Dutchman wrongly jailed for rape is freed after TWELVE YEARS in a Spanish prison after the killer  admitted to carrying out the sex attack

The Spaniards obviously hated to admit that they got it wrong.  Do you have to have the real perpetrator confess before you are exonerated in Spain?

A Dutchman wrongly accused of a rape committed by British killer Mark Dixie has been freed after more than 12 years behind bars in Spain after his conviction was overturned.

The Spanish Supreme Court today quashed Romano van der Dussen's conviction for the attack carried out in August 2003, and ordered his immediate release from jail where he was wrongly serving a 15 year sentence.

The court's decision came eight months after Mark Dixie, 44, who is serving life for the savage murder of Sally Anne Bowman in south London in 2005, admitted raping a Spanish woman in a drink and drug-fuelled rage in the popular resort of Fuengirola in August 2003.

Two years later Dixie raped and murdered model Sally Ann Bowman, near her home in Croydon, South London.

Dixie made the confession to Dussen's lawyer in Durham prison in June last year. A DNA test in Holland later confirmed Dixie's link to the crime.

Dussen, 42, was arrested in Fuengirola shortly after that attack and two others, which he always denied, and was later convicted and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

Dixie's DNA was found at the scene of one of the attacks, but never traced by Spanish police. No DNA from Dussen was found at any of the crime scenes.

After his confession to lawyer Rachel Imamkhan, Dixie made a written three page statement which was lodged with the Spanish Supreme Court.

But Dussen had to remain in prison until the court accepted his appeal against conviction.

He had been convicted of all three of the sexual attacks in the resort and was identified by just one of the victims.

The Supreme Court judges heard during the appeal that the Dutchman bore a similar appearance to Dixie and there were only two years difference in their ages.

Last year, Dixie admitted to raping one of the women but claimed he could not remember if he carried out the other two attacks because he was high on drugs at the time.

In June, murderer Dixie confessed to one of the rapes and gave a saliva sample at HMP Frankland in Co Durham which was matched to DNA found on the first victim. Spanish police confirmed the match in a report in August.

Prosecutors at Romano's trial said the same man must have committed all three rapes, which took place within two hours of each other in the early hours of August 10 2003.

One woman was punched, thrown to the floor and raped in a terrifying 15-minute ordeal. She spent four days in hospital and suffered severe psychological problems.

Minutes later a second woman was punched in the head, thrown to the floor and sexually assaulted. The attacker fled with her Nokia mobile phone and 120 euros in cash.

The third victim was attacked a few hundred yards away; punched in the head, thrown to the floor, sexually assaulted and beaten.

Romano, now 42, was jailed for a total of 15-and-a-half years - despite the fact DNA found on the first victim did not match his - after being picked out of photographs in police files.

Romano's lengthy fight to clear his name had already suffered a series of setbacks.

Spain's Supreme Court turned down an appeal against his 2005 sentence the following year and refused to admit an appeal in July because it was 'premature.' despite long-standing evidence linking Dixie to at least one of the attacks and pointing to Romano being the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Ms Imamkhan, legal director of PrisonLAW which specialises in overturning miscarriages of justice, said after meeting him: 'Mark Dixie confessed that in 2003 he was living in Fuengirola and he remembers committing a rape that Romano van der Dussen has been convicted of.

'He also stated that he is sorry that another person has been in prison for such a long period of time for that rape.

'A new analysis of DNA evidence carried out at the National Forensic Investigations Agency has also confirmed that Mark Dixie carried out that rape.

Sally Anne Bowman was raped and murdered near her home in Croydon in September 2005 soon after Dixie, from Streatham, south London, returned to the UK from Spain. The teenager was stabbed seven times and raped while she lay dead or dying.

Dixie was arrested the following year by chance after a fight in a pub, and was linked to the gruesome killing through his DNA.

He was jailed for life - and told he must serve a minimum of 34 years - in February 2008 after a trial at the Old Bailey.

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

Texas Newspaper Threatens to Publish Police Officers’ Names, Addresses in Retaliation for Shooting of Unarmed Man



Two articles below.  It would seem that the man above was a  victim of the very poor relations between blacks and the police.  When approaching black suspects, police are on hairtrigger alert for hostility. That sometimes means that split-second decisions are seen as needed to ensure officer safety.  Since the Left -- from Obama down -- are always stirring up black hostility to the police, the problem may well get worse before it gets better

A Texas newspaper threatened to publish the names and addresses of all San Antonio police officers after the fatal police-involved shooting of a 36-year-old man last week, Fox News reported.

The publisher of the San Antonio Observer compared police officers to sex offenders whose personal information is published to protect the public, and to the Ku Klux Klan, saying they’ll do anything they can “to protect their identities for fear of being brought to justice.”

According to San Antonio Police Department Chief William McManus, Antronie Scott, who was wanted for felony warrants, was being followed by undercover officers. As he exited his vehicle, an officer asked him to show his hands, and when Scott quickly turned around, an officer fatally shot him once in the chest. McManus said the investigation found that Scott was unarmed and holding a cell phone at the time he was shot, KENS 5, a local TV station, reported.

"Like Ku Klux Klansman with hoods, (officers) do everything they can in order to protect their identities for fear of being brought to justice," Stephanie Zarriello, publisher of the weekly tabloid, told KEN5, a local TV station.

"So, in light of these facts, we at the San Antonio Observer Newspaper Group are looking into the future prospects of publicizing the names and addresses of all San Antonio Police Department officers in order to protect our community," she said at the news conference.

"Just as the names and addresses of sex offenders are publicized in order to protect the public from their wicked behavior, we feel that our community has the right to the exact same level of protection," Zarriello said.

Original report here


Witness gives his account of Antronie Scott shooting

KENS 5 spoke to a man who claims he witnessed the shooting death of Antronie Scott. He said he was told by SAPD not to discuss anything while they investigate, so he wouldn’t talk on camera, but he did say the entire ordeal was “devastating to see.”

Police said they had 36-year-old Antronie Scott under surveillance for two felony warrants, for drug and firearm possession.

“All you heard was a shot, you didn’t hear anything like, ‘Get out of your car with your hands up,’” said Todd Ridley, who lives at the apartment complex where the shooting happened.

Ridley said he came out of his apartment to see the aftermath of the shooting.

SAPD said Scott got out of his car and turned toward officer John Lee. The officer said he feared for his life and fired one shot at Scott. Officer Lee said he thought Scott had a gun in his hand, but it was actually a cell phone.

Now that the dust has settled, neighbors are not happy with how it all ended. “There's other ways they can apprehend anybody, even if they are under investigation," Ridley said. "Apprehension is easy, they train for that."

“If worst comes to worst, they do have tasers. They don't want to use them?” Shannon DesJardin asked.

While those neighbors only saw the aftermath, KENS 5 did come across a man who claims he saw the entire incident. He said he was told by authorities to not discuss the case, but he told us off camera:

“I would've have done the same thing [as officer Lee].”

“[Scott] made an aggressive move toward the officer.”

SAPD Chief William McManus said there’s no dash cam or body camera video, just audio. SAPD does have body cameras on the way, with the first cameras to be deployed around February 21, to bike patrol and park police. Then the east substation will get cameras, with full implementation early next year.

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

Canada: Crazy woman falsely accuses man

The revenge of a rejected woman, apparently.  Another case of strange prosecutorial judgment in bringing the matter to trial.  Is a mere accusation enough to go to court?

Sometime today, if the world according to Lucy DeCoutere unfolds as it should, Marie Henein will get some flowers.  They’ll be from DeCoutere, of course, with a note maybe saying, “You kicked my butt yesterday; can we hang soon?”

This — sending flowers to and love-bombing those who have hurt you, not to mention handed your ass to you on a platter — is what DeCoutere would have Ontario Court Judge William Horkins believe she does, that it’s her thing to be particularly nice to people who are mean to her.  She calls this “flattening out my negative.”

It was, as it turns out, just this Thursday, shortly before she stepped into the witness box, that DeCoutere for the very first time told Toronto Police and Crown prosecutors Mike Callaghan and Corie Langdon that after Ghomeshi allegedly choked her and slapped her hard in the summer of 2003, she sent him flowers when she got back home to Halifax.

Through one sworn police statement, 19 media interviews and four press releases she issued in the 16 months since the scandal involving the former CBC host broke, DeCoutere had never before mentioned the flowers, or a plethora of other things, such as her repeated attempts to meet Ghomeshi in what could be fairly called her pursuit of him.

