drive of a man charged with possessing child abuse images on computer. Mr Bates was given the material at a Bristol police station when he arrived in the capacity of assistant to another expert witness.

Police later raided his Leicestershire home and he was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to possess indecent images of children. That investigation has now been dropped.

Mr Bates has long contended that the actions against him are an attempt to discredit him because he now acts as a defence expert and is an outspoken critic of police investigations.

He is particularly critical of the conduct of Operation Ore, a nationwide inquiry into online child abuse which led to thousands of arrests, convictions and cautions.

Police searches “almost certainly” illegal

2009-06-18T14:58:00.003Z

White people are being unjustifiably stopped and searched to provide racial balance in police statistics, the antiterrorism watchdog said yesterday.

Lord Carlile of Berriew, QC, described the searches in his annual report on the operation of counterterrorism legislation as “almost certainly” illegal. He said that he knew of cases where people were stopped by officers even though they did not fit any known terrorist profile.

He accused the police of wasting time and money by carrying out “self-evidently unmerited searches”, which were also an invasion of civil liberties. The searches, for example, of blonde women who fit no terrorist profile came against a backdrop of complaints from rights groups that the number of black and Muslim people being stopped and searched by police was disproportionate.

Lord Carlile said that police were stopping white people unjustifiably so that official figures would make it look as if they were not singling out black and Asian people under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. “No police officer has admitted that to me, but I believe that is the case”

Under Section 44, police can stop and search anyone in a designated area without suspicion that an offence has occurred. Last year the number of white people searched rose from 29,900 to 73,000, blacks from 3,600 to 15,200 and Asians from 5,500 to 20,700. Although whites made up the biggest number, in terms of population, blacks and Asians were more likely to be stopped.

Lord Carlile wrote in his report: “I have evidence of cases where the person stopped is so obviously far from any known terrorism profile that, realistically, there is not the slightest possibility of him/her being a terrorist, and no other feature to justify the stop.

“In one situation the basis of the stops was numerical only, which is almost certainly unlawful and in no way an intelligent use of the procedure.”

Lord Carlile said: “I believe it is totally wrong for any person to be stopped in order to produce a racial balance in the Section 44 statistics. There is ample anecdotal evidence this is happening. I can well understand the concerns of the police that they should be free from allegations of prejudice, but it is not a good use of precious resources if they waste them on self-evidently unmerited searches.”

A racial imbalance in the numbers of people stopped because they fitted a terrorism profile was fine, he said, “as long as it is not racist”.
Nearly 90 per cent of the searches were carried out by the Metropolitan Police, whose officers use Section 44 to carry out stop and search between 8,000 and 10,000 times a month.

Former Police officer jailed for sex abuse

2009-06-13T10:18:00.003Z

A former Strathclyde police officer who claimed he was a "Black Magic" high priest has been convicted of sexually abusing three children in East Dunbartonshire.

John McFadden, 42, from Bearsden, was found guilty of abusing a boy between 1988 and 1992 in Kirkintilloch.

He was also convicted of abusing two other youngsters at various addresses in Kirkintilloch between 1983 and 1990.

The court heard how McFadden told one of his victims, a 12-year-old boy, that demons and spirits would kill him and drag him to hell unless he carried out sex acts.

He dressed in a black cloak and used a crucifix with a skull and crossbones and an onyx ring, which he claimed gave him power, to terrify the youngster into keeping the abuse a secret.

The victim, who is now 32, told the court that McFadden abused him almost every day for four years using threats to keep him silent.

The victim said: "He started to get us into this Black Magic. He described himself as a high priest with this Black Magic circle.

"He said he could have out of body experiences and could talk to demons and spirits.

"One day he said he was going to initiate me into the circle and this became the main driver for my silence.

"He had a cast iron bowl and he pricked my finger and put some blood in it, then he took some of my hair and said that he had to have some of my semen and then it all had to be burned."

The abuse came to an end when the man joined the Royal Marines and moved away.

The court was also told that another man came forward in 1999 to complain that he had been indecently assaulted by McFadden, at the age of seven.

McFadden resigned from the police that year but was not convicted at that time.

He was finally charged years later after two others came forward to report similar incidents.

When police searched McFadden's home they found a devil mask and two wands alongside sex toys and lubricants.

He tried to claim that his victims were making up the abuse but a jury declined to believe him.

Police Officer jailed after lying about having cancer

2009-06-13T09:59:00.002Z

A police officer was jailed for a year after lying to his wife, children, and work colleagues about having cancer.

Michael Matts, 34, was described as a 'conniving cheat' for telling his relatives, colleagues and friends that he was undergoing radiotherapy.

Matts was ferried to hospital by sympathetic colleagues for radiotherapy while senior officers were only too happy place him on less strenuous duties and sign him off for long periods.

He also took time off for depression while working at the serious and dangerous offenders unit in Leicester.

While his now-former wife Emma, 30, brought forward their wedding day because she was convinced Matts might die, concerned friends and workmates took the time to drive him to hospital for 'treatment'.

But Leicester Crown Court heard there was nothing wrong with the father-of-two, who secretly busied himself during his extended period of 'sick leave' by setting up a bicycle shop.

He was jailed for one year for a series of frauds.

Matts admitted obtaining financial benefit by receiving police pay when falsely claiming he was unfit to work with cancer, between July 2004 and January 2005.

He also admitted fraud between March 2007 and 2008 by falsely telling Leicestershire Police he was absent due to illness.

When he joined the force in 2001, he told colleagues that seven times Tour de France winner, and testicular cancer battler, Lance Armstrong was his inspiration.

He then promised £900,000 to sponsor a Belgian cycle team while posing as a wealthy businessman. The bogus pledge left a Belgian sports management firm with a crippling £485,000 bill and a £64,000 lawsuit.

Matts also admitted fraudulently making an Alliance and Leicester guarantee and dishonestly using it in relation to the bogus sponsorship deal.

A customer at his shop who paid £2,100 for a bicycle he never received was also fobbed off with lies, the court was told.

John Heighton, the father of Matts' former wife Emma, said the officer's actions were despicable and slammed the judicial system for giving him such a short prison sentence.

Speaking from his home in Wigston, Leicester, the 78-year-old said: 'My daughter came home last year to find police swarming the house - she thought Michael had died.

'They didn't tell her much at the time and Michael continued to spin her lies. She thought he was a good person.

'Not only did he manage to dupe my daughter, but he managed to fool the police too.

'Its unbelievable what he has done, my daughter is absolutely devastated.

'He should have got at least three years for what he's done.

'Even when they got married he was saying he was ill because of his cancer treatment, the amount of lies he has told have been harrowing.

'It has just felt like the lies are never ending and this will stay with my daughter and her children for the rest of their lives.'

A spokesperson from Leicestershire Police, said: 'It is the role of the police service and of every man and woman who serves as a police officer, to uphold the law.

'This individual has let down both his former colleagues and the community that he had served by being involved in criminal activity.'

Man fined for littering after accidentally dropping £10 note

2009-06-13T09:47:00.001Z

A man who accidentally dropped a £10 note in an Ayr street was given a £50 fine for littering.

Stewart Smith says he was at first grateful when police pointed to his dropped tenner in Newmarket Street.

And he thanked them for pointing it out to him.

But the 36-year-old, living on benefits, says that the cops then handed him the fixed-penalty fine.

Mr Smith said: “I’m living on £98 a fortnight at the moment, so £50 is a week’s living expenses for me.”

Mr Smith says he had just bought a £3 T-shirt in a charity shop, paid for with a £20 note given to him by his mum.

He said: “I came out the Capability Scotland shop with my T-shirt under my arm.

“I put £7 into my front pocket, as I was going to buy some juice.

“I thought I was putting a £10 note and the receipt in my back pocket.

“But I’ve missed my pocket, and the £10 note – along with the receipt – had fallen on to the street.”

Mr Smith insisted: “I made an honest mistake.”

The ticket gives him 14 days to pay up to South Ayrshire Council.

But he has already consulted a lawyer to see if he can fight what he sees as an unjust fine.

Formerly of Kincaidston, Mr Smith now lives in a flat in Dalrymple.

He worked at the Bed Shed warehouse at Skeldon, before arthritis in his hands forced him to leave at the end of last year.

He said: “I really thought the police were trying to be helpful, but maybe I just have the kind of face they don’t like.”

He insists he didn’t swear at the police or deliberately litter.

Inspector John Cairns of Ayr police office said: “I can confirm a male was issued with a fixed-penalty notice for an alleged act of littering on the day in question.”

G20 police officer under investigation for alleged second assault

2009-06-12T19:07:00.003Z

A Metropolitan police sergeant who was filmed assaulting a female protester at the G20 protests is under investigation for allegedly assaulting a second woman.

The sergeant, a member of the Met's specialist Territorial Support Group (TSG), was suspended from duty two months ago after footage emerged of him assaulting the protester Nicola Fisher with the back of his arm.

The film also showed him striking Fisher, 35, from Brighton, on the legs with a baton while she attended a memorial vigil for the newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson on April 1, leaving her with severe bruising.

The sergeant is still under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) over the Fisher attack and could face charges.

Today it emerged he is also under investigation by the IPCC over a second assault, against Katie Surridge, a 24-year-old student who he is alleged to have confronted in an alley off Bishopsgate, and thrown to the ground.

It is understood the IPCC only recently launched the second investigation, after establishing the allegation involved the same sergeant as the Fisher case.

Surridge, from London, has previously described an incident, in which she was shoved to the ground at the Climate Camp demonstration, as "totally unprovoked". The incident took place around 10pm on 1 April, just hours after riot police charged at the mainly peaceful demonstration.

Police have already been criticised for their actions after footage showed officers charging protesters, who resisted peacefully by holding their arms in the air and chanting "This is not a riot".

Rob Faure-Walker, 27, a teacher who witnessed the alleged assault and has given evidence to the IPCC.

"He just burst through the police cordon, pushing a couple of police out of the way," Faure-Walker said. "He picked [Surridge] up off her feet and threw her to the ground. It is my opinion that she was lucky not to have been more seriously injured than she was.

"She had her back to him at the time, and was talking to someone else, when it happened. I've no idea why he did it. Even other police officers looked shocked at what happened."

Faure-Walker demanded the officer's badge number, which was attached to his shoulder. "He walked around looking agitated for the next few minutes before I lost sight of him."

Separately, a journalist demanded the officer's number after noting what he saw as the aggressive treatment of demonstrators around the same time.

By the following day, when he was filmed striking Fisher, the sergeant's badge number was concealed. Faure-Walker said he recognised the sergeant as the officer who had thrown Surridge to the floor when he saw footage of the attack on Fisher broadcast on the news.

Three independent IPCC investigations are continuing into Met officers alleged to have assaulted women at the G20 protests. The IPCC would not disclose whether the latest assault investigation involved the sergeant filmed attacking Fisher. However, a spokesperson said: "The officer in question is subject to another complaint which is being independently investigated by the IPCC."

The IPCC has received more than 270 complaints about the actions of officers at the G20 protests. More than 50 relate to allegations of "excessive force with reported injuries". More than 75 G20 complaints to the IPCC related to police tactics.

Give the police your DNA or face investigation

2009-06-12T18:43:00.002Z

Residents of Walthamstow have been given a choice by police : Surrender your DNA to us, or face an investigation.

Police have decreed that residents of nearly 10,000 homes in Walthamstow will have to submit their DNA to the police, or they will be investigated by the police in connection with several murders.

Murder squad detectives have been drafted in from all over London to help complete the canvassing of houses within a 3.4 mile-wide perimeter in Walthamstow, East London.

Police have said that residents who do not surrender their DNA will face further investigation.

Police have not said for how long the samples will be stored, or for what purposes they may be used.

Police officer arrested in investigation into supply of Class C drugs

2009-02-26T16:25:00.003Z

A police officer was arrested today by detectives investigating a body-building drug supply racket.

The 26-year-old Metropolitan police constable was held after a series of early morning raids in Swansea, south Wales.

He was arrested on suspicion of supplying controlled class C drugs following an investigation by anti-corruption officers.

Four other men were detained as officers searched five properties in the area, including homes, commercial addresses and a shop.

A Metropolitan police spokesman said the men are believed to be linked to a network supplying steroids to hundreds of people across South Wales.

He said: "Officers are expected to meet the highest standards of honesty and integrity. The Met is determined that those who fail to meet these standards will be dealt with swiftly and robustly."

The operation was carried out by members of Scotland Yard's directorate of professional standards with officers from South Wales police's anti-corruption team.

Officers suspect the men were supplying anabolic steroids in pill and injectable forms to bodybuilders and weight trainers.

Steroids are categorised as class C drugs and can only be sold by pharmacists with a doctor's prescription.

Police 'misfiled' 133 complaints against officers

2009-02-26T15:57:00.002Z

Scotland's second-biggest police force failed to follow up properly a "significant" number of complaints against its officers, including accusations of criminal behaviour, instead filing them as "miscellaneous inquiries", the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland has found.

In an unprecedented examination of Lothian and Borders Police's complaint handling over a four-year period, Jim Martin found that 133 complaints had been misfiled in the lesser category, including 16 that would "reasonably be taken to allege criminality on the part of officers".

However, despite the seriousness of the latter allegations, in nine of the cases there is no evidence of any attempt to notify the area procurator-fiscal, who would decide whether to bring any prosecution, Mr Martin found.

The commissioner, whose post was introduced in April last year, also found evidence that the force had misled complainants, including an MP, as to how their grievances had been handled.

He has now asked L&B to reinvestigate all the original complaints, review its complaint-handling procedure and ensure that any relevant cases are referred to the fiscal.

