Monday 23 August 2010

Just Another Day In Croydon...

Seven people have been arrested after a man was seriously injured in an early morning bottle attack.

The victim, believed to be in his 20s, was found by police with three puncture wounds to his back near West Croydon station at about 2.20am.
The newspaper prints the contact address if you have any information about this:
Did you see what happened, or do you know the people involved? Contact Mike Didymus on 020 8330 9556, or email mdidymus@london.newsquest.co.uk
Wait, what?

Shouldn't it be the police you contact? Aren't they the ones who...

Ah. Actually, there might be a good reason why the paper doesn't bother with them:
Croydon police let a man off with a caution who attacked his former tattooist, hospitalising him for two days and almost tearing off his ear.
Eh..?

The victim is equally bemused:
"The police deemed it important enough to come see me while I was in hospital but then I got told about two weeks after the attack he was being let off with a caution.

"It’s disgusting they didn’t do anything about it. I had two witnesses and they must have had it on CCTV.

"Whether they were just being lazy, they just thought it was just another Croydon attack or they wanted to keep the stats down I don’t know.

"I just want to find out why the police decided to do absolutely nothing about this and didn’t push it further. It should have gone to court and instead it was just left with the guy getting a caution."
Well, quite. His girlfriend has had a few illusions shattered too:
Mr Wilkies girlfriend, flim studies student Lois Jones, said: "Up until now I have had total faith in the police, but now I am shocked with their actions as now they are giving out the message 'go beat the crap out of someone, that's fine, we don't care as long as our statistics are down."
And it seems the police don't consider this worthwhile enough to even trot out a spokescreature to make the usual soothing noises:
A spokesman from the Metropolitan Police said: "We are not prepared to discuss this matter."

6 comments:

Witterings from Witney said...

"A spokesman from the Metropolitan Police said: "We are not prepared to discuss this matter."

FOI request then...............

Private Widdle said...

The victim has two options- seek judicial review of the cautioning procedure, or to bring a private prosecution. Time for a campaign? I'll chuck in more than a few quid if needs be. This is all getting out of hand. The cig-ash lady is going to court for refucing to pay a fixed penalty notice which was issued in breach of the law, yet a vicious youb like this gets a caution. Enough.

Private Widdle said...

Sorry about the spelling mistales- typing whilst incandescent with rage does that to you.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the cop took a bribe to drop the case.

Brian, follower of Deornoth said...

A private prosecution of the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service would be more to the point; this is plainly a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

JuliaM said...

"FOI request then."

I'm not sure 'operational' aspects are covered, are they?

"This is all getting out of hand. The cig-ash lady is going to court for refucing to pay a fixed penalty notice which was issued in breach of the law, yet a vicious youb like this gets a caution. Enough."

The police do seem to have their priorities in a hell of a muddle lately.

"Sounds like the cop took a bribe to drop the case."

We've imported many other Third World practices, so why not this one?

"...this is plainly a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice."

Could anyone find a judge willing to agree that our justice had been perverted here, and not by Parliament for the last 13 years?