Banner
any day today rss X

News and Comment January 2015

Index: 2009201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021202220232024

29 January - Bexley’s police attract another serious complaint

O'NeillFour years ago Bexley’s council Leader, the thoroughly disreputable Teresa O’Neill, asked Bexley police to do something about the criticism levelled at her council on this blog. The ‘crime’ was that I had quoted Arthur Pewty’s metaphore about pitchforks and flaming torches. It made me a violent arsonist.

When Bexley police refused to withdraw the threat of arrest the Independent Police Complaints Commission ruled that quoting Shelley is not a crime and my Harassment Letter was formally withdrawn on their instructions.

What may not be so well known is that Bexley police ignored every procedural rule referring to Harassment Warnings in order to satisfy their mistress, Teresa O’Neill. One might have hoped that Bexley police would have learned lessons from their numerous mistakes but bending the rules is a handy procedure whenever there is a friend in need of protection. A case briefly mentioned six weeks ago shows every sign of falling into that category. It has been bubbling away largely out of sight for the best part of two years but has the makings of being ‘the best’ so far.


AylingI believe there are honest police officers out in the community but if there are any in Arnsberg Way they must keep their heads well down.

Three days ago an extract of a letter from the head of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime was published here to illustrate how MOPAC does take complaints on board if they are serious enough - in contrast to their refusal to help speed up my 32 month old complaint to Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe - and this ‘Heathrow’ one most definitely is. Several Bexley police officers stand accused of perjury and conspiracy.

In brief, a marital split involving a female police volunteer resulted in the wronged wife being arrested on a common assault charge at Heathrow while coming home from the USA - as a favour to the police volunteer is part of the allegation.

The case against the wife was thrown out at Bromley Magistrates Court because the evidence, such as it was, was easily disproved. Any competent police officer could have worked that out for themselves.

This is becoming something of a pattern with Bexley police. They had no evidence that I was intent on burning down the old Civic Centre, there was no evidence, other than a false statement by a councillor, that John Kerlen had encouraged putting dog excrement through a letter box, there was no evidence that a schoolboy picked a fight with someone with police friends, and with evidence that collapsed on cursory examination, they had an innocent woman thrown in a cell by armed officers and kept there overnight - for fun is one interpretation.

You might think that Chief Superintendent Peter Ayling would want to put a stop to this nonsense, but your thought would be misguided. He failed to respond to the correspondence. Twice.
Ayling
A complaint to the IPCC was referred back to Bexley for investigation and adjudication by the police officer who made the arrest decision in the first place. The same technique adopted by Bexley council when asked to investigate the Cheryl Bacon affair. Will Tuckley, pretending to look for evidence, referred only to the liar’s own statement. The police did something similar and came out with the answer you would expect, that everyone was innocent of wrong doing. The same as what their Professional Standards Directorate told me in connection with the Peter Craske business, though in that case the IPCC disagreed.

When asked to review their decision another Bexley police officer went around the same loop and came to the same conclusion. They ignored the subsequent IPCC intervention.

Perhaps MOPAC will do something about it now that their Chief Operating Officer has decided that the allegation is a serious matter - which it quite obviously is. Ms. Bailey’s short letter may be read here and with the permission of the sender, the original complaint to MOPAC is available too. It’s a data heavy page, nearly 400 kilobytes.

The IPCC is still involved so this is unlikely to be the last you hear of this case. Can there be another London police district that gets itself into trouble more often than Bexley? Since when was it appropriate to have armed officers arrest someone heading for home in a routine common assault case? When there is a personal axe to grind presumably.

 

Return to the top of this page
Bonkers is a cookie free zone. Not a single one