The commission is also seeking an urgent meeting with the remainder of Scotland's eight police forces to ensure that official complaint-handling policies are being carried out properly.

Describing his findings as "very worrying", Mr Martin told The Herald: "What I have uncovered in this review is well over a hundred cases which haven't been handled according to correct procedures. The fact that some of the cases contain quite serious allegations is worrying.

"Whether it is a case of poor administration in some cases (or otherwise), is frankly neither here nor there. There are procedures in place to give the public confidence that their complaints are handled appropriately. That I found 133 cases of this not happening is very worrying."

The investigation into L&B's complaints and conduct department - the first time such an inquiry has taken place in Scotland - was sparked in May after Mr Martin found that officers had been "insensitive" in the handling of an apparent suicide of someone who had died in police custody.

The PCCS investigation, published today, looked at just over half of L&B's miscellaneous inquiry files (804) between 2003 and 2007 and found that 16.5% of those should have been filed as complaints.

This resulted in the official number of complaints against the force being under-reported by 7%, the report found.

Among the 16 complaints that could potentially give rise to criminal investigations were allegations of assault and verbal abuse against a child by police officers, dangerous driving and allegedly failing to tell one woman that her son had received hospital treatment after an altercation with police.
There were also allegations about evidence that was later given by officers in court but not recorded and where the fiscal appeared not to have been informed, the report found.

The review did not examine whether police officers had deliberately misfiled complaints. Mr Martin said this was a question for L&B to address and, if upheld, decide whether or not any disciplinary action was necessary.

However, a spokesman for the force sought to play down the findings, saying they had not found fault with actual complaint investigations.

The spokesman said there was no intention to take action against any officer as a result of the PCCS findings.

Police Officer arrested on suspicion of being rioter

2009-02-26T15:41:00.003Z

An Essex Police officer has been arrested in connection with a night of football violence.

On May 14 last year, rioting broke out in Manchester where 150,000 Rangers fans had arrived to watch the Glasgow club’s UEFA Cup match with Zenit St Petersberg at the City Stadium.

A screen in the largest Rangers fan zone broke before kick-off, and violence erupted.

Officers and supporters clashed in the street, leading to one Russian fan being stabbed and a number of other people being injured.

Greater Manchester Police launched Operation Gale to find the perpetrators, and last month the force published 49 photographs online of people they want to speak to in connection with the disorder.

One of those pictured in a red baseball cap, tracksuit and white trainers is allegedly a serving Essex Police officer.

The 44-year-old was identified by someone who saw the photograph on the police website.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: “Officers investigating the trouble following last year’s UEFA Cup Final have made an arrest. The 44-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder”

He confirmed the man is a serving Essex Police officer.

Heather Watts, from Essex Police, added: “Essex Police has been made aware of the arrest by Greater Manchester Police, who are investigating the incident.”

The man has been released on police bail pending further inquiries until June 2.

Sorry Sir, you can't report a crime, we're playing poker

2009-02-26T15:28:00.002Z

A householder who tried to report a burglary was turned away – because police were playing poker.

Instead, Graham Hall was handed a fridge magnet bearing the force’s non-emergency phone number and told to ring it. The retired financial adviser had just discovered that thieves had broken into a rental property he owns.

But a security guard on the front desk at Thames Valley Police headquarters told him no one could help because a card game involving 14 officers was about to start in the social club.

Mr Hall then rang the number he had been given on the magnet. An operator promised that a police officer would get in touch – but a week later he has still heard nothing.

Mr Hall, 69, of Oxford, discovered the break-in when he visited his property in nearby Kidlington last Wednesday. Thieves had made off with hundreds of pounds worth of snooker equipment from a games room.

Mr Hall walked 300 yards to Kidlington Police Station but a sign on the door said it closed at 5pm so he went another 150 yards down the road to Thames Valley Police HQ.

He said: “A security guard popped up from behind the desk and said: ‘Good evening. Are you here for the poker?’

“I said: ‘I thought this was a police station, not a casino.’

“I told him I’d come to report a crime, but he said I couldn’t do it there. I was flabbergasted – you can’t even report a crime at the police headquarters.”

Paramedics called for man tasered by police

2008-11-10T13:42:00.003Z

Paramedics were called to a pub to treat a man who had been stunned by a taser gun by armed police during a 'raid'.

It is believed that dozens of police officers raided the Romany pub, in Colman Road, Norwich, on Friday evening.

As a result of the police operation, a taser gun was used on a man who was believed to be in his forties.

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We were called to the Romany pub at about 9.40pm to reports of a man who had been tasered.”

Police have not yet confirmed why they were at the Romany pub and it is also not yet known why the taser was deployed.

The pub's landlady , who took over the establishment in May, said the whole community was “shocked” by the incident.

The weapon, which uses darts to deliver a 50,000 volt shock, was first introduced to Norfolk Constabulary in September 2005.

Since then, statistics released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that tasers were used in Norfolk eight times between January and July this year, up from six in the whole of 2007.

Police officer jailed for propositioning woman under arrest, sex on duty

2008-11-10T13:26:00.003Z

A police officer who admitted having sex with one woman while on duty and propositioning another after she had been arrested was jailed for four months.

Pc Gary Bayldon, 48, who was married at the time, would visit one divorced mother at her home for sex while on late shifts.

He also asked the second woman to go the woods with him and caressed her hands while taking her fingerprints at the police station, a court heard.

Bayldon, from Newport, Isle of Wight, pleaded guilty to three counts of wilful misconduct in public office at Kingston Crown Court.

Kingston Crown Court heard that Bayldon met 34-year-old community care worker Donna Cacutt after she had called police to her home on the Isle of Wight when a man tried to take one of her children down the road.

Bayldon was the officer sent to the scene.

Bayldon then began phoning her and they began a relationship.

Barry Gregory, prosecuting, said: “In her words they started seeing each other quite regularly but never when he was off duty, always when he was on duty on the late shift."

Bayldon met the second woman, mother-of-two Suzanne Dunkling, 37, after being called out to a domestic incident involving her boyfriend at her home in October 2005, the court heard.

She was arrested and taken to the police station by Bayldon who told her “I think you’re f****** gorgeous”, said Mr Gregory.

Bayldon interviewed her and later had to take her fingerprints using an electronic machine, which he kept getting wrong.

Mr Gregory said: “He confessed to her ’I keep getting it wrong so I can keep touching you’.

“He had a wedding ring on and she said he shouldn’t be saying things like that because he was a married man. He was stroking and caressing her hand rather than holding it to the machine. It made her feel on edge and unsure of what to do.”

Bayldon later gave her a lift home in a police van, letting her sit in the front seat and smoke a cigarette.

During the journey he invited her to a forest “for a chat”, said Mr Gregory.

He added: “She said no because she knew full well he wanted her to go there for sex.

“He also asked to kiss her and leant across. She turned towards him and he kissed her. She said he used his tongue and she felt disgusted.

When Bayldon dropped her at home he told her “her children would be all right if she went out with him”

He asked her for her phone number and she gave him a false number.

Mr Gregory said Bayldon had taken “advantage of these reasonable vulnerable females by manipulating his position of authority.”

Bayldon had faced six other similar counts, with allegations including sex acts in a police vehicle and kissing a prosecution witness at a trial.

It was also claimed that he propositioned a woman after responding to a call for assistance, arresting her after she turned him down.

Bayldon, who was suspended from duty on full pay from Hampshire police, has been allowed to resign from his position.

He was facing a disciplinary hearing, which will now not take place. Bayldon will still be eligible to receive his pension from the police.

Witness says Menezes police 'out of control'

2008-11-03T14:33:00.002Z

An eyewitness who was sitting near Jean Charles de Menezes on a Tube train has told his inquest that undercover police gave no warning before killing him.

Anna Dunwoodie also said that officers were "out of control" and gave off a "sense of panic" before shooting.

She told the inquest that, at the time, she thought the firearms officers pursuing Mr de Menezes were members of a gang.

She said she did not hear officers shout any warning at the electrician.

Her insistence that there was no shouted warning - which contradicts the version of events given earlier in the inquest by the police involved – was subsequently backed up by two other passengers on the train.

"I would like to say that on whether I heard anything from police officers, I am very, very clear. I had absolutely no idea who they were and had they shouted I would have latched on to that," she said.

"There was a break and it was my memory that there were more shots.

"I felt they were a bit out of control, that's what it felt like."

The officers who shot Mr De Menezes 7 times in the head told the inquest earlier that they shouted "armed police" before shooting. One firearms officer said the Brazilian moved towards him with apparent aggressive intent.

But Ms Dunwoodie, as well as other witnesses, who had been reading a book on the train, said she did not recall that happening.

After the shooting she told how she thought "something illegal" had happened and said her first impulse was to call the police to let them know.

Two eyewitnesses who sat near the carriage doors where firearms officers opened fire also said they had no recollection of any warnings from armed police.

"There was not one mention of armed police."

Unemployed? Government approved training provider demand to know about your sex life

2008-11-01T14:42:00.003Z

Jason Lightwood, 38, was enrolled on a DWP approved group training session for persons who are unemployed.

As part of the session, jobseekers were given a questionnaire, set by Juniper Training in Tamworth, Staffordshire.

Juniper Training are authorised and approved by the Department for Work and Pensions to carry out job training schemes.

However, Mr Lightwood was left astounded after one of the questions asked if he ever "found it difficult to perform adequately or without embarrassment when involved in sex".

The organisers defended the question, arguing that an applicant's skills in the bedroom were linked to their abilities in the workplace.

The father-of-two said: " It was a complete shock when I saw the question. I thought it was outrageous and totally irrelevant to helping me get back into work, which is what they are supposed to do.

"I asked the woman who was running the session why on earth she needed to know about my sex life. She told me that if you're not performing well in bed it can affect how you do at work.

As well as being probed about his prowess in the bedroom Jason was asked to colour in pictures of elephants at Juniper's HQ in Tamworth, Staffs.

"I'm supposed to be here for job training and to look for work.

"Instead I'm getting questions about how I perform with my wife and being asked to colour in pretty pictures."

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said: "We apologise for any concern this may have caused."

Juniper Training were unavailable for comment.

Parents to be fingerprinted by nursery schools

2008-11-01T14:19:00.004Z

A chain of nurseries is to require parents to use fingerprint scanners before collecting their children, it has been revealed.

Fifty nurseries run by kidsunlimited, a national group catering for children aged three months to five years, will introduce the technology over the next few months.

Six, including those in Cambridgeshire, Wilmslow in Cheshire and Notting Hill, West London, already operate the system. At least 100 other private or voluntary nurseries are already thought to be using scanners.

Critics have condemned the increase in surveillance society.

The Government has issued guidance telling head teachers they have the right to collect pupils' biometric data for 'security' reasons.

Parents, carers or guardians will be required to register a fingerprint in advance and then swipe a scanner on entering and leaving the nursery.

Quite how kidsunlimited intend to resolve the situation of a parent who refuses to participate is unclear.

Dan Norris, Labour MP for Wansdyke and a prominent child welfare campaigner, said: "My instinct is that is some what of an overreaction. It strikes me quite a strong reaction to a problem that could be managed in a less confrontational way. Fingerprinting is quite a big deal."

Council orders destruction of anti-CCTV art

2008-11-01T13:54:00.003Z

Westminster City Council have ordered the destruction of a work of art which is critical of CCTV.

The owners of the mural, entitled "One Nation Under CCTV", by street artist 'Banksy', have been ordered by Westminster City Council to remove the work of art.

The mural has the words "One Nation Under CCTV" stencilled above two painted people.

One appears to be a child in a red hooded top apparently painting the words, while a police officer holding a camera and a brown dog look on.

The mural is painted on the wall of a building shared by Royal Mail and another business.

On Thursday a Banksy oil canvas, entitled Tesco Value Tomato Soup, was sold for £117,600 by auction house Bonhams.

Witnesses say police gave De Menezes no warning

2008-11-01T13:35:00.002Z

A couple sitting opposite Jean Charles de Menezes did not hear undercover police identify themselves before they shot the Brazilian, his inquest was told yesterday.

Ralph Livock and Rachel Wilson saw armed men board the train at Stockwell Tube station in South London and move towards Mr de Menezes, their weapons raised.

At no time, they said, did they hear anyone shout “armed police”.

This contradicts accounts from some armed officers that they had identified themselves.

The couple were reading when officers in plain clothes boarded the train.

Asked if any had identified themselves, Mr Livock said: “Absolutely not. On television you see people with police caps or jackets. There was nothing like that.

“One of my thoughts was that they were lads having a laugh, because they were in jeans and T-shirts. We had no idea whether they were police, whether they were terrorists, whether they were somebody else. The thing that had me realise it was not lads playing around was when the first shot was fired. The man in front fired into Mr de Menezes’s head.”

Ms Wilson said: “I thought they were messing around and then I thought they were terrorists and it was only when I left the carriage that I realised they were good guys.”

Asked at what point she had realised that, she told Southwark Coroner’s Court: “When I looked down and there was blood on my hands.”

Mr Livock said: “Mr de Menezes didn’t look frightened – he looked like he was waiting for somebody to tell him what was going on.”

Contrary to what the officers told the court, Mr Livock said that he did not see the 27-year-old electrician get up and walk towards the officers. “My recollection is that I didn’t see him doing anything other than sitting,” he said.

As he got off the train he heard more shooting. He saw Mr de Menezes slumped in his seat and there was a lot of blood.

Mr de Menezes was shot seven times in the head at point-blank range by undercover police.