Only in Henein’s cross-examination Friday did that timing become clear; DeCoutere, being a capable actor (she starred on Trailer Park Boys), had mentioned it in her examination-in-chief so smoothly it sounded as though she’d always been up front about it.

And as the judge learned, there was even more to it than that.

DeCoutere was love-bombing the 48-year-old Ghomeshi too, in the weeks and months after the purported assault.

It was on July 4, 2003 that DeCoutere claims Ghomeshi, while she was at his house, suddenly kissed her, put his hand on her throat and cut off her air, and slapped her hard three times across the face.

But the next day, she emailed him, told him he was “literally changing my mind — in a good way I think” and challenging her, then said, “You kicked my ass last night and that makes me want to f— your brains out. Tonight.”

Now, this is fairly unequivocal stuff, not requiring vast amounts of interpretation one would have thought, but DeCoutere equivocated nonetheless.

“OK,” she said.

“Mr. Ghomeshi and I never had sex … this makes me look like I had an interest in him romantically … no way was it ‘I-liked-it-when-you-choked-me,’ no way. I wrote the email. I don’t remember writing it, but regardless Mr. Ghomeshi choked me with no consent … slapped me with no consent. This doesn’t change the fact that he assaulted me.”

After a bit of back and forth, Henein said, “What happened was, there was no sexual assault.  “You had an evening and the next day you wanted to f— his brains out.”

“I remember being attracted to Mr. Ghomeshi,” DeCoutere said, “but it doesn’t change the fact that women can be assaulted by men and still…”

Henein was marching back to the witness box again, another document in her hand, the tapping of her heels on the floor the only sound in the room.

It was the 25th time this day she made that terrifying little walk. This was exhibit No. 37; the first exhibit of the day was No. 12.

“Do you remember the love letter you sent?” she asked.  She handed DeCoutere the six-page, handwritten original, dated July 9, 2003, five days after Ghomeshi allegedly choked and slapped her.

She confirmed it was her handwriting. She had no memory of writing it, she said, but clearly, she had done.

When she penned it, she was back home in Halifax, safe and sound.

DeCoutere stands by sex assault allegations against Ghomeshi: 'There is no right or wrong way to cope'

It’s a chick’s letter, with TMI in the modern lexicon, confessional and self-analytical, the written equivalent of ‘what are you thinking about?’

It began with an ode to old-fashioned letters, and then told the tale of their ‘relationship,’ from first spotting him at a Banff conference, his popularity, her trip to Toronto just to see him, and, a few lines without any noticeable irony, “We hooked up for dinner and you totally knocked me out. No wonder I couldn’t eat anything. You scared the hell out of me. Either because you were reading my mind or asking me to read it for you.

“I mean, really, what on Earth could be better than lying with you listening to music & having peace. Nothing.”

On and on it went. “I loved spending time with you this weekend. You are hilarious. And I really loved seeing you becoming progressively more relaxed (with) me.”

DeCoutere concluded, “Jian. You’re great. And I want to know more, have more easy times with you because it is so very rare — right?… I am sad we didn’t spend the night together…”

And then, the last line, the line Henein had DeCoutere herself read aloud, “I love your hands.”

“So,” DeCoutere began.

“It (the assault) never happened,” Henein said flatly.

“Oh, it happened,” said DeCoutere.

“You love his hands; you tell him you want to f— his brains out,” Henein snapped. “You never told the police, the Crown, you were never going to tell His Honour until it was shown to you.”

“I never told His Honour until now,” DeCoutere said.

There was a brief re-examination, during which DeCoutere tried to explain the letter. “Yes, this letter exists,” she said. “It does say, it’s very candid, there’s no untruth in this letter… The last line is me pointing love to the very thing he used to hurt me (his hands) …This letter exists. I totally forgot about it. I guess I wanted to forget about it.”

But it wasn’t her “negative” she had flattened; it was her narrative.

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

Mario Woods update

The death of this drugged-up crim has got a lot of attention, unfortunately, so this latest update should be of interest

The stabbing victim of the poster for for Black Lives Matters at the Super Bowl has broken his silence to tell of his own ordeal.

The death of Mario Woods, who was shot by police in San Francisco in December, was thrust onto the world stage when Beyoncé's backup dancers held up a sign demanding 'justice' and making a black power salute.

But now the man whose stabbing set in motion the chain of events which ended with Woods being shot has gone public to tell Daily Mail Online what really happened.

Marcel Gardner, who is under a police witness protection order, decided to break his silence to tackle claims that Woods, 26, had not stabbed anyone before his death.

Gardner also made clear that he does not condone the police shooting, but said that it was right for the full truth to be known.

Gardner, 26, was attacked and stabbed minutes before Woods, also 26, was cornered by police and shot 21 times.

Until now little had been revealed about how Woods stabbed a man and had been high on drugs.

Gardner told how Woods, who was carrying a kitchen knife, circled his car 'like a shark' and appeared to be high on drugs when he launched his stabbing attack, wounding Gardner in his left arm.

Activists in the Hunter’s Point neighborhood of San Francisco had questioned whether Woods had in fact been involved in a knife attack as police had not identified the victim.

But Gardner, an unemployed technical engineer, has a stab wound in his arm and is certain it was Woods who had attacked him.

Woods had convictions for armed robbery and possession of a firearm. He had been released early from a seven-year prison sentence.

Gardner, who is open that he was smoking drugs at the time of the attack, and that he would not normally co-operate with the police - says that he is clear that Woods was his assailant.

On the afternoon of December 2 Gardner said, he was with two women, one of them a mother who had her child with her, who had met for the purposes of smoking weed.

He said he did not know their names and has not been able to trace them since. 'I had just met the women who wanted to smoke some weed with me,' he said.

'I was chilling in my car and looking at my iPad, looking for jobs and playing videos.

They were in the car and - Woods admits - 'high' when a man who seemed 'agitated and just a little bit paranoid' approached the car.  'He was just muttering and then in one minute he started zoning in on the car. I couldn't make out what he was saying,' he said. 'He was shouting and screaming and said: "You had better get away from here…this is my block."

'Then he started circling the car like a shark and the girls began tripping out. 'They were on their phones and one girl was talking to her babydaddy and about what he was going to do and I guess he heard it.'

The man seemed to become more agitated, Gardner said, adding: 'He pulled the door open and I pushed the door back and got out of the car.

'I was thinking that if he is this aggressive, he could just bust a window and go Marilyn Manson on me and poking me [stabbing with the knife] and I would have no chance.

'I asked what was going on, but he already had the knife out.  'He ran up on me and tried to swing on me towards my chest and neck area. Most of the time I was trying to dodge his movements with the knife.

'I tried to land a punch and I felt a nick in my arm. I didn't realize anything until I started feeling this leaking sensation down my elbow.  'My shirt just turned red and I could see the blood coming out.

'I was looking around for something to knock the knife out of his hand as I knew now I was down to defending myself with one arm.

'There were some construction workers watching, but nobody came to help. It went on for two to three minutes.

'He was saying "I am going to poke the s*** out of you" as he came for me. Then he said: "If you hit me again I am going to poke you again."'

Gardner ran into an alley, while one of the girls drove the car away.

'My arm was going limp and I had no strength on my arm whatsoever. I thought I might bleed out and tried to tie a noose around it with my jacket,' he said.

'Blood was gushing out and the ladies were screaming "Oh my god, oh my god."'

Gardner got back into the car, he said. 'He jumped out in the middle of the street with the knife in his hand. The girls were screaming like lunatics.'

Gardner managed to drive away and went straight to San Francisco Hospital for treatment with the women and baby on board..

Meanwhile, his attacker was encountered by armed police four blocks away and cornered. Someone else had called 911.

Videos of the incident captured on cellphones have been posted online and handed to police officers investigating the shooting.

They show the officers circling the suspect who has his back to a wall and is walking adjacent to it.

Officers say they shot beanbag rounds and used pepper spray to try to arrest Woods, but he failed to drop the knife.

The officers opened fire with their guns and he was killed on the spot.

The officers are Winson Seto, Antonio Santos, Charles August, Nicholas Cuevas and Scott Phillips and none have been reprimanded and have returned to work.

Gardner said a short while after arriving at hospital, police officers emerged to question him about the attack on him.

'I had to go the hospital because I was passing out and I kept thinking about my kids and that I get to see them again.

'I didn't call the police and my only contact with them was when we were at the hospital.

'I began to realize something was wrong when more and more police came to the hospital.

'I didn't know anything about Mario being shot. They kept asking me if I knew the guy who stabbed me and if I knew his face and what he was wearing and I kept saying "No, No."'

