Tuesday 9 November 2010

Technology Can’t Solve Everything…

In a small children’s play area, in the early hours of the morning, Michelle Samaraweera was raped and murdered by a man police believe she had never met before. The man followed her as she walked home, attempted to befriend her and then attacked.

It was Walthamstow, in May 2009, but the incident was not an isolated one.

The man has raped three other women and sexually assaulted at least five more – all within a six month period and all within the same square-mile of East London.
And here's where, if life was like a TV drama, a small, unorthodox group of dedicated misfits would band together and utilise all the high-tech wizardry at their fingertips to hunt down the offender and save the day.

But life's not like that:
But, despite having the attacker’s DNA and a picture of him, Scotland Yard detectives have so far been unable to catch him. His DNA is not on the database and eight men arrested have subsequently been ruled out of the investigation.
You can almost feel the bafflement, can't you? How can technology fail us?
Today detectives will step up their investigation when they post leaflets showing CCTV footage of the man to 60,500 homes in the Waltham Forest borough of London. Officers hope it will provide a breakthrough in the hitherto fruitless manhunt.
An old-fashioned mailshot. It's come to such a Sixties-style method..?
Detective Chief Inspector Stewart Hill, from the Metropolitan Police’s homicide team admits it is worrying that the man is still at large and concedes it is possible he has fled the country.

“These types of case are exceptionally rare and obviously it greatly concerns us that we have not caught this man yet,” he said. “Usually when we have got DNA and CCTV it doesn’t then take us very long to catch the perpetrator. But in this case it hasn’t happened yet.

“We are probably looking at someone who has moved into the area shortly before he began his attacks and has now possibly left. If that is the case it means that the footprint he has left is not as deep as we would like.”
The modern police officer seems a little....lost....when all the gadgets and technological advances are no use...
Police have worked on the theory that the man has carefully selected vulnerable victims who are unlikely or unable to report their experiences to police. One of his victims has learning difficulties, while another was a sex worker. Others have been drug users. But, conversely, one of the woman assaulted was a doctor.
Well, of course he has!

He's a predator, and predators typically pick off easy prey; the sick, the lame, the young, the old. In short, those who won't be missed by the herd.

Not that DCI Hill wants to admit to that, oh dear me, no:
DCI Hill said: “Many of them are vulnerable people, but I think it is more the case that they have been in vulnerable positions, namely that many of them have been out alone in the early hours of the morning.”
So, who is this man of mystery? Why is he free to come and go as he pleases, and prey on the forgotten of society?
The man, who is described as Asian in appearance
Fu Manchu?

Oh, right. I'm forgetting. 'Asian' means only one thing these days....

12 comments:

Gadget-a-go-go said...

Despite the hours of telly show sleuthing using slick technology and astute people who "just know" things, the vast majority of police work is a dull grind.

Knocking on doors, asking the same old same old questions. Fortunately for the cops most murders are not random events; if they weren't family or emotion related they would have a torrid time catching the perps.

As for the possibility of the man being of Fu Manchu looks (or, dare I say it, have the whiff of Ahmed the Righteous Bearded Loon) I could not possibly comment.

But if I could comment, I know what I'd be thinking...

Budvar said...

Would you be thinking that you can't be upsetting the "Asian" community as you never know if you'll need a bottle of milk or a taxi on Christmas day?

Budvar said...

From the description provided, if I was the local plod, I'd be putting all my resources into searching for someone with a sable fur ushanka and a broad Vladivostok accent...

banned said...

A local convenience store in a run-down area tried to utilize modern gadetry by posting cctv stillshots of suspected shoplifters on their 'community noticeboard', plod came along to "give advice" that this was contrary to the accused 'uman rights and demanded that they be removed.

Anonymous said...

I've taken to watching the Crime Channel for research. I'm often astounded by police incompetence. It's really amazing some of them catch colds! Utter disasters, in which the perp finally leaves a trail of footprints in the snow, are presented as great detections.
I suspect a cock-up in this story beyond the gruesome ones. Not much on what they did to try to catch him and a belated mail shot they think likely to be too late. No chance of them putting his mug shot up at airports long ago?

Dave H said...

“Police have worked on the theory that the man has carefully selected vulnerable victims who are unlikely or unable to report their experiences to police.”

They sound very confident that Michelle Samaraweera isn’t the kind of victim to contact the police. Must be pretty slick guys.

BTW our usage of 'Asian' is rather perplexing for the rest of the world. We could at least narrow it down to the appropriate subcontinent to reduce the confusion.