Injured peace protestor to sue police

2008-10-29T12:36:00.001Z

A retired nurse is planning legal action after she was injured by the police during an anti-war demonstration.

Maureen Stephenson, from Waltham Forest in east London, is still receiving treatment after being knocked to the ground during the protest in June, injuring her back and shoulder.

She has made a complaint against the Metropolitan Police.

The Stop the War Coalition said police were "out to attack" people taking part in the Parliament Square protest. The Met did not comment.

Mrs Stephenson is receiving treatment after sustaining injuries in the protest, timed to coincide with US president George Bush's farewell visit to London.

The Stop the War Coalition complained to the police about the way officers behaved and said it would support anyone facing legal action.

Member Chris Nineham said: "For some reason, the whole attitude of the police towards the peace movement changed on that day and they were out to attack us."

He added: "The level of brutality was in a different league to anything we had seen since the group was launched in 2001.

"There were police with riot sticks, which was just ridiculous given that we had held more than 20 previous protests with hardly any arrests at any of them."

In June Deputy Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, predictably, defended the actions of his officers during the protest, claiming that the actions of the police were "entirely proportionate" in the face of "irresponsible" and "criminal" provocation by the peace protesters.

Police officers caught on camera kicking pet dogs

2008-10-29T12:02:00.002Z

Two police officers who kicked and beat their pet dogs were yesterday warned they could face jail.

PC Craig Neil Macleod, 34, and PC Anja Mason, 29, from Prestatyn, were filmed repeatedly hitting their border collie pup called Tess and their four-year-old rottweiler, Snoopy.

A neighbour captured shocking footage of the pair using “unnecessary and excessive” violence over a month-long period, during which the court heard the animals suffered “mental terror”.

In one shot, Mason is seen kicking the four-month-old puppy before flinging it in the air by the scruff of its neck.

In another, Macleod drags the rottweiler towards him by its lead before hitting it on the head.

He also forcefully kicks a dog toy, which hits Tess. In another clip the collie is seen running away as Mason chases it with a stick.

Yelps of distress from both dogs can be heard on the tape.

On separate occasions the pair are seen to throw water over the dogs. Yesterday, Macleod pleaded guilty to two counts of causing unnecessary suffering by subjecting both animals to physical trauma.

Mason admitted one count of the same charge against the collie. Four other charges against the pair were dropped because of lack of evidence.

There were gasps in the court room when 20 minutes of edited footage was shown of the cruelty.

In one clip the puppy is struck and kicked after it pulls an item of washing off the line.

Some of the abuse takes place out of sight of the camera but the animal’s cries can clearly be heard.

Glenn Murphy, prosecuting, said: “When the footage was shown to the RSPCA, they took the view that the treatment of the dogs was of considerable concern and was excessive and totally unacceptable.”

The pair claimed they were trying to train their pets but admitted they had chastised them.

After a veterinary report, they signed over the animals, which have now been given new homes. Vet David Martin said Tess is “desperate for attention” in the clips and adds “these actions are not those of competent and humane animal carers.”

But Joanne Stephens, defending, said Macleod and Mason stood to lose their jobs as serving officers for North Wales Police.

Chair of the bench Wendy Gibbs said a custodial sentence could not be ruled out after they found no mitigating factors.

She said: “There were several incidents of deliberate ill treatment which was frightening to both dogs. You intentionally caused pain and suffering and mental terror to both dogs and risked injury by kicking them.”

North Wales Police said both serving constables have been removed from frontline duties pending the outcome of the case.

The couple will next appear before magistrates in Denbigh on November 25.

UK Police will fingerprint people in the street

2008-10-29T11:34:00.002Z

UK Police are to be issued with hand-held fingerprint scanners, "so that they can check people's identities in the street".

There's no clear explanation offered of what value this is under the current law, where we are entitled to go about our lawful business without identifying ourselves to the police. The police just aren't entitled to "check your identity" – whatever that means.

Fingerprints taken using the device will be compared against the national police database, which holds information on a quite staggering 7.5 million individuals.

Large public occasions, sporting events, festivals and political conferences could be targeted by the schemes as well as the 2012 London Olympics.

NO2ID said there needs to be legal protections put in place. The group called for assurances that any failures in the technology would be reported to Parliament, and asked that it be made illegal for the fingerprints to be checked against any database other than the criminal databases. They said, for instance, that prints should not be checked against the proposed national identity database.

The group asked that it be made illegal for the fingerprints collected on the streets to be stored, and asked that police officers be banned from arresting those who refuse to give prints.

One thing is plain. History shows we cannot trust the government to constrain unlawful use of a new toy by overzealous forces. In 2000 the courts declared unlawful the standard police practice of hanging on, forever, to DNA records of unconvicted people. No illegal samples were destroyed as a result. Instead the present government changed the law retrospectively to make it all legal after all.

Man assaulted and fined £500 for defending son from police dog attack

2008-10-18T16:13:00.002Z

Cliff Auger is a life long Chelsea supporter who back in January he took his sons, aged 13 and 16, and two of their friends to the Chelsea v QPR FA Cup tie in January. He’s not a hooligan, he’s not a troublemaker, just a normal bloke taking his lads to the match.

After the game Cliff’s life turned upside down as his son was attacked by a police dog and in the course of defending his child, Cliff was assaulted by police officers, and left with four broken ribs and a punctured lung. Oh, and a ridiculous charge that would also leave him with a £500 fine and criminal record.

On their way back to the car, the game having ended in a narrow 1-0 win for Chelsea, one of his son’s friends went into a pub to use the toilet. The premises were then 'locked down' by the police - no one could enter or leave.

Cliff approached the police and asked if the boy could be allowed to leave the pub as he was responsible for the welfare of not only his sons, but their mates as well.

Due to earlier events, tensions had been running high but by the time Cliff and his party arrived in the area it had calmed down. Unfortunately this did not stop the dog handlers approaching Cliff – a German Shepherd was released by police and bit Cliff's older son on his calf.

Hearing his son’s cry of pain, Cliff's immediate and instinctive reaction was to kick the dog - just once - to release its grip, this worked as the dog then turned to bite Cliff. Any parent would surely do the same?

At this point, Cliff was bundled to the ground by several officers - two of them openly admit to striking him with their fists and a baton. Cliff had curled up to protect himself and this was their way of releasing his hands to cuff him.

Cliff was taken to the police station and charged with causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal. After complaining that he had sustained numerous injuries he was eventually taken to hospital where he was told he had four broken ribs and a punctured lung. Cliff remained in hospital for four days, and subsequently missed six weeks’ work.

Cliff's case was heard earlier this week at the West London Courthouse by a district judge. The dog handler claimed the boy was a threat to him, not the dog. There was contradictory evidence in court from the police. One claimed the boy approached with hands raised, another claimed the boy approached with fists clenched by his side. The dog handler said the dog was on a short lead, whereas another said it was released to the full length.

After a two day trial the judge found him guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal. The vet used in the case diagnosed that the animal might have suffered more than five minutes pain, despite never having seen the dog.

The judge advised that he was unable to give Cliff a conditional discharge as he should have waited to let the handler release the dog’s grip. In short, Cliff should have stood and watched while an animal attacked his son.

The court fined Cliff £500 while the police left him with four broken ribs and a punctured lung. We believe this verdict sends out the ridiculous message that a father does not have the right to protect his own child.

Cliff is now pursuing a complaint with the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

PCSO powers to be expanded

2008-10-17T12:32:00.002Z

PCSOs, are to be given powers to detain members of the public, it was announced by Jacqui Smith yesterday.

PCSOs, introduced in 2002 by the Home Secretary David Blunkett, have previously been criticised and have been disparagingly referred to as "plastic policemen" and "Blunkett's bobbies".

In September 2007, two PCSOs were heavily criticised after 10-year-old Jordan Lyon drowned in a pond in Wigan.

The two officers stood on the bank and radioed for help instead of jumping in to rescue the child.

They told an inquest that they were not trained to do so.

Greater Manchester Police say Ball Bearing fired into home 'not important enough to attend'

2008-10-17T12:17:00.005Z

A woman who dialled 999 after yobs fired a ball bearing gun through her window says she was told the incident `wasn't important enough' to send an officer.

Denise Pickard, 42, was watching TV at her home in Stretford when the shots were fired into her front room.

One narrowly missed her partner Patrick, but when she phoned police she claims they told her they would not come out as it was not a real gun.

Miss Pickard said the shooting was the latest incident in a two-year ordeal of anti-social behaviour and abuse from youths who have thrown rocks at her home, banged on the windows and shouted threats.

She said: "We heard a massive bang. I saw three holes in the window. We called the police but they were so dismissive. They said it wasn't important enough to come out.

"I have been left to deal with this problem and have confronted the kids and even spoken to their parents but have just received more abuse and even death threats."

Greater Manchester Police say they logged Miss Pickard's report but did not attend as it was not known exactly what had caused the damage and there were no witnesses.

She says she called 999 again the following day after a group of seven youths returned, banging on her door and shouting `you're going to get shot, I'm going to trash your house'.

She claims it was not until she reported a third incident that night, when the group returned, that an officer came out to see her.

A police spokesman said: "Police received a report that a window at an address in Stretford had been damaged.

"At the time of the call it was not known exactly what had caused the damage and no witnesses saw what happened. In line with procedure a report was logged by a member of the public assistance desk."

Greater Manchester Police were last year ranked second-bottom out of 43 forces in England and Wales in league tables compiled by the Press Association.

Police in Newhaven to harass people for no reason

2008-10-17T11:59:00.003Z

Police in Newhaven, Sussex, have pledged to crackdown on people minding their own business, and not breaking any law.

Officers will use Section 27 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act to move people on from a place, without reason or warrant, for up to 48 hours at a time with a view to prosecution using public nuisance powers or ASBOs, who have allegedly committed the crime of sitting on a public bench, and enjoying an alcohol based beverage.

But Lea Vesti-Neilsen from Paris Grooming said: 'We have noticed them drinking but it hasn't affected us.

'They have actually been helpful bringing in stray dogs to see if they have been micro-chipped.

'We actually have a positive relationship with them, they
feel quite comfortable coming in.'

Gill Hart from Gill's felt the same. She said: 'If they come past with their dogs they always, to me at least, have been quite polite and everything else.

'To be perfectly honest I have found other people more annoying and rude than them.

'Their dogs do run about but I think they have them quite under control, they do run loose but if they call them they come back to them.'

Unabated, PC Matt Holt (pictured) has indicated that the police will continue to harass people for no reason, and move them on for no reason, using the Violent Crime Reduction Act.

Appearing to be completely oblivious to the feelings of the public in the surrounding area, he said 'I am also going to be approaching our partners from other agencies to look at long term solutions, but would still like the public's assistance in reporting these matters.'

SPECIAL REPORT : How to avoid Big Brother snooping on your on-line browsing

2008-10-17T11:21:00.003Z

Today, there are a myriad of different bodies and agencies who are spying on you.

Recently, the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, announced plans by the government to monitor and record details of every phone call, email, text message, and internet records of every web site you visit.

Many people believe that such activity already takes place, and that this is merely bringing it out into the open.

This article will look at ways to remain free of illegal government spying when browsing online.

There are many software packages which claim to be able to 'anonymise' or 'hide all traces' of your online activity. Most of these are, at best, innefective, and at worst, operated by intelligence services to monitor you directly.

The software we will be looking at today uses a special means of anonymising your browsing, using a system called Onion Routing.

How this works is to set up a chain of computers in between yourself and the website you wish to visit. When you type, for example, 'policestatebritain.blogspot.com' into your browser, instead of connecting directly to the blogspot server, your request is first sent to one PC, then another, then another, then finally sent to blogspot.com. The web page you have requested then travels back to you along the same path.

The effect of this is that it is impossible for anyone monitoring your connection to see what websites you are looking at, or for anyone monitoring the website to see which people are looking at that website.

The preferred choice of software for most people to accomplish this is called 'tor', which is an acronym of 'the onion router'.

Tor is free software, both in terms of cost, and of availabilty of the source code. This is important because it allows anyone in the world to view the programming code which makes up the software, and to determine if there any sections of code which might compromise their anonymity.

(One other such piece of software, known as 'JAP', for which the source code was not available, was later discoevered to have been altered by German Intelligence Services to record visits to certain websites)

Using tor is fairly simple.

A piece of software is downloaded and installed to your PC, and you then set your browser to use this software.

Advice on installing and running tor can be obtained from the official site at https://www.torproject.org/download.html.en

New users may find it useful to use a GUI controller such as the Vidalia package, found at http://www.vidalia-project.net

134 serving police officers in Strathclyde have criminal records

2008-10-17T09:01:00.003Z

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed that Strathclyde Police now employ 134 serving Police Officers who themselves have criminal records.

Glasgow South & East Renfrewshire Division have the highest number of criminals in their force, 23, closely followed by Glasgow North East & East Dunbartonshire Division, who have 21 criminal police officers.

The aptly named 'Crime Division' also have several criminals working for them.

The total number of criminals who are working for each division is detailed in the following table.

Division/Department Total

‘A’ Glasgow Central & West Division 10
‘B’ Glasgow North East & East Dunbartonshire Division 21
‘G’ Glasgow South & East Renfrewshire Division 23
‘K’ Renfrewshire & Inverclyde Division 9
‘L’ Argyll, Bute & West Dunbartonshire Division 7
‘N’ North Lanarkshire Division 16
‘Q’ South Lanarkshire Division 10
‘U’ Ayrshire Division 14
Crime Division 3
Detached 3
Force Headquarters 2
Operational Support Division 16

TOTAL 134

South Yorkshire Police plan to turn Sheffield into Police State for football match

2008-10-17T08:38:00.003Z

Sheffield will become a Police State on Sunday, after South Yorkshire Police revealed their plans to draft in extra officers from other forces,joined by mounted officers, police motorcyclists, specials, PCSOs and dog handlers.