He got eight stitches into the wound on his left arm. He drove away from hospital unaware that his attacker had been shot 21 times and that the cell phone video of his last moments was already circulating on the internet.

At 1.30 the next morning, a friend showed him the video on the internet and he immediately recognized Woods as the victim. 'My jaw dropped. I said "whoa…that's the dude who stabbed me".'

Gardner added: 'I am a black man and I didn't want to see another black man get gunned down, especially in my neighborhood.'

An autopsy report released last night showed Woods had suffered 21 gunshot wounds and had marijuana, methamphetamine antidepressants and cough medicine in his system,

The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds and 27 bullet casings were recovered from the scene.

San Francisco Police Department said its officers had opened fire on Woods 'fearing serious injury or death'.

Original report here

Original defense for Serial's Adnan Syed was 'crippled' by omission of witness who could have provided an alibi for him

The original defense of Adnan Syed, the convicted killer at the center of popular podcast Serial, was crippled by the omission of an alibi witness, it was argued in court on Friday.

Asia McClain, now known as Asia Chapman, would have been 'critical' to Syed's first trial if she had been contacted by his original attorney, David Irwin, a legal expert for the defense, said.

Syed was 19 when he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his high school ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, whose body was found in a wooded park in Baltimore.

Now 35, Syed is using new evidence uncovered by Serial to prompt the appeals court to grant a hearing on the possibility of a new trial.

Syed's attorneys are asking for a new trial on the grounds that his original attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, proved ineffective by failing to contact Chapman.

Chapman, a former classmate, testified Wednesday that she had a conversation with Syed at the library during the time prosecutors say Lee was killed.

Irwin said Gutierrez's failure to contact Chapman 'was well below the minimum required' for an attorney defending a client and that it was her duty to investigate all possible alibi witnesses.

'If you have a credible alibi witness, that's the best defense you can have,' he said.

Just a year after Syed's conviction, Gutierrez was disbarred in connection with other cases and her failing health due to the effects of multiple sclerosis.

Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah on Thursday tried to poke holes the testimony of Chapman, who wrote two letters to Syed shortly after he was imprisoned in 1999.

'I'm not sure if you remember talking to me in the library on Jan. 13 but I remembered chatting with you,' she wrote in one. 'I have reason to believe in your innocence.'

Chapman wrote that she contacted the library, which is next to their high school campus, and that they had a surveillance system. McClain also told Syed that she was trying to reach his attorney.

'If you were in the library for a while, tell the police and I'll continue to tell what I know even louder than I am,' she wrote.

'My boyfriend and his best friend remember seeing you there too.'

Vignarajah questioned how Chapman knew certain details about Syed's case that she mentions in the letter and whether she had written the second one weeks after she said she did, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Chapman said the information solely came from rumors and information she heard being shared at their high school and not, as suggested by Vignarajah, from a search warrant.

She also shot down the claim that Syed had sent her a letter from jail and asked her to type it, saying she had never even heard of the allegation.

Irwin called Chapman a 'fabulous' witness who would have 'changed the ballgame' had she testified at Syed's original trial.

Also on Friday, an investigator testified that he located 41 possible alibi witnesses for Syed, but only four told him they were contacted by the original defense team for the 2000 trial

Sean Gordon testified that out of 83 potential alibi witnesses, he was able to reach 41. Of those, he said, only four said they were contacted by Gutierrez and none were asked to testify.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Martin Welch ruled on Friday that Syed should be allowed to introduce the testimony of a potential alibi witness

Judge also said he should be allowed to introduce evidence that calls into question the reliability of cellphone tower data

Syed's attorneys are asking for a new trial on the grounds that his original attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, proved ineffective by failing to contact Chapman

Testimony also has focused on cellphone tower data that prosecutors used during Syed's first trial, claiming it placed him at the scene where Lee's body was found in 1999.

Gerald Grant, a communications forensics expert, testified in Baltimore City Circuit Court that jurors should have been told that AT&T cellphone records used to place Syed at the site were flawed.

The AT&T engineer who testified in the original trial was not aware that outgoing phone calls were reliable but incoming calls were not, Grant said.

A sheet accompanying the faxed records included that disclaimer but was misplaced or overlooked.

Meanwhile FBI Special Agent Chad Fitzgerald testified, the prosecution's first witness, argued that the cover sheet is of no consequence and that testimony given at Syed's trial by AT&T radio frequency engineer Abraham Waranowitz was true.

Fitzgerald's testimony contradicted an affidavit that Waranowitz wrote last year that says if he'd known about the cover sheet his testimony would have been different.

On Friday afternoon Fitzgerald said he stood by the validity of the original data presented at trial.

But during cross-examination Syed's attorney Justin Brown asked how two calls contained in the data - one traced to Dupont Circle in Washington and another traced to Baltimore - could have been made just 27 minutes apart when it would be nearly impossible to travel the distance in that time.

Fitzgerald said in order to answer he'd need more information. 'It would cause me to do more research,' he said.  Testimony will continue Monday.

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

London's top cop discovers natural justice

Automatically believing uncorroborated allegations is brain-dead.  People are to be presumed INNOCENT until proven guilty

Police officers will no longer automatically believe sex abuse claims from the off, says Met chief as he battles to defend his reputation over Lord Bramall probe

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said his officers had been 'confused' by guidance to believe allegations made to them

Police officers must be 'good investigators' when presented with allegations of sexual abuse and not simply believe them, the Met Commissioner has said.

Amid a firestorm over controversial investigations into public figures including the war hero Lord Bramall, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said there was a 'great danger' in allegations being believed from the outset.

The embattled police commissioner has repeatedly refused to apologise for investigations into historic claims against Lord Bramall and the former Tory home secretary Lord Brittan, who died before it was concluded he had no case to answer.

But he has launched a judge-led inquiry to look into how the Metropolitan Police handled the accusations and today questioned guidance on how allegations are treated.

Sir Bernard told the BBC: 'I think we have really got hung up on this word belief, it's confused officers, and my point would be we of course have to be empathetic, we want people to believe we are going to listen to them.

'We want to be open minded about what they tell us and then what the suspects tell us.  'And then we have got to test all that evidence.

'There is a great danger at the moment with the advice that is around that perhaps there is a tendency to think we will always believe any complaint that is made. 'That's not wise for any good investigator.'

Scotland Yard was forced to admit last year it had made a mistake when a senior officer described a key witness - known only as 'Nick' - as 'credible and true' when it launched a murder investigation.

Det Supt Kenny McDonald used the phrase in 2014 as the force announced an investigation the alleged killing of three young boys linked to a suspected VIP paedophile ring at the Dolphin Square apartments in Westminster, said to have been active in the 1970s and 1980s.

The probe, known as Operation Midland, led to a series of dawn raids and arrests of public figures - including the 92-year-old Lord Bramall, Lord Brittan, and former MP Harvey Proctor.

But the Met was later forced to admit that without Mr McDonald's declaration of belief in the witness 'we would not have investigated in the way we have'.

Sir Bernard has defended his force and insisted it has a duty to look into serious allegations when they are made.

He added: 'If we get this wrong, between not just the police but society, lawyers, etc, people won't come forward.

'Surely what we all want to happen, particularly a child today, wants to feel confident someone isn't going to hang them out to dry and that their background will be looked into if they make an allegation.

'So we have got to get this right. I think Sir Richard's work will help us with that and I know he is keen to try and develop a code of practice with others to see whether there's not something we can on these very difficult cases.'

An NSPCC spokesman said warned the new policy would be a 'serious bar' to victims coming forward to the police.

He said: 'At a time when people have at long last found the confidence and courage to report these crimes, it would be a tragedy to bring this progress to a juddering halt.

'Victims of sexual abuse have the right to be believed just as much as anyone reporting a burglary or physical assault. Police officers should have an open mind and execute the normal tests and investigations to verify the veracity of what is being alleged.

'Telling those who have been sexually abused they will no longer be automatically believed seems to be a panic measure which could have an adverse effect on a crime the Government has classified as a 'national threat'.'

Sir Bernard has also repeated his belief that suspects should not be identified until they are formally charged with an event.

Lord Bramall last week added to calls for the Met to address the way it responded to such allegations.

He said: ‘They said the allegation was I had abused an under-age male 40 years ago.

‘I just don’t see how a level-headed policeman could have believed a word of it without corroboration, which he didn’t bother to get.  'It was I that had to prove I couldn’t have done it.

