Complaints against officers

[Fedster + 1,307]

'I feared for my life. I believe the intention was to cause me serious harm,' one officer told the court.

Victoria and Richard Baldwin arriving at court (Picture: South Beds News Agency)

 

A father and his son who went looking for burglars who had broken into their business, ended up chasing a van that contained two plain-clothed police officers sent to investigate the crime, a court heard.

Bernard Baldwin, 63, was behind the wheel of a company van and his son Richard was in the passenger seat armed with a loaded shotgun and rounds of ammunition, it was claimed.

As the pair came up at speed alongside the unmarked police vehicle, Richard Baldwin, 35, is said to have then pointed the shotgun out of the window towards the driver, not realising he was a policeman.

Moments later the son fired both barrels at the police vehicle, hitting its front tyre and the side panel near the driver’s window

PC Marcus Myers the driver of the van that night told the jury of the moment he looked out of his vehicle to see the other van travelling alongside him with the passenger leaning out of the window and pointing a double barrelled shotgun at him.

PC Myers told the court he thought the man was just six feet from him and the end of the shotgun barrels could have been just three feet from his head.

He told the jury: “He was looking directly at me. He didn’t look panicked or angry, he looked calm as if what was happening was normal.

"It was aimed at the bottom of the drivers window where I was sitting.”

The officer said he “slammed” on the brakes to bring the police van to a halt.

He said the other vehicle, a Peugeot van then stopped at an angle in the road blocking his path, before the passenger got out and fired two more rounds towards him and his colleague, PC Russell Mapley.

PC Myers told Luton Crown Court: “I feared for my life. I believe the intention was to cause me serious harm.”

The court heard he was able to turn the vehicle around and speed away

He was giving evidence at on Wednesday where the father and son are on trial pleading not guilty to attempting to murder the two Bedfordshire officers in Leighton Buzzard last September.

Prosecutor Martin Mulgrew told the jury of six men and six women: “In the early hours of Friday September 22 last year Richard Baldwin assisted by his father went driving around Leighton Buzzard looking for a group of men they believed were responsible for breaking into their business premises.

“They were armed with a lawfully held shotgun and a number of rounds of ammunition. They had gone out seeking retribution against those they believed were responsible for the break-in,” he said.

The court heard the father and son’s car repair business - Baldwin’s Motors - was on an industrial estate and situated in Eden Way, in Leighton Buzzard.

Late that night at his home in Dove Tree Road in the town, Bernard Baldwin had been notified that the alarm at the business had been activated and there had been a break-in.

So, too, had his son Richard who lived in Saturn Close, Leighton Buzzard with his wife Victoria, 41.

Mr Mulgrew said a security guard on patrol around the industrial estate had come across four men breaking into the garage by smashing through the metal shutters who on being disturbed made off quickly from the scene.

Shortly afterwards, Bernard had arrived outside the workshop in a company Peugeot van and the son and his wife had pulled up in their car.

“As they got out of the car, the security guard saw a shotgun with Richard in a broken position over his arm,” said the prosecutor.

The court was told the son ended up getting into the Peugeot van with his father and taking the shotgun with him.

Mr Mulgrew said the pair then drove off the industrial estate and along Billington Road in a bid to look for the burglars.

The jury has heard Richard Baldwin was to claim later to police he had been having problems with local travellers and he believed they had broken into the family run garage. He claimed his intention that night was to simply scare them with the shotgun.

Mr Mulgrew said parked up in the area that night were the two police officers in a white unmarked van.

They had been on their way to investigate the break-in but had then been told the “stand down” after the police received reports that Richard Baldwin was armed with a shotgun and in the area.

The jury heard the two officers saw the Peugeot van as it made its way along Billington Road and decided to keep it under observation.

Mr Mulgrew said on seeing the unmarked police vehicle, father and son had “mistakenly” believed the occupants were the burglars.

PC Myers told the court he and his colleague had decided to follow the van at a distance.

The officer said he followed it onto a roundabout where the other vehicle then went round it three times so that it ended up behind the officers' van.