The force helicopter will also be used while and CCTV cameras across the city will be examined.

Police undercover 'spotters' will also be looking for people whom they have adjudicated to be troublemakers.

The cause of this avalanche of harassment? Terrorists? Pedophiles? Knife carriers? Some other almost non-existent problem? No.

The cause of this attack on civil liberties is a football match, to be played on Sunday.

South Yorkshire Police have also boasted that they will be using new legislation, the Violent Crime Reduction Act, to ban people who have not committed any crimes from an area, without any reason, for a period of 48 hours.

They have also asked the owners of Public Houses to close between 3PM and 5PM, denying thousands of people their right to a quite drink on a Sunday afternoon.

Force paid £385,438 to company run by police officers wife

2008-10-17T08:14:00.006Z

THE wife of a senior North Yorkshire Police officer received nearly £400,000 from the force in payments to her training companies, a damning audit report has revealed.

Peta Ackerley is married to the officer who was in charge of the force's training, Supt Paul Ackerley.

The figure is included in a damning audit report on the links between Supt Ackerley and his wife's companies, which often got work without going through proper procurement processes.

It can also be revealed that Supt Ackerley will escape disciplinary action from the force after his application to retire was accepted by Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell.

In June, the Crown Prosecution Service decided there would be no charges against the officer following a police inquiry.

Supt Ackerley then faced three disciplinary charges for misconduct but will not have to answer them after Mr Maxwell decided to accept his application to retire after 30 years' service.

Although officers have the right to retire after 30 years, North Yorkshire Police could have insisted Supt Ackerley remained in post to face the charges. They have not done so.

Jon Porter, director of North Yorkshire Police's human resources department and the civilian official with overall responsibility for training, resigned in the summer.

His role was also investigated during the police inquiry – carried out by North Yorkshire – but the CPS decided he would not face criminal charges.

Both men were suspended in April this year. Supt Ackerley, who is paid around £70,000 a year, will remain suspended on full pay until the end of the year when he will officially retire.

The audit report reveals a catalogue of shortcomings in the management of the lucrative contracts Supt Ackerley's wife was able to obtain from the force.

Although it refers to Mrs Ackerley's payments since 2001, the report focuses on arrangements since 2005, when Supt Ackerley set up a selection system for the employment of external training consultants.

The report adds: "Peta Ackerley has been called on regularly to undertake work, without proper procurement practices that would protect the Force from allegations of inappropriate influence being used."

Phil Willis, Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, said: "Hopefully this episode brings to an end a period when North Yorkshire Police had a cavalier attitude to accountability for public money.

Police charged over Hayley Adamson death

2008-09-30T11:18:00.003Z

A Police officer is to be charged with causing the death of teenager Hayley Adamson by dangerous driving.

Lawyers for the Crown Prosecution Service made the decision after considering a file of evidence prepared by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Over four months after 16-year-old Hayley was struck by the Northumbria Police patrol car driven by PC John Dougal, a criminal case will now be presented at court.

The student was killed as she crossed Denton Road, Newcastle, after a night out with friends on May 19.

Hayley’s family had called for justice for the youngster whose life was cut short as she was about to sit school exams.

Chris Enzor, Chief Crown Prosecutor, CPS Durham said: "Following a thorough investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, I confirm my decision to charge PC John James Dougal of Northumbria Police with causing death by dangerous driving.

"PC Dougal was driving the patrol car that struck Hayley Adamson.

"In relation to another officer who was driving a second patrol car behind PC Dougal’s vehicle, I have decided that there is not sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.

"My thoughts are with Hayley’s family at this difficult time."

Schoolgirl Hayley, of Cedar Road, Fenham, was hit by a police car just after 11pm. She died at the scene in front of her distressed friends.

There was a hostile reaction in the immediate aftermath of the incident in which police were pelted with bricks and a full investigation was subsequently launched by the IPCC.

Police ordered to return £14,420 taken from man who did nothing wrong.

2008-09-19T10:42:00.003Z

THE son of a Muslim cleric today won his bid to reclaim £14,420 confiscated from him by police at Heathrow airport.

A judge criticised a Wikipedia entry used by officers to justify their actions and said the money was a religious gift and was not intended for "terrorist purposes".

Abdul Fostock, 25, was stopped by police in October 2006 when he was about to travel to Beirut to visit his father.

London's Southwark Crown Court heard Fostock was carrying £14,420 in a series of envelopes marked: Daddy; Mum; Sheikh and Spending Money.

Fostock, of Streamside Close, Enfield, Middlesex, told officers he received the money from "friends and family" and intended to distribute it as an "Eid present".

But Detective Sergeant Russell Hughes of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command told an appeal hearing there were "reasonable grounds" to "suspect the money had been intended for the purposes of crime", and it was seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Ruling on the appeal Judge Higgins said: "This was for his father's day-to-day living requirements as he was largely destitute and depended on friends and relatives.

"It was an Eid gift, it was not for the purposes of terrorism.

"It was an act of humanity given at the end of the month of Ramadan when the minds of Muslims turn to such matters."

He also dismissed evidence provided by the Met about Mr Bakri's involvement in terrorist groups as "unreliable" as it was from "open sourced material", namely a Wikipedia entry.

Tanveer Queresh representing Fostock said this evidence was "wholly unreliable".

He added: "The crux of the case against him rests on open source material from Wikipedia.

"Mere users of this website can edit the website's content instantly and it often contains inaccurate and malicious information.

The Met was ordered to repay the money within 14 days and also ordered to cover Fostock's court costs of £4,000.

Police in £5 million overtime 'terror' case urged to buy "holiday in Spain, plasma screen television or a bed at The Savoy, good show, food and booze"

2008-09-19T10:30:00.005Z

Britain's biggest anti-terrorist investigation was seen by police as an opportunity to pay credit card bills, take luxury holidays and stay at The Savoy Hotel.

Volunteers were told that shifts, believed to be paid at £300 each, would give them time to "read a good book, take up botany or ornithology, study for your sergeant’s exam (or) work out the compound interest on a rest day’s pay".

Emails circulated to officers at Thames Valley Police offered "premium rates" of pay to those "with a raging credit card habit".

One message, titled "108 shopping days to Christmas", sought officers for Saturday shifts and said that the payments "could buy the joy and admiration of your children on Christmas morning... is that not priceless?"

Another presented the goodies that two or three nights work could buy, ranging from a holiday in Spain to a plasma screen television or a "bed at The Savoy, good show, food and booze".

The emails were sent by Sergeant David Bald to source extra manpower for Operation Overt, the inquiry into the alleged 'plot' to blow up transatlantic airliners.

While specialist teams searched King’s Wood and Fennels Wood near High Wycombe, uniformed police were required to stand guard.

Hundreds of officers took up the opportunity over a six-month period.

A report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary said that the diversion of Thames Valley’s resources to Operation Overt had "significantly depleted its operational capacity".

Home Office assessments ranked it the third-worst performing police force in Britain.

'The police have put me through hell'

2008-09-18T14:06:00.002Z

A Hatfield man, recently found not guilty of drug dealing by a jury, has told of the trauma he and his family endured following his arrest.

Robert Lampey, 35, who was brought up in the town and lives with his parents in Elmsford Road, says he was befriended early last year in The Cat and Fiddle pub in Roe Green Lane by a man he knows only as Andy.

But ‘Andy’ was an undercover police officer who eventually asked Mr Lampey - who insists he has never touched illegal drugs - for cocaine.

Mr Lampey said: "He told me he was living with his sister in Hatfield because he had to get away from London for a bit.

"He seemed to be a nice bloke and even asked me to take him and his kids to some fishing lakes I know."

In October last year police arrived at his home, mounted a fruitless search and charged him with conspiracy to supply class A drugs - the start of a year-long nightmare.

The self-employed carpet cleaner told the Review: "I have never been in trouble at all before - not even a speeding ticket. It has been absolute hell for my mum and dad.

"My mum had friends coming up to her in the supermarket saying: 'Hasn't your son been done for selling drugs?'

"I thought I was looking at three or four years in prison."

The evidence against him, presented in a trial at St Albans Crown Court earlier this month, included a video film purporting to show him selling cocaine to "Andy" on the steps of The Cat and Fiddle pub.

According to Mr Lampey, another person was seen with the police officer, but he was at least ten feet away and not involved in any way. The jury obviously agreed as he was found not guilty.

He said: "I was just chatting to some people and having a cigarette outside the pub."

He was also accused of giving a plastic bag with cocaine to "Andy" on another occasion inside the pub.

He said: "When it got to court, they had to admit there was no DNA or fingerprints on the bag, or anything to connect it to me and the video film didn't show anything at all.

"The trial was a real strain. I couldn't stand the thought of prison.

"But thankfully the jury realised I was innocent.

"I have never been involved with drugs or crime at all and the police have put me through hell."

To celebrate the end of his ordeal and claim some much-needed relaxation he is off for a week in Spain next week.

Hertfordshire Constabulary has refused to comment on the case .

'Bin police' caught using ladders to spy on householders

2008-09-18T13:52:00.002Z

A council has sent staff equipped with ladders on spying missions to check whether householders are using more than one wheelie bin for their non-recyclable rubbish.

The officials have been spotted scaling ladders all over Blackburn, Lancs, so they can peer over walls and fences into back yards.

If they see an "unauthorized" second bin, they retrieve it and take it back to a council depot.

At least one householder has called police to report her bin stolen, oblivious to the fact that it had simply been reclaimed.

The local council insists its policy of only allowing one rubbish bin per household for non-recyclable waste is necessary to cut down on landfill costs and boost recycling.

However, critics have condemned the "spying" missions, describing them as "ridiculous" and "over the top".

Abdul Patel, a Labour councillor, said "This is ridiculous. How can you spy on people using a ladder?

"It would frighten people. They should knock on the door and show their ID. I am really shocked and will take it up with the council".

Doretta Cocks, founder of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collections, said: "The term 'bin police' is very much justified here.

"Councils do need to deal with wheelie bin thefts, but this is definitely not the way to deal with the problem.

"If it happened to me I would call 999. It's just not on".

She added: "You have to wonder how much time and money is going into this. It's small wonder our council taxes are going up every year".

Hazel Wilson, 67, challenged two council staff when she spotted them in an alleyway.

"One was carrying a ladder and putting it up against back yard walls one by one. The other man was taking notes.

"I asked them what they were doing and they said some people had more than one black bin, and if they did they were removing it.

"They had a lorry parked nearby. I thought 'What if an old lady was doing the washing up and this man peered over the fence".

"It would give you an awful shock. If I was in my garden trying to catch some sun and some Peeping Tom popped his head over the hedge I would call the police".

Miss Wilson's encounter came on the same day that police were alerted to the "theft" of a wheelie bin in a nearby street.

Senior staff at Blackburn with Darwen Council have now apologized for the "spying" missions. However, they insist that their policy of allowing only one rubbish bin per household is necessary.

Alan Cottam, executive member for regeneration and environment, said: "The council does remove unauthorised bins where they are found and have recently been carrying out checks to see how many are in the borough.

"On this occasion, the officers were over-zealous and the council apologies for the upset caused".

Lancashire Police to pay £2,000 to a Preston man with a heart condition who was arrested and put in a cell

2008-09-18T13:47:00.001Z

A judge has ordered Lancashire Police to pay £2,000 to a Preston man with a heart condition who was arrested and put in a cell.

Dad-of-one Jordan Wood, 20, was arrested in 2005 after police attended a call to his then home in Eversleigh Street.

Mr Wood, who suffers tachycardia, which causes his heart to race, said he and his partner were merely having a row.

He was arrested and put in a cell before being taken to hospital, where he says his heartbeat was found to be 200 beats a minute.

A judge at Lancaster Crown Court dropped Wood's allegation of assault but found police acted unlawfully in arresting him. He was awarded £2,000 compensation.

Today Mr Wood, of Golbourne Street, Deepdale, said: "I was in the kitchen making a brew when the police turned up banging on the door.

They ordered me to open the door and I was asking why, because there was no reason to. They threatened to knock the door down.

"When I let them in I was knocked to the floor and arrested. I kept telling them I had a heart condition.

"I'm not happy. The incident happened in front of my son Reuben who was just a few months old."

Mr Wood had an operation for his condition two years ago but it did not work.

He lives separately from his partner but they are still together. Their second child is due in December.

A police spokesman said: "Questions were put to the jury in which they found imminent violence to the person or damage to property had not been proven, thereby rendering the arrest unlawful.

"However, the jury did accept that the allegation of assault had not been proven."

Police pay 600K in compensation for wrongful arrests

2008-09-18T12:58:00.003Z

POLICE forces in Wales paid out more than £600,000 in compensation for wrongful arrests and other civil claims over the past two years.

The largest payouts, totalling £556,700, were made by South Wales Police, according to details obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

South Wales Police saidtold Leanne Wood that its payouts related to claims stretching back to 1997.

A total of 59 payments were made from Welsh forces with 29 relating to South Wales, 12 to North Wales, 10 to Gwent and eight to Dyfed-Powys in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 financial years.

Over the same period no police officers were disciplined for wrongful arrest.

Leanne Wood, Plaid AM for South Wales Central, said: “South Wales Police force area covers the largest population of Wales, including the principal cities of Cardiff and Swansea. But it is a matter of concern that large sums of public money have been paid out by South Wales Police to resolve claims made by members of the public.