Ten months after police raided the home of Lord Bramall and later interviewed the 92-year-old under caution, Scotland Yard said he would face no further action.

Sir Bernard today defended how the raid on Lord Bramall's home was carried out, insisting many officers were required to search large properties - suggesting large numbers of papers need examining and many nook and crannies could hide evidence.

The evidence against the field marshal was so weak detectives did not even bother sending a file to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Original report here

Dashcam video shows Montana police shooting man as he steered car away

From the video it's  murder but in the stress of being driven at by a punk, over-reaction is understandable.  A guy who refuses to stop when two cops are pointing guns at him is so dumb as to be totally unpredictable.  There was no knowing what weapons he was carrying.  And the prior words of the cops prove nothing.  I would probably have said the same

Disturbing footage has emerged of a fatal police shooting in Montana in 2015, which shows that an unarmed man attempted to steer his vehicle away from two officers before they opened fire 24 times with a 12-gauge shotgun and an AR15 rifle.

Loren Simpson, 28, was killed on 8 January 2015 after two Yellowstone County deputies pursued him on suspicion of burglary and car theft. The deputies, Jason Robinson and Christopher Rudolph, were stuck in the road and left their patrol car as a block, without leaving their siren lights blaring or deploying traffic spikes before they exited their vehicle and opened fire on Simpson’s stolen Ford Explorer as he approached their position.

On Thursday a coroner’s inquest found the two officers were justified in shooting Simpson, after dashcam footage from the deputies’ patrol car was played to the jury. Both deputies told the inquest they feared for their lives before opening fire.

Simpson’s case appeared in a 2015 Guardian investigation, which revealed 30 fatal incidents in which police officers around the US had fired into moving vehicles, despite federal guidelines against the practice. Yellowstone County’s guidelines of use of force were identified in the investigation as the most lax.

A Guardian analysis of the dashcam video, which was played to the jury only once during the inquest, highlights how both officers appeared agitated and prepared to use their weapons well before making contact with Simpson.

As they pursue Simpson’s stolen vehicle, without their patrol car sirens activated, one officer asks the other, “Do you want your shotgun or your AR?” to which the other replies: “I’ll get my AR if I can.”

Thirteen minutes later, when the officers get stuck on a snowy dead-end road during the pursuit, one officer refers to Simpson as a “little fucker” and adds: “They go steal cars, they go break into shit, and throw that shit into those cars. Now they’re in the middle of fucking nowhere.” Five minutes later Simpson drives back down the road and encounters the deputies.

As Simpson approaches the officers, who stand pointing their rifle and shotgun, he veers to their right before they open fire. Once the car is stationary, the officers continue to fire. A medical examiner told the inquest that Simpson was struck three times, once by a shotgun round and twice by AR15 bullets fired by deputy Robinson, one of which fatally struck Simpson in the back of the head, according to the Billings Gazette. A large amount of methamphetamine was also found in Simpson’s blood.

In February 2015 an internal review board cleared both Robinson and Rudolph of acting against departmental policy during the shooting. Both officers resigned from the force just days after the internal proceedings concluded. Robinson, however, continued to work for the sheriff’s office as a detentions deputy.

The two-day coroner’s inquest saw both officers testify. Neither was cross-examined, as is procedure in Montana coroner’s inquests.

Robinson told the jury he believed Simpson had turned towards him before he opened fire. “I saw the front wheels turn in my direction,” he said according to the Billings Gazette. “At that point, I knew he didn’t care he was going through me and he was going to kill me.”

The county attorney’s office invited expert testimony from former FBI special agent Brian Kensel who said that while Robinson and Rudolph’s handling of the incident was “less than ideal”, they were ultimately justified in opening fire.

The Guardian reported in September that Robinson and Rudolph employed the help of two teenagers, aged 14 and 16, during the January incident, to act effectively as spotters for the officers. In the dashcam video, Robinson can be heard speaking to one of the teenagers on the phone, who calls to inform him that Simpson is driving back down the street. Both minors testified during the inquest.

The Yellowstone County sheriff’s office did not respond to a detailed list of questions, including whether the deputies violated protocol by using minors to assist with a criminal investigation.

Nathan Wagner, an attorney representing the Simpson family, who have commenced civil proceedings against the officers and Sheriff Michael Linder, said he believed the outcome would be “very different” when the case comes to trial.

There were four fatal police shootings in Montana last year, according to The Counted, the Guardian’s ongoing investigation into police-involved deaths in America. The state had the 22nd highest rate of officers involved fatalities in the country.

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

Crooked British prosecutors 'slowed down' CCTV footage of commuter accused of bizarre sex assault on actress 'which make him look more guilty'

The defence lawyer for a man who was falsely accused of sexually assaulting a well-known actress has claimed CCTV footage was slowed down by prosecutors.

Mark Pearson, a 51-year-old artist, was accused of sexually assaulting a well-known actress in her 60s when their paths crossed at London's Waterloo station.

Last month a jury cleared him of 'sexually penetrating' the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The jury unanimously dismissed the prosecution claim that the crime could have occurred in just a split second in front of dozens of commuters.

It has now been alleged that the CPS slowed down the CCTV footage of the station in an attempt to bolster their case.

Mark Bagshaw, Mr Pearson's defence lawyer, told The Telegraph: 'The CCTV was served on us in a way in which had been altered.

'The few seconds when my client walked past the alleged victim had been slowed down so it looked like he had more time to commit the alleged actions than he in reality did have.'

The CPS's alleged actions meant Mr Pearson's lawyers had to hire a forensic expert to correct the video.

By reducing the video's speed by half, the moments before and after Mr Pearson passed the woman, would have seemed longer to the jury than they really were.

The lawyer added: 'If we had not taken the steps we had, the CCTV would have been presented to the jury at that amended speed.'

Mr Pearson was cleared of the charge by a jury in 90 minutes at Blackfriars Crown Court.

Today he appeared on ITV's This Morning where he described the trauma the case had caused him. He said: 'The footage totally contradicts what she was saying.

'I hold the CPS more responsible because we had the CCTV footage analysed by an expert, and the CPS still proceeded with the trial.  'There is something that has gone radically wrong with their processes.'

A CPS spokesman said: 'There was sufficient evidence for this case to proceed to court and progress to trial. We respect the decision of the jury.'

The defence team questioned in court how Mr Pearson could have carried out the alleged assault when he was carrying a newspaper in one hand and holding his bag with the other.

Mr Pearson told the court: 'I would have had to crouch down, put my hand up the woman's skirt... penetrate her, take my hand out again... all while holding the newspaper and walking along the concourse... It's preposterous... It is against everything I believe in as a human being. I did nothing.'

There were no witnesses and no forensic evidence. The actress failed to pick out Mr Pearson in an identity parade of video images.

Summing up the case, the judge, His Honour Peter Clarke QC, told the jury that to convict Mr Pearson they had to be sure the assault happened as the actress described. There could be 'no middle ground'.

Every day, 300,000 people flow through Waterloo in Central London – Britain's busiest station. 'I was just one of those commuters – in the wrong place at one moment in time,' Mr Pearson added.

'For me, half a second turned into a year of hell. I feel I have undergone a form of mental torture sanctioned by the state.'

Over the past year and more, the CPS has been repeatedly stung by criticism of its decision-making in a series of high-profile sex cases.

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

Crazy British police again

Man accused of bizarre 'hit and run' assault on actress despite no evidence or witnesses - so why DID it come to trial?  These repeated prosecutions and investigations on uncorroborated evidence are a real abuse of power as well as being moronic

Their paths crossed for precisely half a second during the evening rush hour at Waterloo Station. Mark Pearson, a 51-year-old artist, was on his way home from work, weaving through a thick tide of London commuters.

Walking towards him across the concourse came an award-winning star of film, TV, theatre and radio. She had just been to a yoga class and was heading to a rehearsal. Neither knew the other.

What happened next – or rather what didn’t happen – would cast Mr Pearson into what he calls a year-long ‘Kafkaesque nightmare’ from which he has only just escaped, and for which he squarely blames the Crown Prosecution Service.

It cannot be said with certainty that the artist and the actress made even fleeting physical contact. CCTV images showed only that they walked past each other.

Yet the woman, who is in her 60s, claimed Mr Pearson sexually assaulted her – penetratively – for ‘two or three seconds’.

This was followed, she insisted, by a violent blow to her left shoulder. Images of the moments before and after they passed were captured from CCTV and shown to a jury during Mr Pearson’s three-day trial at Blackfriars Crown Court in London last week.

