UK Policing News

http://www.policeoracle.com/news/Police-Th...cted_20719.html a police officer on his beat was seen on cctv shoplifting

The Home Office has had to reduce the time the police hold the DNA of people not convicted of any crime. But six years is still unacceptably long and it is still unclear how many people's DNA will be kept indefinitely. We are told that retaining samples helps catch rapists and murderers. But no reliable figures exist on how many violent criminals cleared of one offence were later convicted through DNA. Despite having the biggest DNA database in the world, the proportion of reported rapes that result in a conviction on the charge of rape in Britain is an abysmal 6.5%. The catalogue of errors in the Worboys and Reid cases had nothing to do with storing DNA but with eviden…

The day I began jury service, a friend of mine went to prison. Nothing to do with me, obviously. If you are sitting on a jury and recognise anyone in the court (witness, lawyer, viewer in the public gallery) you must excuse yourself – as happened in one of the cases I was allocated, where a likeable young man was sworn in, took one look at the defendant, waved, got up and left the room. No, my friend's regrettable fate was just a coincidence, a strange thing that happened on the day I began a strange adventure. Perhaps you read about his case? Michael Arnold was the agent for Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen's Music. Half a million pounds went missing from…

Police are searching for escaped murderer Patricia Gillette Detectives were today hunting a convicted murderer who escaped while out on an escorted shopping trip. Patricia Gillette, 41, disappeared at around 3pm yesterday while visiting shops in West Wickham, south east London. Gillette, of Streatham, south London, was being held at the nearby Bethlem Royal Hospital. In 2007 she was convicted at the Old Bailey of murdering Mark Murphy, 38, at his home in Streatham in August 2006 and detained indefinitely under a hospital order. Detective Sergeant Gary Gornell, of Bromley CID, said: 'This individual is dangerous and we need to apprehend her as soon as possible. If any…

A childminder who killed a 16-month-old boy was given money from the government to return home to Malaysia after her release from prison. Agnes Wong, 29, was convicted in January 2008 of the manslaughter of Hugo Wang at her Salford flat. Manchester Crown Court heard she had picked him up by his ankles and flung him against either a bed or a sofa. She was given the money, understood to be £4,500, under a scheme to encourage foreign inmates to accept deportation. Bite marks Wong was paid £120 a week to look after the boy as his parents worked long hours in a Chinese restaurant in Southport, Merseyside. She had been looking after the child at her flat in Frank Co…

Tragic WPC Sharon Beshenivsky Saturday November 14,2009 TAXPAYERS have handed over an eye-watering £3.4billion to take care of foreign prisoners since 1997. The total bill is now £431million a year – with 11,350 foreign convicts in UK jails. That compares to just 5,388 when Labour came to power, according to Tory figures that were revealed yesterday. Many of them have been ­convicted of horrific offences, such as murder and rape. They include vile criminals like Yusuf Jama, a Somali illegal ­immigrant, who killed WPC Sharon Beshenivsky in Bradford in 2005. He is expected to remain in prison here until 2041 after being told he must serve at least 35 years. …

The mother of a three-year-old boy who was hit 11 times with a car jack by a child of the same age has won the right to compensation. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/B..._Three-Year-Old Are things changing with this story, in that kids can now be prosecuted, and the under-age loophole is no longer a factor. "The age of criminal responsibility in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 10." Not anymore by the looks of things, as these kids were younger.

An 86-year-old woman who was kidnapped and raped at a care home has died. The frail victim was dragged from her bed and raped in the garden of the Springfield residential care home in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The pensioner was discovered at about 1am on September 15 after staff, who checked on her hourly because of her medical condition, found she was missing from her room. An 86-year-old who was kidnapped and raped in September at Springfield care home in Bradford has died. A teenager pleaded guilty to the attack last month Dale Gary Boocock, 19, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty in October to kidnap and rape and is due to be sentenced later this month at Bradfor…

Police are searching for escaped murderer Patricia GilletteDetectives were today hunting a convicted murderer who escaped while out on an escorted shopping trip. Patricia Gillette, 41, disappeared at around 3pm yesterday while visiting shops in West Wickham, south east London. Gillette, of Streatham, south London, was being held at the nearby Bethlem Royal Hospital. In 2007 she was convicted at the Old Bailey of murdering Mark Murphy, 38, at his home in Streatham in August 2006 and detained indefinitely under a hospital order. Detective Sergeant Gary Gornell, of Bromley CID, said: 'This individual is dangerous and we need to apprehend her as soon as possible. If anyon…

Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said there should be no role for the private sector in law enforcement in Britain, and the Police Federation, which represents officers, urged authorities to be "wary" about giving them power. The private security firms usually charge residents to patrol streets in a bid to deter troublemakers. Simon Reed, vice chairman of the Police Federation, told the BBC: "We have got people who have certain powers, we are going to see them in uniform. "Potentially there is confusion there for the public and who are they actually accountable to? "I understand the public's fear of crime but actually it's the police who patrol pu…

he use of cautions for criminal offences is to be reviewed, Justice Secretary Jack Straw has announced. The move comes after the BBC learned that almost 40,000 cases of assault were dealt with by cautions in England and Wales last year. The figures have led to fears among some that out-of-court punishments are being wrongly used. Mr Straw told the BBC he had "concerns" about the variations between the way different forces were using them. Cautions are formal warnings, issued at the discretion of the police if the offender admits their guilt. In England and Wales, half of all criminal cases are now punished out of court by way of cautions, warnings and fines - dire…

Devon and Cornwall Police are running a forcewide operation throughout November targeting goods vehicles and coaches looking at drivers’ hours (tachograph) offences and carriage of dangerous goods (HAZMAT) offences. Operation FATIGUE is an initiative aimed at reducing road casualties and collisions by robust enforcement of road traffic legislation in order to address offences committed by drivers and operators of large goods vehicles (LGVs) and passenger carrying vehicles (PCVs). Specifically, the operation will target drivers’ hours offences, tachograph falsification and hazardous materials offences. Department for Transport (DfT) research shows that LGVs account f…

An 86-year-old woman who was kidnapped and raped at a care home has died. The frail victim was dragged from her bed and raped in the garden of the Springfield residential care home in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The pensioner was discovered at about 1am on September 15 after staff, who checked on her hourly because of her medical condition, found she was missing from her room. An 86-year-old who was kidnapped and raped in September at Springfield care home in Bradford has died. A teenager pleaded guilty to the attack last month Dale Gary Boocock, 19, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty in October to kidnap and rape and is due to be sentenced later this month at Bradfor…

Tragic WPC Sharon Beshenivsky Saturday November 14,2009 By Gabriel Milland TAXPAYERS have handed over an eye-watering £3.4billion to take care of foreign prisoners since 1997. The total bill is now £431million a year – with 11,350 foreign convicts in UK jails. That compares to just 5,388 when Labour came to power, according to Tory figures that were revealed yesterday. Many of them have been ­convicted of horrific offences, such as murder and rape. They include vile criminals like Yusuf Jama, a Somali illegal ­immigrant, who killed WPC Sharon Beshenivsky in Bradford in 2005. He is expected to remain in prison here until 2041 after being told he must serve…