“It is also important to realise that the payouts made mean there is an acceptance that someone has been wrongly arrested or treated and that does have a major impact on people’s lives.”

Ms Wood said she would be writing to Chief Constable Barbara Wilding to ask for an explanation of the high level of payouts in the force area.

Police stop-and-search accountability removed

2008-09-18T08:59:00.003Z

Police officers will no longer have to issue receipts to persons whom they have randomly stopped.

Legislation was brought in which gave the police powers to randomly stop and ask people to account for themselves, without reason nor warrant, as is common in all police states. Police officers are currently required to issue a form to the thousands of innocent people whom they harass for no reason at all.

The forms were introduced in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry after the Macpherson report into Stephen Lawrence's murder stated that stop tactics were used disproportionately against black people.

It is planned to scrap the form nationwide by the beginning of next year.

Police jurors are a threat to fair trials, senior judges warn

2008-09-17T12:57:00.002Z

Police officers should not be allowed to sit on juries because of the danger they pose to the fairness of trials, senior members of the judiciary say.

The criticism by four senior Crown Court judges sitting in England and Wales follows a shake-up of the criminal justice system five years ago. Before the change, police officers, judges, defence lawyers and prosecutors were exempt from serving on juries.

But research by a retired US judge has uncovered hostility to the reform, in particular extending eligibility for jury service to police officers. One judge said: "I do think the notion of opening up juries to those actually involved in the legal system is a step too far. When I say the legal system, I include police officers." Another said: "I think it's too far to have judges and policemen sit on juries... In a criminal case police in particular are not who you would want on a dispassionate jury."

One judge said: "Juror expertise may cause the case to be tried on more than the evidence before the court". The judge, who presides over serious fraud trials, said: "We tell jurors that they are to try the case based on the evidence... before them but it is hard for any juror to put their knowledge and expertise aside."

Last year, the House of Lords ruled that the "possibility of bias, possibly unconscious, which flowed from the presence on the jury of persons professionally committed to one side of the adversarial trial process" could form the basis for quashing a conviction.

And this year the Court of Appeal said that one way around concerns about bias was to get jurors to declare their profession earlier in the pre-trial process.

Peter Lodder QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said it was difficult to know what influence police officers had on jurors because of the rule which banned inquiries into the behaviour of jurors during their deliberations.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "We believe that the pool of people eligible for jury service should be as wide as possible."

Police officers under pressure to hit stop and search targets - stop schoolchildren and invent names

2008-09-15T13:05:00.003Z

MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville has demanded an explanation from the Government and Transport Police after the Evening News revealed officers were under such pressure to hit stop and search targets that they stopped schoolchildren and invented names to boost their figures.

The SNP member for the Lothians has written to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, UK Transport Minister Tom Harris and the British Transport Police.

She has asked for a response to Constable Edmund Burke's claims of tricks used to hit targets in the wake of the Glasgow Airport terrorist attack.

He said there was so much pressure on officers to "get numbers up" on searches that he and his colleagues stopped schoolchildren and even invented names.

Ms Somerville said: "The use of stop and search powers is an extremely sensitive area and it appears the British Transport Police forgot that."

Ms Somerville said she wanted assurances the pressure described by Constable Burke was no longer being applied to officers, and that children were not being stopped without good reason.

Police cameras to track 50million cars a DAY - and keep details for up to five years

2008-09-15T12:52:00.002Z

Police intend to map millions of car journeys and keep them on a national database for five years.

Roadside cameras across the country will capture the exact movements of 50million licence plates every day.

Officers have been encouraged to 'fully and strategically exploit' the database to reconstruct the whereabouts of drivers despite growing concerns from civil rights groups.

But questions will be raised about the length of time details are being kept on file and the apparent lack of guidance about who might be allowed access to the information.

The operation uses automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to 'read' the time and location of all vehicles on the road.

Thousands of CCTV cameras across the country have been converted to read ANPR data, capturing people's movements in cars on motorways, main roads, airports and town centres.

Last night a spokesman for The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said they understood that under current guidelines the data could only be kept for two years.

But responding to inquiries under the Freedom of Information Act, the Home Office has reportedly admitted the data is now being kept for five years.

Local authorities have since adapted their own CCTV systems to capture licence plates on behalf of police, massively expanding the network of available cameras.

Mobile cameras have been installed in patrol cars and unmarked vehicles parked by the side of roads.

Police helicopters have been equipped with infrared cameras that can read licence plates from 610 metres (2,000ft).

In four months' time, when a nationwide network of cameras is fully operational, the National ANPR Data Centre in Hendon, north London, will record up to 50million licence plates a day.

Human rights group Privacy International last night described the five-year record of people's car journeys 'unnecessary and disproportionate', and said it had lodged an official complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the government's data watchdog.

In a statement, the ICO said it would take the complaint 'seriously' and would be contacting police 'to discuss proposed data retention periods'.

Senior police officers have said they intend the database to be integrated into 'mainstream policing'.

The director of Privacy International, Simon Davies, said last night the database would give police 'extraordinary powers of surveillance'.

'This would never be allowed in any other democratic country,' he said. 'This is possibly one of the most valuable reserves of data imaginable.'

Meanwhile, it also emerged that motorists could be charged for all journeys under tests that are being carried out by potential Government contractors.

Companies bidding to run the pay-as-you-go driving schemes have been asked to come up with a system to impose a minimum charge on motorists.

The charges would be imposed at all times and not just on the busiest roads or during rush hours.

In the tender document, it encourages companies to test technology for a pay-as-you-go scheme that could be applied nationwide.

It means that minimum travel charges, short distance fees and higher costs for driving on busier roads could be imposed on some areas.

A Department for Transport spokesman said the trials were being carried out for local schemes and denied national charging would be introduced.

He said: 'We have been absolutely clear that these trials - which we announced last year and updated Parliament on in July - are about designing effective local schemes.

'They do not mean that national road pricing is going ahead.'

Police State Britain is back!

2008-09-15T12:22:00.003Z

We're back!

After a short period of non-posting, Police State Britain is back in full force!

Much has happened in the time in which we've been away, and not much of that has been beneficial to the right of the individual to live their life free from unjustifiable state intrusion.

We hope to be able to keep the site updated a little bit more frequently than previously may have been the case, and, to be honest, there has been no let up on the constant assault on freedoms which we face.

Anyhow, thanks for reading, and remember, all contributions and tips are welcome at our new email address.

Police use 'anti- terror' laws to stop-and-search 44,543 people. How many convictions? None.

2007-11-02T22:34:00.000Z

Only one in every 400 stop and searches carried out under sweeping anti-terrorism laws leads to an arrest, and of those, none has ever led to the conviction of a single person for so-called 'terrorist' offences, triggering fresh pressure on the government and police over the controversial tactic.

One force, City of London, carried out 6,846 stops of pedestrians and vehicles without finding enough evidence to justify even a single arrest.

Official government figures covering 2005/6, the first since the July 7 2005 bombings on London, show a big increase in the use of the power, with Asian people bearing the brunt.

Stops under the Terrorism Act 2000 rely more on an officer's discretion than other powers to search, which require reasonable suspicion. The number of stops under terrorism laws in 2005/6 showed a 34% rise on the previous year to 44,543. Asians faced an increase of 84%, black people an increase of 51%, searches of "other" ethnic groups rose 36% and white people faced a 24% increase.

The biggest increases were in London, with the Metropolitan police carrying out more than half of all terrorism stop and searches and the City of London force 15%.

Experts believe anti-terrorism stop and searches have not led to a single person being caught who was later convicted of a terrorist offence.

In the 44,543 stops in England and Wales, there were 105 arrests. Out of every 400 people stopped 399 were let go straight away.

Ben Bowling, professor of criminal justice at King's College London, said: "These powers are being used indiscriminately with a minimal result. The consequence of that is a loss in public confidence and a drop of support among those stopped without reason for the police."

The figures showed that the racial divide in stop and search aimed at stopping non-terrorist crime also became starker. Black people were seven times more likely to be stopped and searched by police.

The number of stop and searches carried out under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, which legally require reasonable suspicion, hit their highest level in seven years. In 2005/6 police carried out 878,153, a 3.4% increase on the previous year, with drugs being the main reason given by officers for searches.

Pedo Police Officer escapes jail

2007-11-02T22:06:00.000Z

Mark Bretherick's former partner had discovered he used internet child porn sites, Swansea Crown Court was told.

The 33-year-old, from near Welshpool, received a three-year supervision order after the judge was shown the image.

He was also put on the sex offenders register for five years and will have to complete a sex offenders programme.

Judge Christopher Morton decided Bretherick was not a danger to the public.

Bretherick had admitted a charge of possessing an indecent image of a child in September on the eve of a jury trial.

An indecent thumbnail photograph was found on a Rock laptop, but it showed that the full-size photograph had been on the laptop at some time

At the same hearing it was directed that 17 other charges should all remain on file.

Jim Davis, prosecuting, told the court on Friday the images were found on two laptops in Bretherick's possession.

One of the two laptops held just one image which it could be clearly proved had been downloaded after the law change.

Mr Davis told how the police were alerted to Bretherick's activities by his estranged fiancée.

She had been packing up her things in the house they had shared in December 2005 after they had decided to separate when she had discovered documents in Bretherick's handwriting listing illicit websites, he said.

"As a result of finding that document the police were informed and his laptops seized," Mr Davis said.

"An indecent thumbnail photograph was found on a Rock laptop, but it showed that the full-size photograph had been on the laptop at some time.

"The full image itself had been deleted."

Bretherick - who had been based at Newtown - had voluntarily resigned from his job and felt only "deep deep shame", the court heard.

Police manufacture evidence against Menezes

2007-11-02T21:58:00.000Z

Police have been accused of manipulating a photo of Jean Charles de Menezes so it could be compared to that of one of the 21/7 bomb plotters.

The image had been "stretched and sized" to form a composite image of the Brazilian and Hussain Osman to show the jury, prosecutors told the Old Bailey.

Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head on a train at Stockwell Tube station on 22 July 2005.

The Met Police said the composite picture was created to illustrate the difficulties officers would have had in differentiating between the two men.

But Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting, told the court it had been altered "by either stretching or resizing so the face ceases to have its correct proportions".

Forensics consultant Michael George told the court that the police composite appeared to have a "greater definition" than the two images used to produce it. "Making the image brighter has changed the image".

He produced an alternative composite, which was shown to the jury, in which the two faces had different skin tones and their mouths and noses were not aligned.

The judge, Mr Justice Henriques, told the jury that a "serious allegation has been made that a picture has been manipulated so as to mislead".

Grampian Police chief constable says Police are too busy 'monitoring' and dealing with 'terrorism' to investigate crimes

2007-09-23T15:27:00.000Z

The North-east's top cop has warned the days of expecting an officer to answer every crime call are over.

Grampian Police's chief constable said that kind of thinking belonged in the 1960s.

Colin McKerracher, new president of the police chiefs' organisation Acpos, said reports about less serious crimes will be dealt with by call centres rather than face-to-face by officers.

He said: "We have to find new ways of meeting the public expectations and that is, in some people's minds, set back in the 1960s, when you phoned the police, you would likely get someone on your doorstep within 20 minutes, no matter what your complaint."

"But now, with the extra demands of sex offender monitoring and counter-terrorism, we do not have the capability to get officers onto people's doorsteps in the same time we used to."

The chairman of Holyrood justice committee Bill Aitken said there the remarks were "very concerning" and he wants Mr McKerracher to face questions by MSPs.

Bob Gibb, a member of Torry Community Council, said: "I find this disappointing. You can't lose the police on the street, it makes such a big difference.

"You have to tackle the minor crimes, because otherwise it develops into bigger crimes."

"Call centres are no help at all for this."

Birmingham Police hassle man for filming them hassling a young cyclist

2007-09-22T15:44:00.000Z

Two Officers in Birmingham are seen in this video hassling a Birmingham man, Darren Pollard, who is filming them while they hassle a young cyclist.

Darren Pollard is in his own garden, is not breaking any laws, and yet the officers in this clip, feel it necessary to harass him, inventing the law as they go.

When the officers find out that they are incorrect, instead of offering any sort of apology, the simply walk away, while refusing to give their names.

Well done Darren Pollard, you are a true defender of freedom from the Police State!

This is what you pay taxes for

2007-09-22T15:30:00.000Z

A YouTuber has made an appeal to help trace the identity of the officer shown in this clip, who is apparently riding around on a confiscated motorbike, without insurance, and while you and I, the British taxpayer, pay for him to do so.

This incident is believed to have taken place in the East Yorkshire area.

Policeman escapes jail despite punching a man so hard he fractured his eye socket

2007-09-21T15:50:00.000Z

A policeman has escaped jail despite punching a man so hard he fractured his eye socket in Oceana nightclub.

Christopher Thatcher, 28 from Chessington, a serving police constable at Hammersmith Police station, was sentenced to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work in the community at Kingston Crown Court on Thursday.

Thatcher was also ordered to pay £500 compensation to his victim.

Sentencing Thatcher and Walker, Judge Tilling told them "It is deeply regrettable that you became involved in an incident like this where the jury decided that you instigated the violence."

Thatcher and his flatmate David Walker had been on a night out with friends in Kingston at the time of the assault on November 18 last year.

Victims Adam Russell, 21 and Darren Stone, 21, were also out with five or six friends and arrived at Oceana nightclub about 9.30pm.

