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News and Comment November 2012

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21 November - Police failures. An update

Obscene bloggers? Parsons BrinckerhoffThe pursuit of Bexley council’s obscene blogger is gradually being replaced by the pursuit of failed policemen. The former is stuck in limbo with, if you can believe Bexleyheath police, the same individual remaining a suspect while they refuse to discuss the matter. Until the case is closed so are the avenues to seeking information. It’s quite clever really but not exactly justice.

Action against the policemen involved began on 7th June 2012 when Elwyn Bryant took up Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe’s invitation to let him know if he got no satisfaction locally. Elwyn and I jointly signed a complaint which was based on the known facts that Bexleyheath police labelled our crime report as “a counter allegation”. i.e. They regarded it as revenge for the harassment letter and not as a serious crime.

This was confirmed when the investigation was prematurely closed on 23rd August 2011 with a claim that the blog site had been removed from Google’s server (wrong) and that various investigations had drawn a blank. The police refused to provide so much as a date for their enquiries claiming that to reveal them was not in the public interest. Elwyn and I were left with the impression that no such enquiries had been made and we suggested that corruption was the root cause.

That complaint of 7th June was confined to the failed 2011 investigation under Chief Superintendent Dave Stringer and is still not answered although we were told last week that it would be within the next fortnight. Mind you, we were told much the same at the beginning of October.

Following councillor Peter Craske’s release from bail a month ago, Elwyn wrote to Borough Commander Victor Olisa asking eleven specific questions about the case, seeking among other things, confirmation that the obscene blog suspect and Peter Craske were one and the same. After two weeks without response he wrote to request a meeting. Once again he has had no response and a telephone enquiry left him in some doubt as to whether or not he ever would. Next weekend I am going to help Elwyn draft another complaint to the Commissioner. Hogan-Howe asked him to let him know if his new Commander proved to be as useless as the last one and we both believe that is clearly the case.

 

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