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Birthday
honours for Chief Constable
The Chief
Constable has been knighted in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours
List. Ian
Johnston becomes the first BTP Chief Constable to be knighted, after eight
years at the helm. The Chief
Constable, who is leaving BTP at the end of July, said “It has been a real
privilege to have been Chief Constable.” “I am absolutely delighted
to be given this award.” Sex attacker given
supervision and prevention order
London
South Officers gained a good sentence on a male who masturbated on a
train. The male
had attended Gatwick station on May 17 with the rather sinister intention
of having sex with a female. He
approached a lone female tourist who he engaged in conversation. She had
attempted to avoid him, however he pursued her through the carriage and
finally, sitting in front of her masturbated. His
demeanour in interview was unrepentant as he outlined his actions prior to
arrest. This caused sufficient concern with the two interviewing officers,
PC Luke Hamilton-Wargent and PC Jason Western - Collinson, as well as with
the custody sergeant as to warrant an application for a Sexual Offences
Prevention Order (SOPO). On
application he was charged straight to court and post hearing the SOPO was
granted for five years and a Conviction Community Supervision Order for
two years plus compensation to the victim for exposure. This makes him a
Visor subject - an exceptionally good result for a first time sexual
offence of this nature. PC Western
- Collinson said ”this was a scary individual, lacking in morality whilst
preying on victims innocently travelling on the rail network. Through
application of the tools available it has been possible to curtail this
behaviour before a potentially tragic
occurrence.” Staff
assaults
You will
all be aware that we are currently failing our Area target to detect 55%
of our staff assault investigations, by a significant margin. An agreement
was made between BTP and CPS some time ago which is attached for your
attention. This seems to have been ignored on some occasions recently and
is for strict adherence. A summary of key points in this document
are:
Where some
of our problems lie is in the incorrect initial classification of offences
– a PND for an associated public order offence means that the staff
assault remains undetected. An appropriate offence for any incident must
be crimed – so, a PND for public order might be appropriate but not if a
crime of assault has been reported and recorded. Effectively we have 72
hours to raise this crime, so officers should investigate circumstances
before raising a crime report and ensure that they are in receipt of
accurate information. Statements are to be taken in every incident and an
investigation should be progressed as far as is possible, by the attending
officers. Bail should not be granted to obtain evidence for a basic staff
assault, as a victim and witness statements, when taken in consideration
with the attached policy should provide enough evidence to provide a
charging decision from the CPS. Please ask
any questions that you might have about staff assaults with your
supervisor. It is crucial that we get this area of our work
right. Thank
you. DCI
Williams Evidential Review
Officers update
Please see
attached this months ‘Trampoline’ from DC Steve Millward, ERO for London
South Area. London South
officer out-flanks in Ireland
A London South
Officer was chosen to join the British Police Rugby Team as they played
their first game in PC Mike Blakeburn
from Core Team 2, used to play semi-pro for Esher Rugby
Club. PC Blakeburn
played flanker in the match as they went on to win the hard fought
encounter 32-22.
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