22 August (Part 2) - Bexleyheath police has 100% commitment. I don’t think so
Elwyn
Bryant and I
complained to the Met. Police Commissioner about the
failure of former Bexleyheath police commander Dave Stringer and his team to
seriously investigate Bexley council’s obscene blog when first notified of it.
Bernard Hogan-Howe referred it to his Directorate of Professional Standards who passed
it back to Bexleyheath police to investigate themselves. We complained about
that in a very specific and detailed letter and last Friday the DPS phoned to
say they agreed it was inappropriate for Bexleyheath police to be directly involved.
During that phone call the DPS sergeant asked if I could paint in
some of the background to the complaint; what led up to it etc., so I sent a
fairly informal email. That would probably have remained under wraps except that
yesterday I noticed that Bexleyheath police were claiming to investigate all reported crimes.
Maybe it's that new broom Victor Olisa shaking things up but his predecessors
could be very selective. Maybe it is appropriate to post the opening paragraphs
of my email after all.
You will know from the enquiry you undertook last year at the request of the
IPCC that the leader of Bexley council, its CEO and several anonymous
councillors attempted to silence me and another blogger by reporting us to
Bexleyheath police, accusing us of inciting violence. A third blogger who was
never challenged had used a metaphor about flaming torches and pitchforks and it
was pinned on me and the second blogger. As your report confirmed, this allegation
went straight to the CPS on the word of Bexley council and the CPS recommended prosecution.
Only then was any investigation carried out and a DS realised that Bexley
council had made a false report and that senior officers had put the cart before
the horse by going directly to the CPS (to please Bexley council?). A Harassment
Warning (Form 9993) was then issued in contravention of your procedures which
attempted to make “criticism” a criminal offence. There was no need for
Bexleyheath police to do that except to please their council 'masters'. Your
report confirmed the 9993 had no validity, or words to that effect.
Before that a former leader of Bexley council became Deputy Mayor of London and
was almost immediately found guilty of fraud. Abusing a GLA credit card for a
sum just over £200 and a 12 week suspended sentence. Enquiries in Bexley
revealed the same abuse by the same man to the tune of £2000+. Bexley council
refused to report the fraud to the police and when one of my colleagues did so,
Bexleyheath police told him that only Bexley council could report the crime.
This as you know is wrong but it took intervention by the IPCC to get
Bexleyheath police to agree. Their eventual way out was to declare that it
wasn't in the public interest to investigate, so Bexley council was again
spared. One of the beneficiaries of the fraudulently used credit card was the
police borough commander Tony Dawson.
etc.
So there's two allegations that weren’t investigated. When Bexley council reported Olly Cromwell and myself for the
pitchforks comment they didn’t investigate it, if they had they may have noticed
that Olly made absolutely no reference to it on his blog. The police report says
that Teresa O’Neill claimed otherwise. Neither did the police investigate the
fraud in Bexley council; their priority was to protect Bexley council and to
hell with the law and justice.
Maybe not any more, but certainly under the previous borough commanders.