He went on: “After the third circuit I looked in my rear offside mirror and I saw a muzzle flash accompanied by a loud bang.”

PC Myers said it had come from the passenger side of the Baldwins van which was ten metres behind his vehicle.

"I exited the roundabout to evade being shot at,” he said.

On reaching the A505, he said travelled at speeds of up to 100mph in an attempt to put distance between himself and the Peugeot van.

But he said when a lorry pulled out onto the road in front of him, he had to slow down.

“At that point, the van closed the gap almost immediately. It was sat on our rear bumper and I initially thought it might ram our vehicle.”

The officer said he then noticed that the van pulled to its right and then drew alongside himself and PC Mapley.

He described the van as being half in the oncoming lane.

The officer said that both vehicles were driving side by side and he looked to his right.

He went on: "I could see a white male, slim build and about 40, with short dark curly hair and a dark jacket. He was holding a double barrelled shotgun, pointing it in the direction of our van, pointing it at myself.

"His passenger window was open and the barrel of the shotgun was leant out and pointing towards myself and PC Mapley."

The officer said the man with the gun was looking at him for between one and two seconds before he braked so that the Peugeot van immediately went in front of his police vehicle.

The officer said: "Both barrels had been protruding out of the van and some of the stock."

PC Myers said the Baldwins then pulled towards the left once more and stopped at an angle in the road so that the route ahead was blocked.

"The van was about 20 feet away and the male I had described exited the vehicle with the shotgun in his arms. He raised it up towards his chest and eye level and aimed it at myself and PC Mapley.

"I felt the most sensible option was to try and get away.  There was genuine fear for my safety."

The officer said as he slammed his vehicle into reverse and began turning, he was aware of two shots being fired by the man towards himself and his colleague.

Cross-examined by Jonathan Goldberg QC, defending Richard Baldwin, the officer said it was possible that when both vehicles had been driving along the A505 side by side, the end of the barrels of the shotgun had been just three feet from his head.

The jury has been told that, in a prepared statement, Richard Baldwin told police he had been having problems with travellers and, on receiving an alert that his business premises had been broken into, had taken his shotgun with him that night to scare the intruders.

Mr Goldberg earlier addressed the jury and told them: “Richard and his father genuinely believed that they were following Irish travellers who had just burgled their garage. Richard fired out of this particular shotgun three times, twice in the air and once at the front tyre of the van.

“He wasn't intending to kill or hurt anybody.

"He intended only to scare the occupants of the van in order to stop and submit to lawful arrest until the police arrived.  It was, in fact, a genuine case of mistaken identity."

He said he had wanted to detain the burglars until police arrived and he had wanted to disable the van or mark it so that it could be traced.

In addition to the attempted murder charges, both men plead not guilty to alternative charges of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to the constables with intent.

Both deny possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and carrying a loaded shotgun in a public place.

Bernard Baldwin denies dangerous driving.

Also in the dock with the men is Richard Baldwin's wife Victoria, who pleads not guilty to a charge of assisting an offender.

It’s claimed that following the shootings, the men returned back to their business where she was waiting and took away the shotgun before police arrived on the scene.

Case proceeding

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[HazRat 762]

6 hours ago, Fedster said:

He intended only to scare the occupants of the van in order to stop and submit to lawful arrest until the police arrived.  It was, in fact, a genuine case of mistaken identity

Well that’s all right then. They only wanted to scare people and as they made a genuine mistake they should go free. If only that was the case.

What an absolutely horrifying incident to be caught up in. I hope the jury come to the right decision and this dangerous pair do some serious jail time. I don’t disagree that being a victim of crime is terrible and that police may not have the resources to attend / investigate every call for service, but it doesn’t warrant taking this kind of vigilante action.

[MerseyLLB 8,426]

By no means am I criticising the officers...

Was there not covert blues or a siren or anything however?

The only reason I ask is I've been in the opposite circumstances... stopped a small vehicle (one not normally used for police unmarked response) driving erratically... and a man in civvies got out with a carbine in his hand. I vacated my bowels and he presented a warrant card and identified himself as on a job (several expletives used by him). 10 seconds later all was clarified and I left red faced.

