One of the most audacious British art thefts, the disappearance of a two-tonne Henry Moore sculpture worth £3m, has been solved by police...Really...? Good job, officers!
Oh, wait:
...who believe that the internationally revered Reclining Figure sculpture was melted down and sold for no more than £1,500.So, no actual proof then? It's just what you believe?
Police feared at first that it had been stolen to order, but investigations suggest it was taken by a group of travellers from Essex and that the metal may have ended up feeding China's growing demand for electrical components.Travellers, you say? Hmmm...
Humphries, who led the investigation, said: "We have evidence and information suggesting it was cut up on the night, then taken to a location where it was irreparably damaged before it was shipped abroad. In my mind we've managed to kill off the mystery as much as is possible."Well, yeah. Apart from that whole 'arresting people' stuff that the police used to do...
6 comments:
The important thing here is that they can now tick the box that says 'we know what happened' and successfully meet their target for detection.
The 'we caught someone' box is, of course, a completely different one, and therefore someone else's problem.
Julia
Pikies “bubbling” is as rare as hen’s teeth. If one has passed on info about a genuine crime (as opposed to trying to manipulate police action against another individual or group) then it will be for a reason (to avoid a sentence). If numerous “bubbles” (quiet words, rumours, nods etc) are received from various sources suspicions become very strong….however in the numerous names and identities world of pikies the names “Fat Frankie” and “Big John” are common and surnames are as changeable as socks….without prints and DNA evidence we don’t know who these people are EVEN if we KNOW their names!! The Pikey world is a parallel universe where our laws are irrelevant.
With regards to Pikeys our laws are simply not fit for purpose.
"The important thing here is that they can now tick the box that says 'we know what happened' and successfully meet their target for detection."
Ahh, targets...
"The Pikey world is a parallel universe where our laws are irrelevant. "
But is that measurably different from any other close knit community with familial ties and a code of silence? Like, for instance, the Mafia, Yakuza, and other?
Is it our laws that aren't fit for purpose, or our intelligence and information gathering?
How strange to find the Moore Foundation taking the hump at lump workers and reclining policemen.
.....But is that measurably different from any other close knit community with familial ties and a code of silence? Like, for instance, the Mafia, Yakuza, and other?....
It probably isn't but whereas most UK Police Officers have never had to deal with the mafia or even the triads, most UK Police Officer have had to deal with travellers. The main problem is that of identity. Brothers and cousins of the same family look similar (obviously). There are a number of surnames that are common among the traveller population, Brazil, Bowers, Lee, Smith, to name but a few and repeating the christian name through the generations is also fairly common, grandad Caleb, father Caleb, son Caleb and grandson Caleb. All that coupled with the fact that they move around the country and don't have an actual address makes them hard to identify.
It may be that the Police got info that a quantity of bronze had been sold to a scrap yard by some 'travellers' but unless the identification of those involved cannot be DNA, fingerprints or a decent photo, forget it.
I just hope the info hasn't come from a police or local authority traveller liaison officer who helped them with their cultural needs and identified a suitable scrap dealer.
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