They plainly demonstrated, his lawyer Mark Bagshaw said, that the allegation was not true. How could it be, he asked, given the half-second time frame? Indeed, the images showed his client walking at a normal pace. He never broke stride.

What’s more, in his left hand – the one which he is supposed to have used to assault the actress – Mr Pearson carried a newspaper. His right hand gripped his bag.

Mr Pearson told the court: ‘I would have had to crouch down, put my hand up the woman’s skirt... penetrate her, take my hand out again... all while holding the newspaper and walking along the concourse... It’s preposterous... It is against everything I believe in as a human being. I did nothing.’

There were no witnesses and no forensic evidence. The actress failed to pick out Mr Pearson in an identity parade of video images.

Summing up the case, the judge, His Honour Peter Clarke QC, told the jury that to convict Mr Pearson they had to be sure the assault happened as the actress described. There could be ‘no middle ground’.

It came as little surprise to Mr Pearson – though he was profoundly relieved and grateful – when the jury of nine women and three men unanimously rejected the woman’s story after deliberating for little more than 90 minutes.

What he cannot understand, what still gnaws at him when he wakes up at 4am, his body shaking, is why the case reached court in the first place.

‘One of the many frightening aspects is that this could have happened to anyone,’ he told The Mail on Sunday yesterday.

Every day, some 300,000 people flow through Waterloo in Central London – Britain’s busiest station. ‘I was just one of those commuters – in the wrong place at one moment in time,’ he said.

‘For me, half a second turned into a year of hell. I feel I have undergone a form of mental torture sanctioned by the state.’

It goes without saying that the actress will remain anonymous. The law doesn’t afford the same privilege to Mr Pearson, who has undergone cognitive therapy for anxiety attacks brought on by the stress.

But the greater part of his anger is directed at the CPS, which, having assessed the evidence, decided to charge him with ‘sexual assault by penetration’. He said: ‘It is just bizarre. Why couldn’t the CPS have used common sense?’

Over the past year and more, the CPS has been repeatedly stung by criticism of its decision-making in a series of high-profile sex cases.

At the same time, it has sought to deal with concerns that many women are put off reporting rape and sexual assault because they lack faith in the justice system.

Mr Pearson wonders whether he is ‘a victim of the way the CPS is rigorously trying to redress the balance’. One of his supporters, author Erin Pizzey, the family care activist who founded the world’s first shelter for victims of domestic violence, certainly believes so.

‘The CPS have recently been wrongly targeting men and it has got to stop,’ she said. ‘The CPS had no business going after him [Mr Pearson] because there wasn’t a case there from the very beginning. At the moment, women seem above the law. They can do it in domestic violence cases – simply pick up the phone, no evidence required, and have a man removed from his family and his children – and they can do it with rape, too.’

The CPS said: ‘There was sufficient evidence for this case to proceed to court and progress to trial. We respect the decision of the jury.’

Mr Pearson’s ordeal began on February 5 last year, two months after the ‘incident’, when he was arrested at his East London home. Police traced him through data retrieved from his Oyster travel card.

He was ‘dumbfounded’ but readily co-operated with police, ignoring advice from the duty solicitor to say nothing. He was happy to answer their questions and clear up ‘this obvious mistake’. He said: ‘I was convinced good sense would prevail.’

He told police that he remembered nothing of that evening on December 3, 2014. The artist was returning home through Waterloo as normal from his work as a picture framer.

His partner, Carol Ho, 41, whom he met at the Royal College of Art, said: ‘It was a very stressful time for Mark. None of us believed for a second that he was capable of doing what this woman said. It was all crazy.’

Instead of continuous film, the station’s cameras record one image per second. Forensic scientist Jacob Blythe, who compared the pictures with the woman’s statement, told the court that Mr Pearson passed the actress for ‘half a second’.

In a report prepared for the defence that was not shown to the jury, he said the CCTV footage did not show Mr Pearson touching his accuser ‘in any manner’. He added: ‘I consider the imagery unsupportive of her claim that “his hand was up me”.’

Mr Pearson told The Mail on Sunday of recently watching a TV programme about the Witchfinder General, who tortured confessions out of suspected witches during the English Civil War. He said: ‘The narrator said, “Imagine living in an England where you could be hanged on the hearsay of a neighbour.”

‘Sadly, I can imagine this all too easily.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3435317/Tried-sex-crime-brushed-past-film-star-rush-hour.html
Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

Woman who pulls over speeding cop bullied by police union chief

A WOMAN who ‘pulled over’ a police officer for speeding has been attacked and had her personal phone number spread on social media by the police union.

Claudia Castillo made headlines when she chased a cop who was allegedly speeding, filming the whole thing on her mobile phone and uploading the encounter to YouTube.

She said pursued the Miami police officer because she believed he was driving recklessly.  “To keep up with him I had to push the limit,” she said.  She thought he was going about 100mph (160km/h).

She beeped her horn and flashed her lights and he eventually pulled over and walked up to the woman’s car.  “The reason I pulled you over today, I’m asking you to come and have a conversation, I saw you pushing 90mph,” she said.

“I pushed 80mph to try and catch up with you but was still eating your dust and you were leaving me behind.”

The police officer listened to her and said he wasn’t sure how fast he was going and that he was on the way to work. “I don’t believe I was speeding but you’re entitled to your opinion,” he said. “I apologise for speeding and I’ll be sure to slow down.”

The woman said he should be leading by example and he agreed, told her to take care and be safe before getting back into his police car.

In a bizarre turn, Javier Ortiz, the head of Miami’s police union, then berated the woman on Twitter, called her a “#COPhater”.  Sergeant Ortiz also posted a photo of Ms Castillo driving a boat while drinking alcohol, dubbing her a “wannabe cop”.

According to the Miami Herald, the chief also posted a picture of Ms Castillo’s business card on Facebook, encouraging people to call her at work and on her mobile.

Local filmmaker Billy Corben, who had previous problems with Sergeant Ortiz online, then urged his own followers to complain about the union chief to Facebook.

Miami Herald reported the post containing the business card was then taken down. Ortiz reposted the picture but the social media site took it down again.

People outraged by Ms Castillo’s actions were calling her at work on Wednesday and she was sent home.

Sergeant Ortiz has previously posted controversial content online.

He once criticised a female Muslim Miami officer for not covering her heart during the Pledge of Allegiance and went after a woman who posted a video of an arrest in Liberty City, Miami Herald reports.

The publication reported police could not do anything about Ortiz’s appointment as the union chief and said it was up to members who elected him., not the Miami Police Department.

It is believed Sergeant Ortiz and the union did not even represent the police officer in the video.

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

Officer sues estate of teen he shot

There seems to be no doubt that the young black was swinging a metal baseball bat around

A white Chicago police officer who shot dead a black 19-year-old college student and accidentally killed a neighbour has filed a lawsuit against the teenager's estate, arguing the shooting left him traumatised.

The highly unusual suit was filed on Friday in the middle of the city's effort to grapple with serious questions about the future of its police force.

The timing and unusual nature of the suit by officer Robert Rialmo, who is seeking $US10 million ($A13.92 million) in damages, could complicate the department's efforts to demonstrate more sensitivity toward the community in how police shootings are handled.

His lawyer, Joel Brodsky, said it was important in the charged atmosphere to send a message that police are "not targets for assaults" and "suffer damage like anybody else".

The teen's father, Antonio LeGrier, filed a wrongful death lawsuit days after the December 26 shooting, saying his son, Quintonio, was not armed with a weapon and was not a threat.

His lawyer, Basileios Foutris, was incredulous at what he called the officer's "temerity" in suing the grieving family of the person he shot. "That's a new low even for the Chicago Police Department," he said.  "First you shoot them, then you sue them."

The lawsuit provides the officer's first public account of how he says the shooting happened, offering details that differ with the family's version.

It says Rialmo, who was responding to a domestic disturbance call with another officer, opened fire after Quintonio LeGrier swung a bat at the officer's head at close range.

A downstairs neighbour, 55-year-old Bettie Jones, was standing nearby and was shot and killed by accident. She was not part of the domestic dispute.

"The fact that LeGrier's actions had forced Officer Rialmo to end LeGrier's life and to accidentally take the innocent life of Bettie Jones has caused, and will continue to cause, Officer Rialmo to suffer extreme emotional trauma," the filing says.

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

Useless Scottish police

Shocking CCTV footage shows how a shopkeeper was brutally beaten up by a hooded thug who had threatened him twice before.

Muhammad Jawad Ali twice phoned police about the yob's menacing behaviour - but they refused to turn up to his shop because the case was not a priority.

