16 December (Part 1) - Bexley police. Up to their old tricks again
Some readers have first hand experience of my occasional tardiness in
responding to emails. It's not just that I get rather a lot, that is not the
real problem, it is the ones that are complicated and
hard to follow and would take days to investigate properly that are most often
neglected. Sometimes they don’t really have any connection to Bexley council either.
One such saga has been arriving in stages all year but it’s not been mentioned before because it
is about Bexley police and for a change, not about them covering up for Bexley’s criminally
inclined council. On the other hand neither is the corruption surrounding
the Daniel Morgan axe murder and neither was
the young lad who was severely injured at school
by someone with friendly connections to the police. In that case they reversed the
assailant and victim roles to get their friend off the hook. When Dartford Crown
Court exposed Bexley police as liars they pretended to make amends by
telling the victim that action would be taken against the dishonest police officers,
but they were lying again. Not so much as a single knuckle was rapped.
The new case has similarities to that one.
A brief summary is that there was a marital dispute; usual thing, husband runs
off with another woman. The husband subsequently broke into the wife’s house through
a window and removed property. Bexley police said that was not a crime.
Following that incident the other woman accused the wife of assault.
The wife had taken a brief holiday in the USA at the time but as she returned through
Heathrow she was taken aside and arrested. Can you believe it? A lady
returning home to Bexley, unaware of the charges against her and who could easily be
picked up when she got home, was intercepted as if she was a big time crook
passing incognito through Heathrow.
The police papers suggest that an officer thought a dramatic arrest would be
fun. “Wouldn’t it be good if we arrested Mrs. P. off the aeroplane.” For a common assault? Are they mad?
The officer involved denied using those words but it happened nevertheless…
Maybe you can see the link with the case of the injured schoolboy. Yes, the other
woman worked for the police in Sidcup; “Mrs. M. is one of us”. In Marlowe House
presumably where Detective Sergeant Michelle Gower whitewashed my complaint against
Chief Superintendent Dave Stringer. (The IPCC agreed with me but 30 months later
the police are ignoring the IPCC.)
The wife was charged and brought before Bromley Court where the charge was thrown out
for the simple reason there was neither harassment nor assault.
The wife then made ten complaints and allegations of Misconduct in Public Office
and Perjury against police officers. You will probably guess this too. The
police accepted none of it. Chief Inspector Ian Broadbridge said “I am satisfied
that the report does not need to be referred to the CPS.” He signs himself
“Professional Standards Champion”. I would have thought Booby was a more
appropriate word than Champion but perhaps Champion is a reference to success in
protecting his mates and not looking after the public as I foolishly assumed.
Ian Broadbridge is the officer who did Mick Barnbrook ‘a favour’ by telling the
Directorate of Professional Standards that Mick was going to make
a complaint against two constables who he believes (knows
really) lied about ejecting him, me and others from the council chamber on
19th
June 2013. He knew full well that Mr. Barnbrook intended to make
criminal allegations against the two PCs and Chief Inspector Peter Ayling but
Broadbridge’s unwanted intervention successfully threw that off track. Once again the police looked after themselves.
The police’s own report names around 20 officers involved in this case and
except for the Chief Superintendent’s none are known to me. None from the Craske
case, none from John Kerlen’s malicious prosecution, none from the injured
schoolboy and none from the Cheryl Bacon case. One can only assume that
crookedness is a trait widespread among Bexley’s police. Even the ‘honest’ ones
will always support each other as I learned the hard way when one assaulted me
under a CCTV camera 20 years ago.
However the wife in the foregoing case has taken her allegations against CS Peter Ayling to the IPCC
so he is not out of trouble yet, and no doubt Mick Barnbrook’s case will go to the IPCC eventually as
well, adding his name to Chief Superintendents Dave Stringer and Victor Olisa who are also similarly accused.
While
I am covering police matters perhaps it is an opportune moment to return to
the case against councillor Cheryl Bacon,
Will Tuckley, Akin Alabi and Lynn Tyler, Bexley’s Chief Executive and legal bods respectively,
currently with Greenwich CID.
The latest information leads me to suspect that Bacon will get off scot free.
She offended against the Local Government Act by shutting out the public from
her meeting and then lied constantly about the reason why. But that is not the
crime Mick Barnbrook reported. His allegation is that Tuckley and Co. Perverted
the Course of Justice by refusing to investigate Bacon’s lies to excuse her minor offence and
turning their backs on councillors of both parties who were happy to tell them the truth.
Lying by politicians is not a crime, if it were… well would there be any running
free? So I think Bacon will walk free which is a shame. On the other hand she
will be labelled a liar for ever more and there are a dozen or so councillors
and a handful of council officers who know that she is a liar - because their
ears and eyes will not have deceived them.