Between 10pm and midnight, Mr Russell went to the bar to buy a drink and was knocked by Thatcher, spilling his drink.

Mr Russell told Thatcher to "watch it", after which Thatcher walked away to the foyer of the nightclub, followed by Mr Russell.

After an exchange in the foyer, Thatcher swung a punch at Mr Russell, fracturing his eye socket.

Mr Russell's friend Darren Stone went over to break up the fight between the two men but the next thing he remembered was lying on the floor with a deep cut to his head after being punched by Walker.

Hammersmith police are now, incredibly, deciding whether or not he will lose his job.

A police chase killed my son

2007-09-21T15:13:00.001Z

Dianne Homer's son Neil was killed on 17 December 1995, just two days after his 20th birthday, by a police car being driven at 100mph.

The incident happened in Oldbury in the West Midlands at about midnight, after Neil had dropped his girlfriend off at her house.

"He was travelling back home and was stationary at some traffic lights," said Mrs Homer.

"The lights turned green and he moved forward, but a police car doing 100mph hit him."

Neil was given assistance at the scene of the crash by a doctor who was nearby, but he died three hours later.

"We went out looking for Neil and came across the accident," Mrs Homer said.

Mrs Homer said the police car had been chasing a car they had suspected of being stolen, which they had believed had pulled away from a burglary.

The officer in the passenger seat of the police car, Pc Robert Dallow, 41, was killed outright, and the driver, Pc Lezlie Collins, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for causing death by dangerous driving, of which he served six weeks.

Pc Collins was also briefly reinstated in his job by a West Midlands police disciplinary hearing, which sparked furious protests from the Homer family, before later retiring from the force.

PCSO Simon Purcell is a gun toting pervert

2007-09-21T15:07:00.000Z

A PCSO has quit after his web profile on Facebook exposed him as a gun-toting pervert.

Fellow officers were stunned when they logged on to the social networking site to see 29-year-old Simon Purcell proudly brandishing an MI6 semi-automatic rifle.

The police community support officer went on to list his hobbies as “making sex toys for all the ladies” and “spying on doggers”. Other interests included “women, masturbation, any order I don’t mind.” Among his favourite films he put simply: “Porn”.

Describing his job, Purcell wrote on Facebook his daily mission was to “take down bad guys when there’s no paperwork or pie charts to do”.

The dad-of-one quit in disgrace as shocked police launched a probe into how he got hold of the black assault rifle. They found it had been deactivated and he was not breaking the law.

Yesterday Sussex Police confirmed: “Simon Purcell was allowed to resign as a police community support officer.”

A senior police source insisted that even before Purcell was allowed to resign he had been investigated for “very similar matters”.

Two Durham Police Officers arrested on suspicion of theft

2007-09-21T14:48:00.000Z

Two police officers have been arrested on suspicion of theft and accused of misusing police property.

The officers, who work in Durham Police surveillance unit, were picked up as they turned in for a shift at force headquarters at Aykley Heads last week.

Both have been suspended from duty pending further inquiries.

Details of the allegations are not being made public, but it is understood they relate to the use of police vehicles.

Both officers, who are not classed as detectives but routinely work in plain clothes, are alleged to have each taken an unmarked police car for their own use without permission.

The officers have been questioned on suspicion of theft relating to the petrol used during the alleged jaunts.

Police officer racially abuses man, Assistant Commissioner finds no wrong doing

2007-09-21T14:29:00.000Z

Anthony Housden, a black man, was arrested in July 2005 following an incident on a train and taken to Plumstead police station.

He was placed in an enclosed area, a holding cage surrounded by a mesh metal frame, where he was kept for about half an hour.

33-year-old PC Wayne Bell, an officer for seven years, told Mr Housden he was behaving like a badly behaved chimp, and imitated a monkey, in a racially abusive manner.

When PC Wayne Bell appeared before a misconduct panel over the chimp incident at Plumstead police station in July 2005 he was found guilty.

Another officer, PC Wakeling, was found guilty of misconduct by failing to report his fellow officer.

The case was then reviewed by Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman who found only one of three charges proved in PC Bell's case and substituted a financial penalty.

He found none of the charges proved against PC Wakeling.

Today the case took another twist and the officers' careers were placed in fresh jeopardy when High Court judge Mr Justice Wyn Williams ruled Mr Hayman's decision "fatally flawed" and quashed it at the request of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

The judge said: "In reaching contrary conclusions the (Assistant Commissioner) clearly fell into error."

The errors he made were so fundamental as to make Mr Hayman's decision fatally flawed.

He had also exceeded his powers in the case of PC Wakeling, said the judge.

PC Bell was charged with committing a racially motivated offence contrary to the 1986 Public Order Act, but the prosecution was dismissed at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in March last year.

Homeless artist threatened with ASBO, police "have no record"

2007-09-21T14:20:00.000Z

A homeless street artist whose pastel drawings have captured the imagination of people living around Finchley Road says he has been threatened with an Asbo.

Rowland Matthews, 33, who has been living on the streets for three years, also says that his pastels have been confiscated by police.

He has been painting scenes from the Biblical story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt on the pavement for the past month.

But Mr Matthews says he was recently approached by police officers as he slept beside his paintings.

He said: “They told me I had to leave and not come back if I wanted to avoid getting an Asbo.”

And Mr Matthews said he was woken up last month by police as he slept near his sketches.

He said: “There’s horrible graffiti all over the walls and I’m lying next to my lovely art – but it’s my art they wash away.”

Mr Matthews is a former member of the Royal Horse Artillery.

A Camden police spokesman said: “We are unable to comment, as we cannot find any record of these events on our system.”

People of Radcliffe, Lancashire, to be officially hassled by police

2007-09-21T13:59:00.000Z

A high profile campaign of harassment of the people of Radcliffe has been launched.

Previously, people who were out and about, minding their own business, and not committing any criminal offences at all, were hassled by a team of staff from the council's "security services".

Under this latest initiative, those "security services" will now be joined by PCSOs, as well as real Police Officers, to hassle the law abiding people of Radcliffe.

The campaign, known as Operation Press, is mainly targeted at Bolton Road Park and the surrounding areas, though officers are also visiting Hutchinson Way.

Police are using the campaign to gather information about those citizens who they judge to be acting anti-socially (although not in breach of any actual law) and hand-held video recorders are being used to intimidate people, and record the identities of people who are not committing any criminal offences.

Free parking in Fettes (Only for police office workers though)

2007-09-21T13:45:00.000Z

Police Chiefs in Fettes, Edinburgh, have managed to persuade Council chiefs in the City to exempt two streets outside the Fettes Police HQ from being liable to pay parking charges, which are currently suffered by every other sector of worker in the area.

Business leaders said it was unfair to create special circumstances for the police.

Graham Russell, chairman of the Edinburgh branch of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "This is crazy. There is clearly a case of double standards here.

"Why should the police get preferential treatment when most residents have to fork out for parking, and businesses have to pay up to £1000 for permits just to park?"

Isabel Mackenzie, owner of the Connect card shop on Comely Bank Road, said: "The police have got their own way but it is no good for people who live around here or those visiting the shops."

It is thought the council will lose £250,000 a year by not charging for parking in the two streets.

600 people die each year in state custody

2007-09-21T12:49:00.000Z

Each year in England and Wales, 600 people die in state custody.

Data from the Forum for Preventing Deaths in Custody, includes deaths from suicides, murders and natural causes in prisons, police stations, immigration detention centres, young offenders' institutes and secure mental hospitals.

Overcrowding in prisons in England and Wales has coincided with an increase in the number of self-inflicted deaths this year. So far in 2007 there have been 68 cases compared with 46 at this point last year.

The mother of the youngest child to die in custody in the UK accused the government of doing too little to protect vulnerable inmates.

Carol Pounder's son, Adam Rickwood, was 14 when he hanged himself with his shoelaces while on remand at the Hassockfield secure training centre in County Durham in 2004.

The teenager had been restrained with a controversial "nose distraction technique" which involved him being punched in the face.

2 PCSOs stand by as 10 year old drowns

2007-09-21T12:27:00.000Z

Police Chiefs in Manchester have defended two Police Community Support Officers who watched on as a 10 year old boy drowned in a pond.

Jordon Lyon, who was 10 at the time of the incident, leapt into the water in Wigan, Greater Manchester, after his eight-year-old stepsister Bethany got into difficulties on 3 May.

Anglers managed to pull Bethany out but Jordon slipped from view before they could get to him.

The alarm was raised and the PCSOs arrived on the scene. Police said they could see no sign of Jordon in the water, so instead of jumping in an attempting to save the drowning boy, they radioed 'trained' officers for help.

The PCSOs did not try to rescue Jordon and they did not give evidence at the inquest held by deputy West Manchester coroner Alan Walsh.

In a statement after the hearing, Det Ch Insp Phil Owen, of Wigan CID, who led the investigation into Jordon's death, said: "PCSOs are not trained to deal with major incidents such as this."

Police can use Taser torture weapons on children

2007-09-19T22:59:00.000Z

Concerns have been raised for public safety as Taser torture guns are made available to more police officers in England and Wales. Officers in 10 forces, who are not firearms specialists, will be issued with the 50,000-volt Tasers. Amnesty International fears police using the weapons may not be properly trained.

Former Scotland Yard commander John O' Connor said he believed extending the number of officers using Tasers was dangerous because officers were not being properly trained. He said by giving out Taser guns "indiscriminately to untrained officers" there was a risk they would be used far too indiscriminately.

"What they should be doing is every single recruit that comes in should be firearms trained,"

There had been numerous deaths in the US because they have been misused.

In the UK, for export purposes Tasers are still legally considered to be torture technologies.

Police will be allowed to shoot children with Taser stun guns despite concerns they could trigger heart attacks.

Amnesty International say Tasers have been responsible for 220 deaths in America since 2001.

Serving Dyfed-Powys Police officer Mark James Bretherick has admitted a charge of possessing an indecent image of a child

2007-09-19T22:12:00.000Z

A serving Dyfed-Powys Police officer has admitted a charge of possessing an indecent image of a child.

Mark James Bretherick, 33, from Forden, near Welshpool, admitted before Swansea Crown Court downloading the image from the internet.

The police sergeant, who is currently suspended, will be sentenced next month after a probation report is prepared.

Judge Christopher Morton granted bail but warned him that did not mean a prison sentence would not be passed.

His barrister Michael Mather-Lees said Bretherick fully understood the powers of the court.

He was accused of downloading the category three indecent image between 20 October, 2005 and 8 March, 2006.

Bretherick had been due to stand trial on Monday but, following a day of legal wrangling, he admitted one charge of possessing an indecent image of a child on his personal laptop.

The court ordered that 17 other charges of possessing child pornography should remain on file and no further action taken.

Stealing a handbag is 'not a crime'

2007-09-19T22:01:00.000Z

A mother who had her bag snatched was told by police it was not a crime - because she chased after the thief and won her property back.

Sam McAlister was queueing in a coffee shop with her ten-month-old son when a woman grabbed the bag from the back of the pushchair as an accomplice distracted her.

Miss McAlister, 34, left her child with staff at the Starbucks cafe, whom she knew well, and set off in pursuit of the woman.

She confronted the thief in a nearby shop and was eventually reunited with her bag after a struggle.

But when she went to a police station to report the crime, she was told by an officer behind the desk that it was not a crime because she had got the bag back.

It was only when the former criminal barrister used her knowledge of the law that the case was passed on to a senior officer who decided to investigate.

Sergeant Mark Bretherick to stand trial on 17 offences of possessing child pornography

2007-04-24T15:39:00.000Z

Word has reached Police State Britain of yet another story of corrupt, despicable, and criminal behavior by a serving Police Officer.

This story has received little publicity outside of its local area, and I must thank the person who emailed me to bring this case to my attention.

Acting sergeant Mark Bretherick, of Waterloo Fields, Forden, near Welshpool, was recently committed to stand trial, accused of 17, yes seventeen, counts of possessing child pornography on his personal computer.

The offences are alleged to have been committed over a five-year period between February 2001 and March 2006.

Bretherick has been granted conditional bail and remains suspended from police duty.

Two Police Officers sacked for theft, one demoted for pinning blame on innocents

2007-03-21T02:13:00.000Z

Two police officers have been sacked after an inquiry which has taken three years and cost taxpayers £1million. A third officer - a sergeant with 20 years of service - was demoted to constable after he was proved to have accepted that a crime was committed by someone he knew could not have done it to improve his department’s detection rate.

The officers - from Macclesfield CID - were accused of stealing cash they had confiscated from criminals.

The Crown Prosecution Service received evidence in November 2004, but six months later it finally decided that no criminal charges should be brought.

Internal disciplinary proceedings then began with the hearing starting on November 13.

At the hearing, 12 of the 39 misconduct charges were either found proved or admitted by the officers. A 31-year-old constable with eight years’ service was sacked after three misconduct charges were proved, including that he failed to act with honesty and integrity by stealing money which he had seized from a suspect. A 38-year-old detective constable, with 18 years in the force, had four charges of misconduct proved against him, including one that he failed to act with honesty and integrity by stealing seized money. He too was sacked.

Cheshire Police bosses have refused to name the officers concerned.

Reforms of the way police are disciplined are due to come into effect next year but, under current rules, the force does not even have to reveal the names of the officers.

Corrupt Police Officer DC Hywel Jones Jailed For Selling Information From Police National Database To Criminals

2007-03-21T01:56:00.000Z

DC Hywel Jones, 45 , sold information from the national police database to Barry Wise, the uncle of former England footballer Dennis Wise, and was sentenced to sentenced to four and a half years.