Budvar said...

What gets me is if the suspect was white, the description would be as follows.

Police are searching for a white male in his early 30s, stocky build, short brown hair, approx 6" tall, brown eyes, a man u tattoo on his upper right arm, a goatee beard, with a strong smell of pickled onions and sour beer.

When the suspect is non-white we get the suspect wore jeans and a t-shirt.

moriarty said...

Today detectives will step up their investigation when they post leaflets showing CCTV footage of the man to 60,500 homes...

If they can put CCTV footage onto a leaflet and post it, they must have some pretty impressive technology now. A pity some of it isn't available to help journalists write news articles, eh?

And you'll notice that while the Indy busily wring their hands about how worrying all this is, they don't bother to help out by publishing any of the CCTV stills.

Ed P said...

As my daughter & niece both lived in Walthamstow when these attacks were happening, I delved & found out a bit more about it.
The attacks all occured within a small area bounded by three main roads. This is in the middle of some "ethnic communities" allegedly heavily involved in heroin sales. English is a 2nd or 3rd language in that area. I was told, but cannot confirm it, that the attacker was identified and Plod would do nothing about it, as racial tensions would be exacerbated.

JuliaM said...

"Fortunately for the cops most murders are not random events; if they weren't family or emotion related they would have a torrid time catching the perps."

I remember reading a paper on the statistical chances of a murder being a truly random even perpetrated by a stranger. It was a vanishingly small amount.

Mind you, include manslaughter and it went up a lot.

"From the description provided, if I was the local plod, I'd be putting all my resources into searching for someone with a sable fur ushanka and a broad Vladivostok accent..."

A picture would be nice, and dispel all speculation, wouldn't it?

"...plod came along to "give advice" that this was contrary to the accused 'uman rights and demanded that they be removed."

/headdesk

One law for them...

"I've taken to watching the Crime Channel for research. I'm often astounded by police incompetence. It's really amazing some of them catch colds!"

And if those are the ones they show, what horrors remain on the cutting room floor?

"They sound very confident that Michelle Samaraweera isn’t the kind of victim to contact the police. Must be pretty slick guys."

Perhaps they consulted one of those official police mediums?

"What gets me is if the suspect was white, the description would be as follows."

Spot on!

"...you'll notice that while the Indy busily wring their hands about how worrying all this is, they don't bother to help out by publishing any of the CCTV stills."

Of course not! Mind you, all the CCTV I've ever seen has been such poor quality, I wouldn't recognise myself.

"The attacks all occured within a small area bounded by three main roads. This is in the middle of some "ethnic communities" allegedly heavily involved in heroin sales. English is a 2nd or 3rd language in that area. I was told, but cannot confirm it, that the attacker was identified and Plod would do nothing about it, as racial tensions would be exacerbated."

It's sad that that is no longer even remotely surprising, isn't it?

JuliaM said...

"Fortunately for the cops most murders are not random events; if they weren't family or emotion related they would have a torrid time catching the perps."

I remember reading a paper on the statistical chances of a murder being a truly random even perpetrated by a stranger. It was a vanishingly small amount.

Mind you, include manslaughter and it went up a lot.

"From the description provided, if I was the local plod, I'd be putting all my resources into searching for someone with a sable fur ushanka and a broad Vladivostok accent..."

A picture would be nice, and dispel all speculation, wouldn't it?

"...plod came along to "give advice" that this was contrary to the accused 'uman rights and demanded that they be removed."

/headdesk

One law for them...

JuliaM said...

"I've taken to watching the Crime Channel for research. I'm often astounded by police incompetence. It's really amazing some of them catch colds!"

And if those are the ones they show, what horrors remain on the cutting room floor?

"They sound very confident that Michelle Samaraweera isn’t the kind of victim to contact the police. Must be pretty slick guys."

Perhaps they consulted one of those official police mediums?

"What gets me is if the suspect was white, the description would be as follows."

Spot on!

"...you'll notice that while the Indy busily wring their hands about how worrying all this is, they don't bother to help out by publishing any of the CCTV stills."

Of course not! Mind you, all the CCTV I've ever seen has been such poor quality, I wouldn't recognise myself.

"The attacks all occured within a small area bounded by three main roads. This is in the middle of some "ethnic communities" allegedly heavily involved in heroin sales. English is a 2nd or 3rd language in that area. I was told, but cannot confirm it, that the attacker was identified and Plod would do nothing about it, as racial tensions would be exacerbated."

It's sad that that is no longer even remotely surprising, isn't it?