***

I have my own views on the veracity of the defendants account but as this is before a court I will hold back.

[jimmyriddle 87]

By no means am I criticising the officers...
Was there not covert blues or a siren or anything however?
The only reason I ask is I've been in the opposite circumstances... stopped a small vehicle (one not normally used for police unmarked response) driving erratically... and a man in civvies got out with a carbine in his hand. I vacated my bowels and he presented a warrant card and identified himself as on a job (several expletives used by him). 10 seconds later all was clarified and I left red faced.
***
I have my own views on the veracity of the defendants account but as this is before a court I will hold back.

I appreciate he can't leave his rifle lying around unsecured, but did he have to get out the car with it? Couldn't he have waited for you to approach and then show his warrant card and say Airwaves terminal for extra clarification? Seems like an intimidation technique to me, assuming he got back into his car with it

[Fedster + 1,307]

Businessman who shot at officers cleared of attempted murder

Jury told case was a genuine example of mistaken identity.

Victoria and Richard Baldwin arriving at court (Picture: South Beds News Agency)

A businessmen who shot at an unmarked police car in a case of mistaken identity has been cleared of attempted murder.

Richard Baldwin, 35, and his father Bernard were convinced that a night-time break-in at their garage workshop in Leighton Buzzard had been carried out by Irish travellers and went out to look for them.

The expert clay pigeon shooter took a double barrelled shotgun from his gun cabinet, along with a handful of cartridges, Luton crown court heard.

Moments later, they saw a white van parked up by a roundabout, and wrongly assumed it contained travellers who were responsible for the burglary.

Prosecutor Martin Mulgrew said: "They had gone out seeking retribution against those they believed were responsible for the break-in.”

In fact, the jury heard, the two people inside the unmarked Vivaro police van were plain-clothed officers, PC Marcus Myers and his colleague, PC Russell Mapley.

The two Bedfordshire officers had been on their way to the break-in at Baldwins Motors, but had been told by control room staff back at headquarters to stand down because of reports that the son was armed with a gun.

In a high speed chase that followed, Richard Baldwin fired the shotgun out of the passenger seat window.

Then, as the two vehicles drove parallel to one another and just feet apart, the prosecution said he pointed the shotgun directly at PC Myers, who was behind the wheel of the van.

Moments later, after both vans had screeched to a halt, Richard Baldwin fired twice more at the police vehicle before it managed to reverse and get away.

Jonathan Goldberg QC, defending, told the jury: "Richard and his father genuinely believed they were following Irish travellers who had just burgled their garage. Richard fired out of this particular shotgun three times, twice in the air and once at the front tyre of the van. He wasn't intending to kill or hurt anybody.

"He intended only to scare the occupants of the van in order to stop and submit to lawful arrest until police arrived. It was in fact a genuine case of mistaken identity."

There were screams of celebration at Luton Crown Court as a jury cleared Richard Baldwin of attempted murder, attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent and possessing a firearm to cause fear of violence.

His father, 64-year-old Bernard Baldwin, was also found not guilty of attempted murder, attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent, possessing a firearm to cause fear of violence and dangerous driving.

And Richard’s wife Victoria, 41, was found not guilty of assisting an offender.

During the trial the jury heard how, in the early hours of Friday September 22 last year, there was a break-in at their garage in Eden Way on the Page’s Park industrial estate on the edge of Leighton Buzzard.

Richard had started his car repair business some years earlier and had brought his experienced mechanic father Bernard into the business to help him.

In the weeks and months leading up to the break-in, the son said he had experienced problems with a group of travellers from a nearby permanent site on the outskirts of the town.

The father-of-four told the jury the group had brought cars to his workshop for repairs and then wouldn’t pay him or ignored requests to collect their vehicles.

He said they would steal property from his garage and threaten him with violence, telling the court on one occasion he was pushed up against a wall and had his shirt ripped.

