A terrified woman made two 999 calls before she was battered to death, but police were too busy to respond, a damning report said yesterday.And it gets better:
Joanne Butler, who had mental problems, was attacked by her neighbour Sean Wilson and his 13-year-old son, who described her as the 'psycho woman' in the flat above.Savour the irony there for a second…
They used a sock filled with rocks to beat her about the head before butchering her with an axe.
The police force involved, Leicestershire, was the same one criticised last year after its officers missed dozens of opportunities to tackle yobs who drove Fiona Pilkington to kill herself and her teenage daughter.Is the place under some kind of curse? Is this town built on an ancient burial site, or something?
Just when you think things couldn’t get any worse for the police, this was disclosed:
Yesterday's report also revealed that Wilson also called 999 within minutes of his victim.Well, great advice, chaps, but no need to rush or anything, he already took care of it…
Wilson, a labourer, was told to call back later if he was still having problems with the woman.
Now, it does seem that the police do spend an awful amount of time sorting out the problems of the underclass, as any glance at the police blogs will tell you.
But there’s irritating, and there’s downright dangerous, and it shouldn’t take Sherlock Holmes to tell you which category this fell into:
Police had dealt with Miss Butler 20 times in the ten months before she died. Wilson, now 41, was also known to them as a violent alcoholic who once held a hacksaw to his exwife's throat.So you’d expect them to respond with something resembling alacrity, wouldn’t you, lack of resources or not?
After all, in other forces, there’s obviously priority for officers to attend a blogger’s house at the request of people who make frivolous complaints and insist that the blogger deletes his blog…
Oh, and in case you were wondering about that mysterious 13 year old:
. Wilson was jailed for life in November 2006 for the killing in January that year.Talk about keeping it in the family…
His son Ashlea, who can be named after an Appeal Court ruling, was ordered to be detained for at least nine years.
Miss Butler's parents, Garry, 64, and Pauline, 62, of Markfield, Leicestershire, said they were planning to take legal action over the authorities' handling of the case.Good luck with that.
13 comments:
It is most unfair, criticising
the Police and Authorities for
their abject failure to deal with
the numerous incidents of violence
and murder when their resources are
stretched to the limit backing up
Health Inspectors looking for
old men smoking pipes in British Legion toilets.
They cant be everywhere,can thet ?
Cynicus Pluribum Maximus
Cinicus
Who would you rather deal with,
a drug fazed chav or an old bloke with a pipe.
The Ermine Fox
"What the hell is wrong with Leicestershire?"
Have you been to Leicestershire?
One of my key functions is to make the public more aware of our health and safety responsibilities. We will only permit young officers to progress towards dealing with real crime in safe stages.
Our present policy is to gain practical experience with 90 year old drivers who can be thrown to the ground on the slightest pretext and beaten to pulp without posing any serious return risk to our trainees.
Justin Bender-Bottom
Asst CC (PR and Training)
Leicester Police
The case yesterday was from Hinkley Magistrates Court, Leicestershire.
It might be that this is happening in more places but due to the competence of local reporters or national stringers, Hinkley is being more reported, following the Pilkington case.
That's not a comforting thought.
It must have been a cold day and the Police didn't want to leave their nice warm stations.
Coincidence? No.
The police have been issued with explicit instructions NOT to 'interfere' with incidents involving non-idigenous folk. (Forgive - I don't have the doc to hand).
Leicester is full of such people.
Fausty
There's a big contrast betweem the city of Leicester itself and the surrounding towns where these recent incidents seem to have been taking place.
Towns like Hinckley, Earl Shilton and Barwell lack the same gloriously enriched vibrant diversity etc of the city.
So on this particular occasion I'd say you're off the mark.
The police sometimes provide a terrible service and they also make egregious errors from time to time - though who doesn't, I suppose - but (declaration of interest) having published three books by rank and file officers, I'd say that most of those at the lower end of the forces are as horrified at this sort of thing as the rest of us.
I don't suppose any of us know the full facts, but I remember how shocked people were by the opening passage of Wasting Police Time.
PC Copperfield, writing (as is now known) about Burton on Trent, revealed how he turned up on parade and was the only response PC on duty that morning, covering a town of 60,000 people.
This was unusual, but it wasn't unusual for there to be only four PCs on duty.
Given that Earl Shilton is a lot smaller than Burton, I guess it's not hard to imagine that there might only have been one or two cops on duty and that they therefore might easily have been too busy to attend (they didn't know how things were going to develop, and we don't know what else they were dealing with).
This doesn't excuse Leicestershire Police, or the Home Office (who really need to explain why there are only four uniformed cops available at any one time in a busy, violent town like Burton, when the actual police strength for the town is much, much higher, and why does it take so long for them to process arrests), but it may excuse the individual bobbies.
Re Leicestershire, it is in parts beautiful - the villages around Market Harborough and over into the vale of Belvoir particularly.
Earl Shilton isn't quite in that league!
Sorry, Julia, that's the wrong wasting Police Time link - I meant to post this one, which is a free excerpt from the start of the book, dealing initially with policing numbers in Newtown/Burton.
Staffs Police later denied that this - i.e. Copperfield have once been the only cop in town - had ever happened, though when we pointed out that we had evidence which proved it, and that it had happened more than once, they decided to leave it.
With his customary salivation, Dan Collins tucks in the napkin and enthuses at the prospect of reward for Gadget's ventures into fiction.
Quite sure there is something new in this regard, Mr Collins?
"...when their resources are
stretched to the limit backing up
Health Inspectors looking for
old men smoking pipes in British Legion toilets."
True! Perhaps we need to revise our ideas of what the police are for.
And their pay scales, accordingly...
"Have you been to Leicestershire?"
Actually, I don't think I have. Their tourist board is certainly going to have to work overtime to get me there now...
"It might be that this is happening in more places..."
I wouldn't be at all surprised.
"There's a big contrast betweem the city of Leicester itself and the surrounding towns..."
A contrast, I suspect, which can only increase...
"...I'd say that most of those at the lower end of the forces are as horrified at this sort of thing as the rest of us."
That accounts for the number of police who have moved abroad, I expect...
"Staffs Police later denied that this - i.e. Copperfield have once been the only cop in town - had ever happened, though when we pointed out that we had evidence which proved it, and that it had happened more than once, they decided to leave it."
Typical of state bureacracy everywhere - lie with impunity, because when you are found out, nothing happens to you.
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