The man later returned and pinned the businessman against a shelf, repeatedly whacking him in the face and hitting him over the head with a bottle.

The first time the man appeared at his shop in Glasgow, he loitered on the premises and threatened staff and customers, verbally abusing Mr Ali.

Two days later, he came back and started menacing others with an umbrella.

The shopkeeper called police both times, but they said they were unable to intervene and instead offered to turn up the next day for a conversation about the case.

On January 3, the man came back and wordlessly started attacking Mr Ali, a father of one, before trying to run off with the cash register.

Mr Ali said: 'The first time he came to the shop, I called the police and they said, "We can't come because he's not attacking you." I called two times on that day.

'Two days later he came again in the evening. He started getting rude and threatened customers, an old lady and me with an umbrella. He was standing here for an hour.

'I called police more than three times on that day. They should have done something when I told them he was threatening us.  'The police said there's no case for them to turn up. They said they could not come until he attacked someone. They said they have different priorities.

'Days later he came back. He didn't say a single word. He kicked me in the back and I fell onto the bottles. 'He grabbed me and started punching me for no reason. Then he tried to grab the till but he couldn't take it. He threw it on the floor and just ran away. My blood was everywhere.'

CCTV footage of the incident shows the yob repeatedly punching Mr Ali in the head and running away as the shopkeeper reels, unable to stand up normally.

He was rushed to Glasgow Royal Infirmary with facial injuries, including three fractures to his cheekbone, a further to his nose and cuts to his mouth. He is now having trouble with his vision.

Mr Ali described his attacker as white, of a skinny build, just over 6ft tall, clean-shaven and speaking with an Eastern European accent.

Police said their enquiries are continuing to catch the thug and have urged anyone with information regarding this incident to contact them.

Mr Ali said: 'After all this happened I thought they would get the guy, but no. I want to come back to work but I can't stand here by myself.

'Now it's been a month and nothing has happened. If he was caught I would be satisfied. I am destroyed from inside. My life is not secure.'

A spokesman for Police Scotland said: 'We can confirm that a call was made to the police relating to a disturbance on two separate occasions in a shop in Glasgow in December.

'On both occasions it was reported that a man had been causing a disturbance within the shop.

'All incidents are graded in line with their priority level and as there were no officers in the area available to attend the store at the time, the shopkeeper was offered advice and guidance over the phone.

'The complainer was asked to call back if things escalated. He was then invited to make appointments with the police for the following day after both reports. The shopkeeper declined these appointments and stated that he no longer wished for police to attend.

'Enquiries are ongoing to establish if the two incidents are linked to the serious assault.'

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

As the deceased John Inman becomes the latest target of the Savile Squad, RICHARD LITTLEJOHN says deranged witch hunt has turned basic principle of British justice on its head

The actor John Inman is the latest target of the increasingly insane Celebrity Nonce Squad. Far be it from me to point out that Inman died in 2007 and, just like Jimmy Savile, remains dead.

Since when has the lack of a live suspect ever stopped them? Having failed to arrest Savile while he was still breathing, the Old Bill have been trying desperately to pin bogus charges of 'historic' sex abuse on everyone from disc jockey Paul Gambaccini to the former Prime Minister Edward Heath, who is also dead.

This deranged witch-hunt has ruined the lives of countless innocent individuals and turned the basic principle of British justice on its head.

All those accused are presumed guilty unless they can prove themselves innocent. In the case of war hero Lord Bramall, absurdly accused of being a member of a VIP paedophile ring, investigating officers took a full ten months before contacting key witnesses who could testify that the allegations against him were nonsense.

Speaking in a BBC interview yesterday, Lord Bramall said: 'I don't see how a level-headed policeman could believe a word of it.'

Me neither. But the problem is we are not dealing with level-headed policemen, we are dealing with politically motivated, careerist zealots like Met Commissioner Bernard Hyphen-Howe and his ambitious sidekick 'Fat Pat' Gallan, head of the costly, utterly discredited, over-the-top Operation Midland investigation into rape and murder in high places.

They have been cruising the graveyards, like Burke and Hare, trying to dig up charges of sex abuse against the dead, who are no longer around to defend themselves.

Heavy-handed, very public, Stasi-style raids have been made on the homes of the living.

Hyphen-Howe still hasn't explained why sending 22 — yes, 22 — officers to ransack Lord Bramall's country home is a proportionate response to an accusation levelled by a dubious fantasist, let alone a measured use of police resources.

What the hell did they expect to achieve, other than to alert neighbours that they had a suspected sex offender living in their midst?

That outrageous abuse of power alone, quite apart from his other manifest failings, should disqualify him from winning an extension to his contract. If Theresa May gives him a new three-year deal, she should be ashamed of herself.

But, then again, this is a woman currently performing a cynical loop-de-loop on Europe, so she clearly has as little sense of shame as Hyphen-Howe himself.

Even when the charges are proven to be baseless, the Commissioner can't bring himself to issue a proper, personal apology.

As in the case of former Home Secretary Leon Brittan, who died with false allegations of abuse still hanging over his head, a subordinate is summoned to pen an insincere, weasel letter of 'regret' — although we're told Hyphen-Howe will finally get round to saying sorry to Brittan's widow. Bit late for that, I'd have thought.

Bold Bernard will never admit that the charges against most of those he decides to subject to ducking-stool justice are baseless.

The explanation is always that there was 'insufficient evidence' to proceed — even when there was absolutely no evidence at all. The clear implication is that there was no smoke without fire, and so the stigma lingers. It's character assassination by omission.

At this stage, it is customary to acknowledge that the Savile Squad has managed to nail some serious creeps, such as Stuart Hall and Rolf Harris.

But having failed to pin anything on a procession of entertainers, including Jimmy Tarbuck and Jim Davidson, they've now taken to targeting Seventies sitcoms.

John Inman was best known for playing the effeminate shop assistant Mr Humphries in the BBC's long-running comedy Are You Being Served?

A 48-year-old man has responded to the police promise that all allegations of sex abuse — no matter how bizarre or unfounded — will be believed, by claiming Inman sexually assaulted him at a Torquay hotel in the Seventies.  Inman's character was famously camp, so he must be guilty. Stands to reason, dunnit, guv?

Perhaps the Torquay hotel in question was Fawlty Towers. In which case, no doubt John Cleese can expect a 6am knock on the door from the heavy mob any day now.

And in late-breaking news, Scotland Yard has announced it is launching an investigation into the comedian Benny Hill. After studying video evidence of Hill chasing scantily clad dolly birds round a park in South-West London, they believe they have enough to charge him with a string of historic sex crimes.

Meanwhile, Benny Hill, like John Inman and Jimmy Savile, remains dead.

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

Lord Bramall launches blistering attack on the Metropolitan Police for its handling of child sex abuse allegations against him

Just one uncorroborated allegation can get the accused person's life turned upside down?

Former armed forces chief Lord Bramall has today launched a blistering attack on Scotland Yard for its handling of child sex abuse allegations against him.

The 92-year-old D-Day veteran, whose home was searched in front of his dying wife, said detectives 'didn't bother' to get any corroboration for the claims before launching the inquiry.

The probe was dropped by the Met last month after an inquiry that saw him publicly named as a suspect - and he said he was left to prove the allegations were not true.

Lord Bramall alleged that officers did not speak to witnesses who cast doubts on the allegations against him until 10 months after he was first spoken to.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, he said that had the allegations not been so serious, he would have roared with laughter.

Lord Bramall said: 'Allegations had been made about me. I said, "what are they?". All they said was the allegation was I had abused an under-age male 40 years ago.'

Referring to one specific claim, he added: 'If the man's a field marshal, he's likely to choose Remembrance Sunday to have a sex party.

'I just don't see how a level-headed policeman could have believed a word of it without corroboration, which he didn't bother to get.

'It was I that had to prove I couldn't have done it. The same with the sex pool parties ... absurd business of the policeman saying, "can you swim?". And I said, "yes, I can swim".'

Lord Bramall described seeing the officer's face 'light up' at this information.

He was questioned as part of the Met's Operation Midland - a controversial inquiry into alleged child sex abuse and murder linked to VIPs.

The operation is reportedly on the verge of being scrapped, although Scotland Yard said on Wednesday that the probe was 'ongoing'.

The investigation was launched in November 2014 following allegations that boys were sexually abused by a paedophile ring centred around Westminster more than 30 years ago.

There were claims that sex parties were held at the exclusive Dolphin Square apartment block near the Houses of Parliament.

