The BTP officers were looking for a man wearing a blue shirt who had reportedly performed a sex act on himself in a train carriage a woman was travelling in on the 6.28pm train from Petts Wood to Bromley.And our fearless investigators swung into action…
Mr Jones had been on that train and was wearing a blue jacket so when officers found him on a train travelling back to his home about two hours later they arrested him.Just because of the shirt? Did he otherwise match the description of the suspect?
After being questioned at Orpington he was locked in a cell at Ebury Bridge (Victoria) Transport Police station for several hours before a formal interview took place. During this interview it emerged the suspect the police were looking for was in his late 20s, had blondish hair and was travelling in the back carriage. Mr Jones is 49 years old and was travelling in the front carriage.But he had A BLUE JACKET! OK, it’s not a shirt, but come on, how can we expect BTP to know the difference? It’s not like there was CCTV or someth…
Oh. Wait…
He was eliminated from the BTP enquiries after officers watched the CCTV from the train.Well, can’t expect them to do it before they arrest someone, I guess.
Investigating officer Detective Sergeant Jason Schweiger said: “We need to act quickly when we receive a report of this nature, a suspect could still be at the scene and we need to do our best to identify the person responsible. “Your best clearly wasn't good enough.
“In this case, a description of a man we were looking for in connection with the incident was circulated and a man of similar description who had travelled on the train in question was arrested.”But it wasn’t a man ‘of similar description’, was it?
I read this last week in that great publication..The News SHopper. I still can't believe the circumstances set out and the justification of this man's arrest. It is simply madness. The fact that he is gay is given prominence...which is a shame as surely the main point of this story is that he is an innocent man, wrongfully arrested and I hope he sues their arses off. Now...if they'd been the fashion police..........
ReplyDeleteIt's jsut as well that the offender wasn't wearing a black T-shirt or else half of BTP would be arresting the other half!
ReplyDeletePenseivat
The power of arrest for that sort of thing used to be 'found committing'.
ReplyDeleteThe other option applying to the magistrates for a 'descriptive' warrant to arrest.
I never needed to do one but I think the description had to be a bit more than 'wearing a blue shirt'
"The fact that he is gay is given prominence...which is a shame as surely the main point of this story is that he is an innocent man..."
ReplyDeleteSpot on!
"It's jsut as well that the offender wasn't wearing a black T-shirt or else half of BTP would be arresting the other half! "
SNORK!
"...but I think the description had to be a bit more than 'wearing a blue shirt'"
One would hope so..!