On another occasion he said he was taken against his will to the Greenacres site, where they lived, to confirm he had carried out work on a vehicle one of the travellers was considering buying from another traveller.

He said as the threats and intimidation continued, one of the travellers even threatened to rape his children.

At 1.15am the father and son were notified that the workshop had suffered a break-in after a security guard came across a group of men trying to break through the front shutters of the business.

Richard Baldwin guessed the culprits were travellers who were after two of their vehicles that were in the workshop at the time.“I wasn't going to let them go this time without payment,” he said.

Before he left his home in Saturn Close, Leighton Buzzard, he grabbed the double barrelled shotgun from a gun cabinet. Then, with his wife Victoria behind the wheel of the VW Touran, they rushed to the business to inspect the damage.

So, too, did Mr Baldwin snr, leaving his home in nearby Dove Tree Road in the town to drive to the industrial estate in a company van. When they arrived, they found that money had been taken in the raid.

As his son looked around, Bernard went for a drive around the area to see if he could spot the burglars.

Richard Baldwin told the jury that minutes later his father returned and told him he had spotted a white van parked up with “two dodgy looking people in it,” who were acting suspiciously.

“He said: 'The pikey bastards are sitting up there, the ones who have done the garage.'"

The son said he got into the van his father was driving and took with him the shotgun and some cartridges.

Mr Baldwin junior said when his father asked him why he had the shotgun, he said: "It's to scare them, to find them and stop them."

Continuing his evidence, the son told the jury that when he and his father were approaching a roundabout a short distance from their workshop he could see the white van.

Mr Baldwin said on the roundabout he and his father ended up following the other van. As he sat on the front passenger seat, he loaded the shotgun with a cartridge, wound the window down and fired into the air.

Asked by Mr Goldberg why he had fired the gun he replied: “To scare them into stopping and hold them because I knew the police were on their way. I would have held them at gunpoint.”

He said the van sped off along the A505 in the direction of Dunstable, but when it came up behind a lorry, it had to slow down. The Baldwins drove alongside so that they were just feet apart and parallel to each other.

Mr Goldberg said: “The police have described you sticking the shotgun out the window so close that you could have tapped on their window. Do you agree?”

Mr Baldwin replied: “Yes,” and he said he had wanted the occupants of the other vehicle to see his weapon.

He went on: “I wanted to scare them, to stop them and then I could have held them.”

He said the ends of the barrels were just three feet from the driver’s head and he knew if he had fired it would have proved fatal.

But he repeated it was never his intention to fire the gun at the driver.

When PC Myers saw the shotgun pointing at him, he braked hard and the Baldwins stopped their vehicle in the road in front blocking its path.

The son told the court as the other van was reversing away he fired towards it while half in and half out of his van. He said he then got out and fired another shot at the vehicle.

He said he had never aimed for the two occupants, but had wanted to disable the van or at least mark it with pellet shot for future identification.

After the verdicts, Judge Lynn Tayton QC discharged the defendants.

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[HazRat 762]

Everyday I get more disillusioned by our court system. We are fast becoming a joke. Possession of a load shotgun in a public place is still an offence. Why was that not charged as well?

I genuinely feel that if I was assaulted or worse that our pathetic judicial system would let them off with the results that we’ve seen in the last few weeks.

[a-bothan-spy 81]

Sad week for jury trials.

[JulietAlpha1 + 515]

One thing I’ve never and probably will never get my head around is when people admit the offence and are still found not guilty...

- They were in possession of a firearm

- They were trying to scare the suspected burglars by their own admission...

How is that not ‘possession of a firearm w/ intent to cause fear of violence?’

I had a driving offence at Mags a couple of years ago. Guy pulls out of a side street without looking, causes me to brake sharply. He was reported for driving without due care. After pleading not guilty, in his evidence he claimed that due to his driving position being low, he couldn’t see what was coming, so he just pulled out into oncoming traffic. Not guilty?!