The details included the whereabouts of a drug dealer with several contracts out on his life, updates of a police investigation into a Heathrow Airport robbery, registration numbers of undercover police cars and personal details held on numerous criminal suspects

Jones, a married father of two and serving Met officer of 24 years, met Wise on at least a dozen occasions at pubs, street corners and a swimming pool across West London. Wise acted as a middle man passing the data on to known criminals.

Probation Chief Vincent Barron Sentenced To Prison For Distributing Child Pornography, While Setting Up Database Of Sex Offenders

2007-03-21T01:36:00.000Z

A Probation Service expert who distributed child pornography while setting up a £10m Home Office database of sex offenders was sentenced to 14 months in prison yesterday.

Vincent Barron, 49, sent ten pornographic images of children, aged between five and 12, to a Scotsman he met in an internet chatroom.

Barron, of Kirk Rise, Frosterley, County Durham, pleaded guilty to the offences and was sentenced at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.

Twice-married Barron pleaded guilty in December to distributing indecent pictures of children between May and August 2005.

He was then earning £45,000 a year as an assistant chief probation officer seconded to the Home Office to establish the Violent and Sex Offender Register.

During a police interview, Barron admitted he used internet chatrooms to exchange child pornography.

When asked if he had any knowledge of the matter under investigation, he replied: “I have, through chatrooms, exchanged photographs of a sexual and pornographic nature and some of these images will have included children under the age of 13.”

The court heard that a psychiatric report placed Barron at a high risk of re-offending, because internet offending could be a powerful addiction.

Passport applicants to be interrogated about private and family life

2007-03-21T01:13:00.000Z

More than 600,000 people a year are going to be forced to attend compulsory interrogations at their nearest Identity and Passport Service interrogation centre.

Once an application has been made on paper, an applicant is 'invited' to telephone a call centre, in order to arrange a face to face interrogation.

James Hall, chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service, said that questions would be drawn from a stock of 200 based on the "social footprint" of each applicant, including their family history, current household, including all occupants, past addresses, financial background, including mortgage data and credit references, and even the background of the person countersigning the form.

The questions will be based on information from electoral registers, birth and marriage certificates, bank mortgage rolls and credit reference agencies.

Teenagers are likely to be asked about their parents and their background, and who else lives at home with them.

There would be no pass or fail mark but officials would make a judgment on the basis of the whole interview whether an applicant was telling the truth.

If there are suspicions, in some circumstances, police might be called.

From 2009, fingerprints will also be taken from every applicant.

Police State Britain.

Compulsory 128 mile trip to your nearest Interview Centre

2007-02-22T02:34:00.000Z

More details of the proposed operation of the governments much ridiculed National ID Database Scheme have emerged this week.

People will be forced to travel hundreds of miles, at their own expense, and in their own time, to attend one of the Government ID Interview Centres. That's after you have paid for the privilege of obtaining the compulsory ID card.

Once there, they will then be forced to submit, willingly or not, to a series of biometric tests, the results of which will be stored permanently, and made available to thousands of Government Departments and private corporations and individuals.

Stranraer residents face a 128 mile trip to Kilmarnock to their nearest ID Interview Centre, and people living in Cambridge will be forced to make a 62 mile round trip to Bury St Edmunds.

Shadow home secretary David Davis has also criticised the government's plan to make people travel to interview centres to provide a biometric for the national identity card.

Davis branded the proposals an "outrage", and repeated the Conservative pledge to abolish ID cards if they get into power.

"It is bad enough that we will be forced to pay for an ID card, but to have to pay to go to a government centre to be interviewed and fingerprinted is an outrage," he said.

"The costs will hit low income families and pensioners hardest. Conservatives will abolish this costly plastic poll tax."

A Home Office spokesperson said "This has always been the case and we have been open about it."

The spokesperson said the decision to take fingerprint biometrics (for all 10 fingerprints) and store them in the National Identity Register was outlined in the action plan published last year.

From 2010, all passport applicants, even if they are simply renewing their old one, will also have to apply for an identity card. Fingerprints and iris scans are also required for second generation passports, due out in 2009

Former police officer Christopher John Snow is a paedophile

2007-02-18T19:52:00.000Z

Former Police Constable Christopher John Snow, of Nettleton Chase, Gawthorpe, was recently found to have 859 images of child porn on his Personal Computer, one featuring a girl as young as seven with her hands and feet bound while another young girl held a carving knife over her naked body.

There were 667 images at level one – the least serious level of images on the court’s scale – 94 at level two, three at level three, 28 at level four and 61 at level five – the worst category. Additionally, he also had seven movie clips.

The average age of the girls in the photographs was estimated at 12 but some were as young as three and the oldest was 14. The dates of the offences ranged from October 2004 to December 2004.

“At the time he was a serving police officer with West Yorkshire Police Force. He resigned on July 4 this year (2006) after these charges were brought,” said the prosecutor.

What sort of sentence would you have expected this former police officer to have received?

Actually, Christopher John Snow walked away from court with a suspended sentence, a slap on the wrist essentially, for what would appear to be some very serious criminal activity.

Victory for Ryan Stupples against the Food Police

2007-02-18T19:36:00.000Z

This is Ryan Stupples, a young man who has recently won a victory over Food Fascists.

Recently, young Ryan was subjected to humiliating behaviour, at the hands of his school head teacher, Mr Malcolm Goddard, of Lunsford Primary School in Larkfield, Kent for the heinous crime of : Possession of a piece of chocolate cake and a packet of cheese biscuits. They were 'discovered' during what appears to have been a routine, and quite illegal, search of students lunch bags.

Ryan was ordered from the school dining hall, and subsequently banned from using the dining facilities.

Ryans father, Michael, complained to Kent County Council about the actions of the school, who took up the complaint with the schools governors.

Ryan has now been allowed back into the dining hall at his school

Mr Stupples said: "The headteacher is not allowed to remove any food from my son's lunchbox.

And the teachers are not allowed to look inside and see what he has brought to eat.

I'm glad that I have stood by my feelings on this.

Ryan has a perfectly acceptable lunch as far as I am concerned and nobody has the right to touch it or take things away — or make him eat all by himself away from his friends."

Well done, the Stupples.

Arrested for not speaking Urdu in a British School

2007-02-18T19:10:00.000Z

This is Antony Edkins. He is the Headmaster at Harrop Fold High School in Worsley, Greater Manchester.

Recently, Mr Edkins had a school girl, one of his pupils, arrested.

Codie Stott, the Schoolgirl in question, was attending a GCSE Science class.

As part of the class activities, Ms Stott was placed into a smaller discussion group with a number of other pupils.

After a short time, Ms Stott had asked, very reasonably, that her teacher consider the possibility of altering the group arrangements.

Why?

Well, 4 out of the 5 other pupils she was supposed to be in the 'discussion' group with were unable to speak English. After a brief period, all 5 of the other pupils were holding the 'discussion' in what is believed to have been Urdu.

When Ms Stott pointed out to her teacher that she was unable to comprehend a single word of the 'discussion', the teacher "started shouting and screaming, saying 'It's racist, you're going to get done by the police.'"

Ms Stott was then held in isolation, in the school, for the remainder of the day.

Antony Edkins, pictured above, then decided that he would notify the police, and notified the community police officer who is based at the school.

Over a week later, Ms Stott was arrested.

She was taken to Swinton Police Station, where she was arrested, and the police took fingerprints, photographs and a DNA sample from the 14 year old school girl.

Codies mother, Nicola, says "Codie was taken to the police station and kept in custody for over six hours while they questioned her."

Ms Stott was released without charge.

Last night Robert Whelan, deputy director of the Civitas think-tank, said: "It's obviously common sense that pupils who don't speak English cause problems for other pupils and for teachers. A lot of these arrests don't result in prosecutions - they aim is to frighten us into self-censorship until we watch everything we say."

The school had the worst GCSE results in the entire Salford LEA last year with just 15 per cent of pupils achieving five good passes including English and maths, a third of the national average.

Gary McKinnon taken to hospital

2007-02-16T02:00:00.000Z

Gary McKinnon, a UK national, was taken ill at his Appeal Hearing against his extradition to the US, on Wednesday, the 14th of February, 2007.

It is reported that Mr McKinnon has suffered from 'heart palpitations', as a result of the stress under which he has been placed.

Mr McKinnon is accused of hacking into 97 US computers, allegedly causing $700,000 of damage in the process, an alleged figure of some $7,216 per machine.

The defence for Mr McKinnon, QC Edmund Lawson, has argued that the extradition should be blocked, on the basis that the US authorities had offered him a shorter sentence in return for agreeing to extradition. This would constitute an "improper approach" to Mr McKinnon. Max Summers, who is representing the US authorities, told the court that the US was unable to deny this, and would need an adjournment to consider it.

No factual evidence of the extent of any alleged damage which has been done to computer systems has ever been published.

Britons wondering how a man who has never set foot in the US can be extradited to stand trial there should look into the outrageous Extradition Act of 2003, which gives power to the US to demand the extradition of Britons without any evidence being presented against them.

Mr McKinnon has been remanded on bail until 10th May.

East Lancashire Police use patrol vehicles as taxi on night out

2007-02-16T00:29:00.000Z

Two Police Officers from Eastern Division Police Force in Lancashire have been disciplined after an official patrol car was used as a taxi by police officers on a night out.

The incident happened after a leaving party for two road traffic sergeants, Sgt Stuart Isherwood and Sgt Keith Jackson, held at the BAE Systems Canberra Club, Samlesbury.

It was reported that at around 10:45pm, on Friday, the 2nd of February 2007, a group of police officers who were attending the event tried in vain to get a taxi to take them to a house in Blackburn.

After finding no taxis were available, a fellow Police Officer was called and an unmarked police vehicle, driven by a uniformed policeman picked them up at around 11:30pm, and took the Police Officers to a house in Blackburn.

Only two officers have been disciplined, the Police Officer who made the call, and the Police Officer who authorised the call out, the others involved have not been disciplined.

One retired senior East Lancashire police officer said: "This sort of thing used to go on 20-25 years ago and senior officers would have turned a blind eye. But times have changed and the police are far more accountable."

Steve Edwards, chair of the Lancashire branch of the Police Federation said: “If any disciplinary issues involve our members we will support them.”, surprisingly enough.

The party had earlier provoked a row, after it was revealed all the traffic police in Blackburn, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley were off duty on the Friday night to attend.

Police Officer Daniel Turner found guilty of assault

2007-02-16T00:06:00.000Z

This is PC Daniel Turner, currently of Hampshire Constabulary.

He was recently found guilty by District Judge Alec Ormerod of assault by using excessive force.

PC Daniel Turner had kicked Mr Sam Paskins in the leg when arresting Mr Paskins on February 12th, 2006.

PC Daniel Turner, despite being guilty of assault on a member of the public while on duty, was handed a 12 month conditional discharge.

PC Daniel Turner, despite being guilty of assaulting a member of the public while on duty, is currently merely suspended from duty while Hampshire Constabulary is considering whether or not to take “internal disciplinary action”.

PC Daniel Turner had denied the charge.

No compensation was awarded to Mr Paskins.

I appears then that if you do not wish to be assaulted by Police Officers and then denied compensation, you should stay away from Hampshire.

Report on criminal activity by police censored by police

2007-02-15T23:42:00.000Z

The Metropolitan Police Authority recently released a report onto its website. The report showed that "inappropriate relationships or criminal associations" among police officers and police staff were "significant threats" to the Metropolitan Police.

The report also highlights as a cause for concern the ever increasing number of police officers and staff who are taking illegal drugs. Cocaine and cannabis are named as "the drugs of choice" for police officers and staff, although I'm sure the public will be happy to know that drug testing has been introduced for the most junior police officers, leaving senior officers and staff still able to enjoy using their illegal drugs.

There were also further concerns raised in the report about the disproportionate number of police officers who were accused of domestic violence and sexual assault while off-duty.

The illegal misuse of the information contained in the Police National Database by police and staff was also highlighted, as was the illegal use of warrant cards and other security passes, both by retired and serving officers, and as was the growing number of complaints of discrimination lodged against the police.

I would expect that by now, you would be very interested in seeing a copy of this report for yourself. So, where can you find a copy of this report?

Well, last week it was available on the website of the Metropolitan Police Authority.

Briefly.

The findings of the Strategic Intelligence Assessment, carried out by the Met’s directorate of professional standards, were intended to remain secret.

A slip up on the part of the Metropolitan Police Authority meant that the report was available for a short time on their website.

The report, by Detective Chief Superintendent Gregory Faulkner, was to have been discussed in private, and the findings never released to the public.

Asked why this was the case, Assistant Commissioner John Yates said: “I do not want to explain why in a public forum.”

MPs concerned at illegal fingerprinting of children

2007-01-20T16:24:00.000Z

Opposition MPs have finally caught on to the illegal fingerprinting of children which is taking place in schools across the UK.

One of the main concerns of MPs is that many schools are apparently short of money for items such as teachers, buildings, books, learning materials and such like, but inexplicably find themselves with enough money to purchase expensive biometric scanners, with which they can attempt to get children accustomed to the idea of them being subservient to the police state.

Sarah Teather MP told 'The Register' that "I believe that the collection of biometric data from young pupils without parental consent is illegal and must cease."

It was also disclosed that funds which had been given to schools for 'e-learning' were actually being used to fund the purchase of these biometric scanners and data storage systems.

80 Glaswegians to be harrassed by police

2007-01-20T15:29:00.000Z

Senior Officers at Strathclyde Police have recently approved a plan which will see their officers harass innocent people. 80 people will be specially targeted by Strathclyde police to face police harrasment, officers have said.