The inquiry - which centred on allegations by a man known as 'Nick' - was ratcheted up when police announced they were also looking into the alleged murder of three young boys.

Scotland Yard said it would not comment on the new criticism from Lord Bramall, and in a statement last month refused to apologise for its handling of the investigation.

Assistant Commissioner Patricia Gallan said: 'I fully recognise how unpleasant it may be to be investigated by the police over allegations of historic abuse.

'For a person to have their innocence publicly called into question must be appalling, and so I have every sympathy with Lord Bramall and his late wife and regret the distress they endured during this investigation.'

In a lengthy statement, the senior officer said police would be put off investigating claims if they had to apologise when inquiries did not end with a suspect being charged.

'The Metropolitan Police accepts absolutely that we should apologise when we get things wrong, and we have not shrunk from doing so.

'However, if we were to apologise whenever we investigated allegations that did not lead to a charge, we believe this would have a harmful impact on the judgments made by officers and on the confidence of the public.

'Investigators may be less likely to pursue allegations they knew would be hard to prove, whereas they should be focused on establishing the existence, or otherwise, of relevant evidence.

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

Arrogant British cops

And no apology.  Puddles can conceal big potholes so what they did was dangerous to themselves as well as being contemptuous towards the public

This is the moment a helpless pedestrian gets showered with dirty water while walking along a pavement - after a police officer drove through a giant puddle.

The shocking footage shows the unidentified male strolling next to a main road when the marked police vehicle makes no attempt to avoid a puddle.

He then gets sprayed after the police car's left tyres create a wave of water which flies at the man, who is wearing shorts.

The incident was filmed by taxi driver Julie Matthews' dashboard camera when she was driving in Leigh Road, Eastleigh, Hants.

Her husband, Paul, 53, also a cab driver, said the behaviour of the police driver was 'disgusting' and has urged the officer to apologise to the young man.

But police have defended their actions - claiming it was 'safer' for them to drive through the large area of surface water.

They added it would have been more of a risk if the driver 'swerved' onto the opposite side of the road or if they stopped abruptly.

This is despite Mrs Matthews, 50, slowing down and driving around the large area of surface water which had gathered by the kerb.

Splashing a pedestrian while driving though a puddle can be an offence under the Road Traffic Act.

According to police, the offence is appropriate when the driving amounts to a clear act of incompetence, selfishness, impatience or aggressiveness in addition to inconvenience to road users.

The offence carries a maximum penalty of £5,000 and between and three and nine penalty points.

Mr Matthews, from Southampton, Hants, said after viewing the footage: 'It was disgusting. The young lad got soaked and had to carry on walking.

'I am not saying they did it deliberately but my wife pulled around it herself and if you've got no choice you should slow down. 'Julie came home and said to me straight away 'you need to download this footage from the dashboard camera'.

'She had a customer in the back and they were both shocked that the police car didn't slow down or move around the puddle.  'I watched it and I was completely shocked. The police car made no attempt to move out of the way and to drive around the puddle.

'Drivers normally do all they can to avoid going through puddles. It is filthy water from the road and can include all sorts of debris.

'It is something you'd expect a young driver to do for a laugh - not a police car.  'The police officer should have pulled over to at least apologise.

'Julie said the young man stood there in shock and was dripping wet. The driver could have offered him a lift somewhere so he could get into some dry clothes.

'If we had done it they probably would have pulled us over and spoke to us, they should run by the same laws as the rest of us.'

A spokeswoman for Hampshire Constabulary said: 'It is likely that the officer made an assessment that as they approached this it was safer to continue driving through the puddle rather than stop abruptly and risk causing another vehicle to run into the back of the police car, or avoid the puddle by swerving towards the oncoming vehicle on the other side of the carriageway.

'The driver behind the police car who recorded the footage was able to safely swerve to avoid the puddle as there were no vehicles on the other side of the road at that time.

'We are not aware of a complaint being made by the pedestrian shown in the footage but should we receive one, the matter will be dealt with appropriately as any other complaint would be.'

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

Justice review for San Francisco police

The US Justice Department said it will launch a review of the San Francisco Police, after the fatal police shooting of a black man that spurred protests and demands that the city's police chief be sacked.

Although the American Civil Liberties Union had asked for a federal investigation into the San Francisco Police Department following the death of Mario Woods, 26, at the hands of police in December, the review will result only in recommendations, not court-enforceable reforms.

"We will examine the San Francisco Police Department's current operational policies, training practices and accountability systems, and help identify key areas for improvement going forward," Attorney-General Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

At the conclusion of the review, the Justice Department will give San Francisco police a list of best practices it can follow to ensure fairness in its interactions with citizens.

San Francisco police will then report back to the Justice Department on a periodic basis to show it is following the practices, a Justice Department official said.

Other police departments, such as Baltimore, have asked the Justice Department to conduct similar reviews of its policies following accusations of discrimination.

In the case of Baltimore, a review was ongoing before the death of black detainee Freddie Gray. Gray's death then prompted a more formal investigation, the results of which will be enforceable by law.

Protests have flared in San Francisco over the fatal police shooting on December 2 of Woods, which was filmed by bystanders and described by San Francisco's public defender as unnecessary.

Demonstrators have repeatedly called for Police Chief Greg Suhr's ouster.

Suhr has said that Woods was a suspect in a stabbing, that he was holding a knife and was a threat to officers who had tried to subdue him with pepper spray and bean bag rounds.

In video recorded by onlookers, officers could be seen with their weapons pointed at Woods, who was standing with his back against the wall of a building. In the video, Woods does not seem to be holding anything when he is shot multiple times, although police have said they recovered a kitchen knife.

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

Is California preparing to execute an innocent man?

A 57-year-old man who has been on California's death row for 30 years is set to be the next prisoner executed by the state, even though five judges say he is innocent.

Kevin Cooper was sentenced to death in 1985 for the brutal slaying of  Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica, and 10-year-old Chris Hughes, who was staying at their house in the Los Angeles suburb of Chino Hills.

Their eight-year-old son Josh was the only survivor, even though he had his throat slit, and his account of that night would be the key to the prosecution's case.

In November, a moratorium on executions in The Golden State was lifted, paving the way for Cooper's date with the gurney at San Quentin prison.

However he says he is planning to file a last-ditch motion to Gov. Jerry Brown to keep an 'open mind' about evidence in the case.  He has run out of other options so, if Brown doesn't intervene, he will be given the lethal injection.

In an interview with NBC from behind bars, he said: 'I am the only person in the history of the state to have five federal circuit judges say that 'the state of California may be about to execute an innocent man.

'I'm not asking America as a whole, or any one person in particular, to believe me. Forget what I say. I'm asking people to believe those [judges].

The young Ryen who survived the attack initially said that three white or Latino men murdered his parents. That account, combined with physical evidence suggested multiple killers and prompted police to release a criminal bulletin seeking three suspects who were 'white or Mexican males.'

On the night of the murders, two witnesses saw three white men driving a station wagon down the dead-end road away from the house. The family's station wagon was stolen that night.

Then a local woman, Diana Roper, told police she thought her ex-husband was involved in the 'Chino Murders,' according to records from the sheriff department.

She said a hatchet owned by convicted murderer and white supremacist Lee Furrow was missing. She also claims he left pants covered with blood at her home after the murder.

According to NBC she gave police the pants but she didn't test them. Later the Ninth Circuit would rule that action by police was illegal.

But the cops focused on Cooper, primarily because he had escaped from prison and was staying at a house nearby.

Beginning with circumstantial evidence, they then picked up on physical evidence - such as blood and a footprint at the scene of the crime. Prosecutors said it was from a prison-issue shoe, and therefore could have only been from Cooper.

However the warden of the prison from where he escaped said this wasn't true - a rebuttal the prosecution hid from the jury.

They also highlighted his long criminal record.

At trial, Ryen also changed his testimony to see that it was Cooper who murdered his family and tried to kill him. He changed his mind despite the fact that when he saw a picture of Cooper on TV, he said: 'That’s not the man who did it.'

After a week of deliberating, the jury found Cooper guilty and he was sentenced to death.

Some people questioned the ruling, but others said it was clear-cut.  Dennis Kottmeier, the district attorney who prosecuted Cooper, maintained it was 'the strongest evidentiary case' he 'had ever seen.'

Bill Hughes, the father of victim Chris Hughes, said the 2004 ruling was 'unfathomable.'

In 2004, he was three hours away from being put to death after the then Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger denied his request for clemency.

