Monday 20 July 2009

CSI: Greater Manchester

An office worker was accused of burgling a colleague's home after police found her fingerprints on a wedding card she had signed at her desk.

Alysha Wilson was arrested at work, marched off to a police cell and accused of breaking into the home of the bride while she was on holiday.
Wow!

Who knew they took burglary so seriously in Greater Manchester?
Earlier, the 19-year-old's solicitor had insisted on an independent forensic examination of the evidence and found officers had incorrectly labelled his client's fingerprints.
Whoops!

Gus Gil Grissom, these guys ain’t…
'It's been traumatic really,' she said. 'I am just so happy now that it has come to light what the truth was behind it and why, otherwise I would have been another person on a list and being named a criminal. Being put in a police cell is not nice for anyone.'
She’s awfully forgiving, under the circumstances. I don’t think I’d be.
Greater Manchester Police has now launched an investigation, which could result in disciplinary action against blundering officers.
‘Could’…?

But the statement from the police seems a little economical with the truth:
'A fingerprint taken from a greeting card was mistakenly labelled as coming from a games console box, which led to the woman being charged,' said Asst Chief Con Ian Seabridge.

'As soon as this mistake came to light, all charges against the woman were dropped.
And how did this mistake come to light, officer?

Was it when her solicitor insisted on a recount, correctly surmising that your crack crap team of investigators couldn’t find their bums with both hands and a flashlight?

Well, no. Asst Chief Con Seabridge reckons it was down to their own procedures:
'It was discovered as part of the preparation for the court case when all evidence is rigorously scrutinised.

'The detailed checks and balances we always carry out ensured an innocent woman was not put through further distress.

'This kind of error is extremely rare and unacceptable and we are, of course, sorry that the woman was put into this dreadful situation.'
Mmmm, sure it was. Suuure it was…

After all, they can't both be right. Someone’s spinning the truth about how this ghastly error came to light, aren’t they?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr Seabridge is a liar! I don't know how much more any of us can take. It is an exhausting daily onslaught of lies, deceit, incompetence and sheer evil from a corrupt and evil political system. This could have been yet another miscarriage of justice with that young lady spending years behind bars as the appeal process rumbled on, but, a miscarriage not caused by deliberate actions on the part of the police and supported by the rest of the criminal justice establishment BUT by sheer incompetance. The telling thing is the statement that doesn't reassure us that blame is properly apportioned and appropriate measures taken to (A) concentrate minds and (b)ensure it never happens again; but is the usual mealy mouthed excuse. I'm only surprised not to read the ubiquitous phrase 'lessons learned'.

Pavlov's Cat said...

Pavlov the Pedant here.

I think you mean Gil Grissom from CSI:Vegas and not Gus Grissom the astronaut.

I know it shouldn't bother me, but it does, I'm sick I tell you, sick.

JuliaM said...

"The telling thing is the statement that doesn't reassure us that blame is properly apportioned and appropriate measures taken to (A) concentrate minds and (b)ensure it never happens again; but is the usual mealy mouthed excuse. "

It seems to be the default statement these days - I think they have a template & just change the names as appropriate...

"Pavlov the Pedant here.

I think you mean Gil Grissom from CSI:Vegas and not Gus Grissom the astronaut."


Whoops! indeed...

I was only just watching it yesterday! *blush*

Anonymous said...

Cue usual excuses...lessons learned...blah blah blah

Anonymous said...

And this is just the accidental ... the deliberate destruction of live... that's another matter.