Officers have said that they will provide "help to access GP services, housing, dental treatment, and education in a bid to keep them out of prison."

In other words, their basic rights as citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Those people who refuse to comply with signing up to the latest work of the police state, the persistent offender programme, will be harased by the police, irresepective of any crimes they have commited, and have been been promised that they will be sent to jail, innocent or not.

Welcome to the wonderful world of police state harassment.

Hundreds of police officers are criminals

2006-12-12T16:07:00.000Z

Hundreds of officers of the state police, here in the UK, or Airstrip 1 if you prefer, are actually themselves criminals, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

So far, 13 police forces across England and Wales have released figures which show that, of those 13 forces, they currently have 164 serving officers who actually have criminal records, for offences including Assualt, Theft, Actual Bodily Harm, Possession of an Offensive Weapon, Drink Driving, Criminal Damage, Affray, Perverting the Course of Justice and Child Porn.

Kent has the highest percentage of police officers with a record. It employs 52 officers with convictions, almost 1.5% of its total force.

In West Yorkshire, 10 of the 12 officers with records have been convicted of assault, all while serving in the force.

74 officers in the Metropolitan police had received either a conviction or a caution, while in Hampshire 30 serving officers have convictions.

One police officer in Lancashire was also given an absolute discharge after being arrested for failing to stop following a road traffic collision.

Lancashire officer Jason Livesey, 33, of Fareham Close, Walton-le-Dale, was locked up for 18 months for assaulting a member of the public with a police baton in Accrington town centre and lying under oath.

PC Paul Thompson, 43, who served as a constable in Lancashire's Central Division, in Preston, later avoided jail after pleading guilty to five counts of making indecent photographs of children. He was given a three-year community rehabilitation order and registered on the sex offenders list for five years.

The figures suggest that among all 51 police forces in England, Scotland and Wales the number of officers with convictions could be as high as 650.

James Scott arrested for covering face with balaclava

2006-12-12T15:39:00.000Z

James Scott was arrested by Ipswich police for the heinous crime of covering his face.

Mr Scott had donned a balaclava, in order to raise awareness of the issue of Muslims wearing veils to cover their faces.

An Ipswich police spokesperson said that "When approached by officers the male refused to cooperate with them" (ie refused to accept that covering your face constitutes a criminal offence)

After being arrested, he was detained by the local police state officers at Ipswich for several hours, before he was released, and told that he was banned by Ipswich police from covering his face in public.

Information Commissioner says Britons are "Waking up to the snooping society"

2006-11-05T12:22:00.000Z

Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has warned that the people of Britain are "Waking up to the snooping society" which permeates Britain today.

Mr Thomas has pointed towards CCTV, analysis of buying and spending habits, covert monitoring and surveillance of travel routes, footprints left by the use of mobile phones, the internet, electronic financial transactions, unmanned aircraft monitoring movements all the time, microphone bugs hidden in lampposts, and technology which monitors every mile you drive as being among the reasons why the people of Britain are increasingly feeling persecuted by their government.

Mr Thomas has also raised his concerns with regards to the security of the data which the government, and private industry, hold. Identity blunders, data leakage, and being wrongly accused of crime when a "suspicion is taken as a fact".

Mr Thomas has called for a full public debate on the future of surveillance.

Christian freed after being arrested for distributing biblical quotations

2006-10-08T22:47:00.000Z

Stephen Green, a Christian, was arrested on September the 2nd, 2006.

His crime was that he was handing out leaflets which contain biblical quotes which express the Christian views towards homosexuality.

It was reported that Mr Green was arrested by the South Wales Minorities Support Unit because "the leaflet contained biblical quotes about homosexuality". Mr Green confirmed that the leaflets did contain statements such as "turn from your sins and you will be saved". Obviously, this material is a danger to the public, as far as South Wales police are concerned.

Mr Green had been in attendance at the Cardiff Mardi Gras, when his harrassment began.

He was initially asked to leave the park in which the event was taking place, which he agreed to do.

Upon taking up a place, on a public street, outside the entrance of the event, Mr Green was then subject to the police asking him to stop distributing his leaflets with biblical quotations, from his place on a public street.

Stephen Green refused, and was arrested by the Minorities Support Unit of South Wales Police.

Mr Green was interrogated for four hours, after which he refused to accept a police caution, and was then charged by the police under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.

On Thursday, 28th September, 2006, the case against Stephen Green was dropped by Cardiff Magistrates Court, as there was no evidence to present against the defendent.

That's right, no evidence against the defendent that he had commited any crime.

On what basis then, had South Wales Police arrested him?

Despite not having any evidence of any criminal wrongdoing by Stephen Green, South Wales Police, instead of apologising to Mr Green, have actually stated that they still believe that they were right to arrest him in the first place!

Mr Greens solicitor has stated that his clients arrest is an "abuse of police powers", and that his client is considering legal action against South Wales Police, an action likely to succeed on the basis of the Human Rights Act, entitling Mr Green to religous freedoms, and freedoms to express those viewpoints.

Your rubbish will be monitored

2006-10-08T22:19:00.000Z

More than 30 councils across the UK are planning to secretly attach a microchip to the lid of wheelie bins, which will enable them to monitor the contents of each housholds rubbish individually.

Each authority will then be able to cross reference this with the register of council tax payers to enable them to see exactly who is throwing out what sort of rubbish.

Of course, they couldn't attempt to do this openly, otherwise there would be open revolt in the street, so they are attempting to do this by stealth, without anyone noticing.

In Bournemouth, approximately 25,000 householders removed these chips from their own wheelie bins.

I have also personally heard from people who hve simply removed the chip, microwaved it for a few seconds, and then replaced it. The chip is inoperative, and the council are none the wiser as to how it happened.

Sheridan belittled over MI5 allegations

2006-10-08T22:05:00.000Z

Scottish MSP Tommy Sheridan (pictured) has recently been the subject of much ridicule in the mainstream media, for daring to suggest that MI5, who have been proven over the years to have sought to place agents in positions of power within political organisations, have been engaged in a plan, in conjunction with the mainstream media, to discredit him.

Of course, the reality is that only a completely naive person would think that MI5 are not keeping tabs on Tommy Sheridan, and are not seeking to discredit him, and his political ambitions, in order to preserve the status quo.

Readers and viewers of mainstream media will have heard much of the alleged video which exists which, the mainstream media would have you believe, proves that Tommy Sheridan allegedly states that he has visited a swingers club.

What they won't have been told is that, according to no less a source than the editor of the News of the World, Bob Bird, Tommy Sheridan only makes the briefest of appearances on the alleged video.

I wonder how many other journalists are in the pockets of MI5?

Jack Frost killed after nephews encounter with the police state

2006-10-08T19:37:00.000Z

Jack Frost, the creation of writer Rodney Wingfield, has been killed off by the writer, after his nephew suffered the unfortunate experience of being dealt with by the police.

Mr Wingfields nephew was arrested for allegedly stealing a battery charger. Despite not matching the description of the thief, the CCTV clearly showing the nephews innocence, and numerous alibis being freely available and willing to avail themselves to the police, the police took the decision to arrest Mr Wingfields nephew, and to detain him overnight.

During his imprisonment, he was urged to confess to this 'crime' by officers, who said that if he confessed to the crime he did not commit, then he would be cautioned and allowed to go home.

Mr Wingfield had written a letter of complaint to the Chief Constable, Roger Baker, but failed to recieve a response, prompting him to lose faith in the police.

The row coincides with claims that the police are being forced to enforce unrealistic arrest rates, irrespective of the innocence or guilt of the parties being arrested.

Of course, the fact that individuals who are arrested have their details placed onto the National Identity Register without their consent is, I'm sure, completely unrelated to the inflated targets for arrests.

Glasgow Firefighters disciplined despite religious objections

2006-08-31T17:10:00.000Z

Nine Firefighters from Stratchlyde Fire and Rescue have been disciplined for refusing to take part in activities which would have been in serious breach of their religious beliefs.

The Firefighters had been asked to hand out leaflets at a Gay March in George Square, in Glasgow, on June 24th.

The Fire Brigades Union in Scotland said it would be waiting until the individual members had been contacted before making comment.

The decision to discipline the firemen was met with dismay by the Roman Catholic Church, who explained that the firemen would have, as they have been previously, subject to a barrage of taunts and innuendo from gay marchers. The Roman Catholic Church also explained that numerous marchers take great pleasure in dressing up as nuns or priests, in order to mock the religious sensibilities of observers.

The head of the Fire and Rescue Service said,unconvincinly, that the Service did not "promote any sexual preference", although this appears to be at odds with the fact that the Fire and Rescue Service refuse to attend heterosexual events.

Naked passengers at Heathrow and more illegal searches of passengers

2006-08-28T22:39:00.000Z

Passengers at Heathrow Airport have recently been subject to more state intrusion into their private lives, and even more illegally conducted searches of their person.

Passenegers have probably been unaware, but the x-ray machines which they are being herded through are actually capable of producing images of the subjects naked body, with detail such that the gender of the subject is obvious.

"I was quite shocked by what I saw," said Gary Cook, "I felt a bit embarrassed looking at the image."

A female passenger, who did not want to be named, said: “It was really horrible. It doesn’t leave much to the imagination because you’re virtually naked."

In America, Susan Hallowell, director of the US Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) security laboratory, showed off her own x-ray image to demonstrate the technology to reporters.

"It basically makes you look fat and naked, but you see all this stuff" said Hallowell.

Passengers are apparently picked 'at random', although recent statistics would point to being of Asian origin, and sporting a beard being sufficient evidence of randomness to warrant being picked.

Quite illegally, and shockingly, those passengers who decline to have their persons intruded upon in such a fashion are then subject to an involuntary search of their person, even if they choose to decline to proceed further in their travels.

Interestingly enough, the TSA has decided not to deploy the device at American airports until manufacturers can develop an electronic means of masking sensitive body parts.

The ludicrous case of the nuclear suitcase

2006-08-26T15:55:00.000Z

Three men were cleared a few weeks ago, at the Old Bailey in London.

They had been held for two years, before being cleared of the charges.

They had been accused, based upon 'intelligence' supplied by the British Security services, of plotting to obtain a substance known as red mercury.

Red mercury has been named in numerous documents over the years as one of the components of so called 'dirty bombs', bombs in a suitcase, which explode in a densely populated area, leaving the area uninhabitable for many years.

The only problem with the charges which were cooked up against the men is that, well, Red Mercury is a non existant substance.

It doesn't exist. It's not real. It's made up.

These men were charged with attempting to obtain something which doesn't exist.

Not for the first time, the security services have been scandalously flawed in their 'intelligence'.

Whether it's non existant plots to blow up Old Trafford, non existant Ricin plots, or the non existant bomb at Forest Gate, the security services seem to be out of touch with what is actually happening.

Liquid Explosive Terror Alert Exposed

2006-08-26T15:35:00.000Z

People flying through UK airports these past weeks have been subject to the most outragous form of state sponsored intrusion into their private lives.

Mothers have been forced to drink their own breast milk, persons have been denied essential medicines, and you must now show all of the contents of your hand luggage, not only to the airport officials, but, thanks to the see throuh bag you have to use, anyone can see anything you are carrying.

So how feasible is this 'terror' plot?

The state sponsored mainstream media, such as the BBC, would have you believe that the 'terrorists' planned to use a liquid explosive, known as triacetone triperoxide (TATP) to blow up planes in mid flight.

This would entail the use of three chemicals. Hydrogen Peroxide (at the correct concentration, not easily done outside of a laboratory without blowing yourself up), acetone, and sulfuric acid.

You would also need some ice, a thermometer, a stirring rod, a bucket and a medicine dropper.

After somehow sneaking all of these ingredients into the toilet, the process of making TATP would then take several hours, during which more than enough fumes would be released to a) overcome the 'terrorist' and b) alert the rest of the aircraft.

Of course, having made the TATP, all the 'terrorist' needs to do is to let it dry for a few hours.

So, all in all, it would take about 6 hours, would fill the airplane with noxious fumes, and would more than likely result in a small explosion, which would only kill the 'terrorist'.

The question of why then the government is willing to have you believe that these intrusions into your personal lives are neccessary remains.

It could be because they believe the above scenario is remotely possible, or it could simply be another move towards the total Orwellian society.

The people are smart enough to know.

One rule for the police, one rule for the rest of us

2006-08-26T11:44:00.000Z

This is Mark Milton.

Recently, he was filmed travelling at 159mph on the M54 Motorway.

He was also filmed travelling at 83mph in a 30mph limit zone, and at 131mph in a 60mph limit zone.

The Crown Prosecution Service calculated that he had been travelling at an average of 148mph along the motorway, in a brand new Vauxhall Vectra GSi.

Most people would have been banned for at least 12 months, and had at least three points added to their licence, if they had been found guilty of dangerous driving, as Mark Milton has.

But then again, most people are not Police Constables.

Incredibly, district judge Peter Wallis handed PC Mark Milton an absolute discharge.

He said "The video recording shows that during the course of the journey, he overtakes other drivers with no advance warning given. Such speeds are obviously inherently dangerous."

He then added "There is no need for further punishment"

Further punishment? What punishment was handed out originally? None!

Mary Wallace, of the road safety charity 'Brake', said that the decision to hand PC Mark Milton an absolute discharge was 'rediculous'.

Paul Smith, of the Safe Speed campaign, said that "The average motorist would have been automatically banned if they had been convicted of doing anything like this. It seems there is one rule for the police and one for the rest of us. This sentence will only cause damage to the police-public relationship."