[cookyy2k 536]

I think the prosecution went in too high on this one. Attempted murder is near impossible to bring home in these circs due to needing to prove an intent to kill. Surely there are public order, firearms and driving offences that would have been easier to prove and get a result.

[SD + 687]

4 hours ago, cookyy2k said:

I think the prosecution went in too high on this one. Attempted murder is near impossible to bring home in these circs due to needing to prove an intent to kill. Surely there are public order, firearms and driving offences that would have been easier to prove and get a result.

You might want to read all the article before you commment.

[Hyphen + 693]

17 hours ago, cookyy2k said:

I think the prosecution went in too high on this one. Attempted murder is near impossible to bring home in these circs due to needing to prove an intent to kill. Surely there are public order, firearms and driving offences that would have been easier to prove and get a result.

There was a charge of possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. Their defence was basically admitting this offence yet was found not guilty. It beggars belief.

Its perverse that a not guilty verdict was returned.

What next? “I’m not guilty of shoplifting, I just went in to the shop, took some goods off the shelf and ran out the door”

[Radman + 2,163]

On 06/06/2018 at 17:25, JulietAlpha1 said:

One thing I’ve never and probably will never get my head around is when people admit the offence and are still found not guilty...

- They were in possession of a firearm

- They were trying to scare the suspected burglars by their own admission...

How is that not ‘possession of a firearm w/ intent to cause fear of violence?’

I had a driving offence at Mags a couple of years ago. Guy pulls out of a side street without looking, causes me to brake sharply. He was reported for driving without due care. After pleading not guilty, in his evidence he claimed that due to his driving position being low, he couldn’t see what was coming, so he just pulled out into oncoming traffic. Not guilty?!

Their defence seem to have gone down the route that the firearms were carried as a means of facilitating a lawful 'any person' power arrest against the burglars and that the firearms use was a proportionate use of force....

The Jury in these circumstances have agreed that it was.

Firing at a random vehicle, in the middle of the night on the off chance that the person' committed a burglary against your property is frankly... reckless at the very least.

[cookyy2k 536]

On 09/06/2018 at 10:03, Radman said:

Their defence seem to have gone down the route that the firearms were carried as a means of facilitating a lawful 'any person' power arrest against the burglars and that the firearms use was a proportionate use of force....

The Jury in these circumstances have agreed that it was.

Firing at a random vehicle, in the middle of the night on the off chance that the person' committed a burglary against your property is frankly... reckless at the very least.

I wonder if the same finding would occur if it was a AFO using these tactics...

[jimmyriddle 87]

On 06/06/2018 at 10:25, JulietAlpha1 said:

One thing I’ve never and probably will never get my head around is when people admit the offence and are still found not guilty...

- They were in possession of a firearm

- They were trying to scare the suspected burglars by their own admission...

How is that not ‘possession of a firearm w/ intent to cause fear of violence?’

Look at the definition below - the key words are "unlawful violence". Threatening someone to get out of your house if they're a burglar isn't an affray, s4, etc. etc. because you have reasonable excuse and the violence used would be lawful (assuming it was also reasonable).

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/27/section/16A
Possession of firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
It is an offence for a person to have in his possession any firearm or imitation firearm with intent—
(a)by means thereof to cause, or
(b)to enable another person by means thereof to cause,
any person to believe that unlawful violence will be used against him or another person

[Growley + 2,436]

Look at the definition below - the key words are "unlawful violence". Threatening someone to get out of your house if they're a burglar isn't an affray, s4, etc. etc. because you have reasonable excuse and the violence used would be lawful (assuming it was also reasonable).
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/27/section/16A
Possession of firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
It is an offence for a person to have in his possession any firearm or imitation firearm with intent—
(a)by means thereof to cause, or
(b)to enable another person by means thereof to cause,
any person to believe that unlawful violence will be used against him or another person

He wasn't threatening someone to get out of his house though, he was threatening someone with a firearm in a public place away from his property.

It's also illegal to carry a loaded shotgun in a public place without lawful authority or reasonable excuse. I can't imagine that enacting vigilante justice counts as a reasonable excuse.