He was saved by the Ninth Circuit Court, who said some of the evidence against him was flawed and illegal. They also said Cooper was 'almost certainly' not wearing shoes from the crime scene.

'You watch the clock as your life goes off, minute by minute,' Cooper told NBC News. 'I was ten feet away from being murdered.'

It would also turn out that the blood found at the scene did not belong to Cooper. Tests found it contained DNA from two people - a discovery the judge said was 'startling'.

It was enough to raise questions, however prosecutors maintained that cigarette butts found linked him to the crime.

On November 30, 2009, the United States Supreme Court upheld the Ninth Circuit Court's denial of his appeal - but the judges were bitterly divided.

In an unprecedented 103-page dissent signed by five of judges, they warned: 'The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man.'

His case was also highlighted in July 2015 during an episode of CNN's Death Row Stories, which suggested that there was evidence which could exonerate Cooper.

On October 28, 2015, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found Cooper's basic rights had been violated throughout the trial. They also concluded that he had been given ineffective counsel at trial.

A statement on a website dedicated to Cooper's case reads: 'Mr. Cooper was prosecuted, tried and convicted 30 years ago in an atmosphere of racial hatred.

'When the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Dept. identified their suspect in the Ryen/Hughes murders as an African-American man, it set off a wave of racial hatred that culminated in acts such as a monkey being hanged in effigy outside the courthouse with a sign saying “Kill the N****r.”

'Mr. Cooper has never received a fair hearing on his claims of innocence. Commenting on post-conviction legal proceedings in Mr. Cooper’s case, five federal appellate judges said: “There is no way to say this politely. The district court failed to provide Cooper a fair hearing. ... The district court impeded and obstructed Cooper’s attorneys at every turn".

'Lacking a motive to ascribe to Mr. Cooper for the crimes, the prosecution claimed that Mr. Cooper, who had earlier walked away from custody at a minimum security prison, stole the Ryens’ car to escape to Mexico.

'But the Ryens had left the keys in both their cars (which were parked in the driveway), so there was no need to kill them to steal their car.

'The prosecution also claimed that Mr. Cooper needed money, but money and credit cards were found untouched and in plain sight at the murder scene.'

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

There's some fine characters in the British police

A police officer has been found guilty of murdering his wife with a mallet, large battery and a paint pot.

Adrian Goldsmith, 49, also known as Otis, was accused of killing Jill Goldsmith in the porch of their home next to Northamptonshire Police headquarters last March.

After a three week trial, the jury at Stafford Crown Court returned a guilty verdict today.

Mrs Goldsmith's body was found at the couple's semi-detached £140,000 home in Wootton Hall Park, Northampton, just yards from Northamptonshire Police HQ.

Goldsmith was arrested on March 26 at the property following the discovery of his 49-year-old wife’s body. A post mortem concluded Mrs Goldsmith died of a head injury.

Goldsmith was awarded a Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal by the force in 2009 when he was a Detective Constable. At the time of his arrest he was a Police Constable after volunteering to return to uniform.

During the trial, Stafford Crown Court heard a 999 call he made claiming his wife attacked him. In the recording, Goldsmith said: 'My wife tried to kill me, I think she's dead.'

When officers arrived at their home on March 26 last year they found Goldsmith, who had served in the police force for 28 years, holding a smashed drinking glass and a knife.

In interview Goldsmith said his wife had come at him with the knife 'like a whirling dervish' and stabbed him.

The court heard the couple, who married in May 2014, had problems including Jill's 'lack of sex drive caused by her starting the menopause'.

Prosecutor John Lloyd Jones QC said: 'Jill was undergoing the menopause and the reduction in her sex drive was something that annoyed and frustrated the defendant.'

The court also heard Goldsmith, who has three children from a previous marriage, told officers he was forced to defend himself against her, saying he felt it was 's*** or bust.'

Mr Jones told the court that in 2012, the Professional Standards Department investigated Goldsmith on suspicion of misconduct - after which he went on long term sick leave due to stress.

Mr Jones added: 'Adrian Goldsmith enjoyed drinking alcohol. Unfortunately, his personality changed when he was drinking and this made Jill feel afraid of him.

'Not being able to have a drink was another source of annoyance for him. He also wasn't allowed to see two of his children from a previous relationship, which was a further cause of upset.'

The court was also told Goldsmith was in the habit of writing long letters addressed to himself or his wife in which he would micro-analyse events. The letters were said to be 'all very self-absorbed', with one detailing how he felt he was 'ready to explode' and feared what he might do in such circumstances.

Mr Jones said when officers arrived at the house, they found Mrs Goldsmith 'lying in a pool of blood'.

He added: 'They saw [Adrian Goldsmith] behind the porch door. He was holding a small kitchen knife in one hand and a broken drinking glass in the other. He had fresh and dried blood on his face and appeared to have suffered facial injuries.

'He had blood and black paint on his clothing and was sweating, crying and out of breath.

'He told them his wife had come at him. He told them she was on drugs and psychotic and had attacked him with a glass and a knife. He said she wouldn't drop it and he had killed her.'

After his arrest, Goldsmith is said to have told detectives he and his wife had argued because of her cannabis smoking.

He said she threw a glass at him before punching and kicking him.

Mr Jones said: 'He bizarrely claimed she then picked up a mallet and hit herself on the back of the head with it. He said she then banged her own head hard off a nearby wall. He said he put her in a headlock to protect her but she broke free.

'He said she started to stab him, then they struggled and fell over. He remembered getting hit in the head with a volt box-type battery. He tried to put her in a sleeper hold and as they fought the knife had gone between his legs. He described this as "a game-changer".

'He hit her in the head with a can of paint. He said this had no effect so he picked up the battery and hit her in the head as hard as he could.'

Goldsmith will be sentenced on Monday.

Original report here



(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE

Black shot four times in the chest and stomach by police for carrying a BROOMSTICK in Salt Lake City

Refusing a police command to drop an apparent weapon is asking for trouble.  And in a rough neighborhood police are going to be on hair-trigger alert

This is the 17-year-old boy fighting for his life in a coma after Utah police shot him in the chest because he was brandishing a broomstick.

Abdi Mohamed was hospitalized in downtown Salt Lake City on Saturday night after the shooting near a homeless shelter.

Mohamed, who lives with his girlfriend and their son, moved to the States from Kenya 10 years ago, according to the New York Daily News.

He was gunned down at 8.15pm on Saturday when police saw him arguing with a man while clutching a broomstick, Fox 13 reports.

Surrounding them, police allegedly told the boy to drop the broomstick.  When he did not, 'shots were fired'. Mohamed was hit in the chest and the stomach.

He was a really caring, good, loving boyfriend, and a really, good caring loving father, I know what he was doing every day, the things he would do for us,' his girlfriend, Becca Monson, told Fox 13.  'He just wanted to make sure we were loved and we were happy he put us in front of everything.'

The shooting sparked fierce protests that ripped through the city on Saturday night.

Around 100 officers were dispatched to contain the uproar as crowds shouted and threw objects at police, Fox reports.

Mohamed's friend, Selam Mohammed, who was stood next to him at the time, claims the officers only gave the boy one chance to drop the broomstick in his hand.  'The police said 'drop it' once, then they shot him four times,' Mohammed told Fox News.

'We were trying to break it up before the police even came, but the police ran in on foot and pulled their guns out already, they already had them, like, as soon as he was running he was already grabbing for his gun, not even trying to Tase him or anything...

'He said 'drop it' [then] boom boom! Four times.'

Once shots were fired, hundreds of people flooded the streets screaming at officers and throwing rocks, bottles and other debris at officers, Fox reports.

Utah's transit authority shut down tram services in the area until 11pm as multiple law enforcement agencies combined to tackle the uproar.

Fans at the Utah Jazz game at Vivint Smart Home Arena were advised mid-game to avoid the area on leaving.

Detective Greg Wilking told the Tribune he did not know how many shots were fired or whether an officer fired them.

Salt Lake City police told the newspaper that one officer - and possibly a second one - were involved in the shooting.

City police were helped by officers from three other departments as onlookers threw rocks at officers and yelled obscenities, the Tribune said. Police closed a light rail stop in the neighborhood.

Police detained multiple people but Wilking could not elaborate on the reason for the detentions. There were 'a lot of hostile people upset about what had taken place,' Wilking told the Tribune.

At 8.40pm, a line of officers moved protesters down a sidewalk, the newspaper reported.

There are a number of homeless shelters in the neighborhood, and business owners have long complained about the homeless population and drug dealing, the Tribune said.

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE