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Today saw the funeral of Pc Bill Barker, a police officer of 25 years who was swept away when the bridge he was policing in Cumbria collapsed due to extremely heavy rainfall and flooding.

While no crime was involved, I thought it would be important to remember that ordinary police officers can find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. All it takes is an accident to occur and they could very easily lose their lives whilst trying to protect other people.

While he had a lot of experience in the force, nothing can prepare you for the conditions he found himself working in, and I’m sure the people who could have been on the bridge with him when it collapsed will appreciate his hard work in preventing greater loss of life and injury.

So here’s to you Pc Barker. You will be missed.

Winter is apparently the worst time of year for car-related theft, according to police statistics. A combination of the festive season and bad weather seem to be the main culprits, with officers warning people to take appropriate care of their vehicles.

Car break-ins are always higher in the run-up to Christmas and during the January sales, as people tend to be shopping a lot more than at other points in the year. People often return to their car to drop items off before they head to another store, and when these items are left in plain view it will be hard for a prospective thief to ignore. The lesson? Only leave your car with any goods in it when you absolutely must and always keep those items out of sight in the boot. Remember it only takes a minute or two for your car to be damaged badly while someone steals all your new gear!

Perhaps more worrying, though, is the rise of outright car thefts during the colder months. Police ascribe this to a scheme where thieves will keep watch over a street, waiting for people to go outside to start the car running before going back into the house while it heats up and de-frosts. When the person leaves the car unattended with the keys in the ignition, the thieves simply jump in and drive off. This year there have been one or two high-profile cases involving this type of crime – one was a case where a gang were convicted after stealing dozens of cars this way. Don’t let yourself get caught out!

A story making waves on Twitter at the moment is about an ex-soldier who has ended up facing 5 years in prison when he is sentenced in the near future. His crime? Handing in a discarded shotgun to the police.

Yes, this sounds a bit nutty doesn’t it? Well, it all boils down to the fact that possession of an illegal firearm comes under what is known as  ‘Strict Liability’ – essentially meaning that no matter what your excuse, you’re still at fault and have no defence. Kind of like speeding in a vehicle, except the minimum sentence (if found guilty, of course) for this crime is 5 years in prison.

This isn’t the entire story though. The man, Paul Clarke, originally saw a bin liner in his garden, near a fence which borders public parkland. Going to get rid of it, he found it had a sawn-off shotgun along with some ammunition inside. He took it into his house and the next day rang the police to make an appointment to come in to the station. He took in the weapon, took it out of the bag in the interview room and was promptly arrested for possession of an illegal firearm.

Jump forward to the court case, and even with the judge, prosecution and nearly everyone else realising that Mr Clarke was trying to help the police, the jury took 20 minutes to agree with the judge in the ‘Strict Liability’ corner and return a guilty verdict. Sentencing has not taken place yet.

BUT – there’s always a but, isn’t there? Well, this time is no exception. Here are some points as to why he is now getting done for this:

• Flyers posted around the town Clarke lives in specifically noted that civilians should report any weapons they find, and explicitly to not touch them, move them or bring them in to the station themselves (although other police forces have asked people to bring in the weapons on occasion).
• Clarke did not tell the police over the phone that he had a weapon of any description. Leaving it kind of ambiguous, he just said that he needed to speak with them in the station.
• Clarke not only touched the weapon, but moved it into his house. This means he is, in theory, guilty of possession of an illegal weapon. If he had left it in the garden where he found it, he would have had no problems.
• Clarke waited until the next day to report it. He could well have been waiting for day time to arrange an appointment but I doubt the police would have minded the call in this circumstance.
• Clarke was bloody stupid to touch the thing anyway, aside from any criminal law dictating what he should have done. Leaving your prints on a weapon which has been discarded for whatever reason is seldom a good idea.

So, cue the world-wide storm raging as we speak. Everything and everyone from the police service, legal system handling the case, jury and law itself being blamed for this weird scenario are only making matters worse.

The only thing that matters, in my eyes, about this case is that here is a man who tried to do the right thing, albeit in an absent-minded way, and may well end up in prison for his trouble. This cannot, and should not, stand.

… and so are the thieves. Christmas is that time of year where theft and burglaries increase, fuelled by combinations of factors. So what should you do so you don’t get caught out?

• Go shopping with someone else
  This one sounds like an odd suggestion, but this is a time of year when people go out shopping more than they usually would. Women walking along on their own, young teenagers and the elderly are all at risk from have-a-go muggers and pickpockets. Simply having another person with you could mean someone else becomes the target and not you.
• Hide the presents
  You’ve heard the story before – family home is broken into, all the kid’s presents are stolen. Don’t leave the presents under the tree. Put them out first thing in the morning on Christmas day or last thing on Christmas Eve. The most important thing, though, is to make sure that no-one can see into your house, especially to where you have hid the presents!
• Hide your new gear
  Christmas and New Year is when every man and his dog is out socialising. Chances are you just got a new bit of kit too, whether it is a new phone or MP3 player. Resist the urge to show it off to your mates on the bus into town – you never know which sly bugger could be catching a glance with a view to running off with it when you get off the bus.
• Watch your back
  Perhaps the most important thing is to watch yourself. Trouble happens in any place, at any time. With many more people out and about than usual, with more alcohol inside them too, things might get a little out of hand at times. Keep an eye on those around you and always keep yourself safe.

They’re my top tips anyway… What are yours?

The married couple who conned the authorities and their own sons into thinking that the husband and father had died in a canoeing incident at sea have been ordered to pay back £600,000 of their ill-gotten gains.

Anne and John Darwin concocted a scheme back in 2002 to make John Darwin’s disappearance look like a tragic death, saying that he had gone out for a canoe trip in the North Sea but had drowned. Meanwhile he had been living in the house next door before moving to Panama to start a new life.

Even their sons didn’t know the true story, and mourned their father until 2007 when he suddenly re-appeared. Claiming he had amnesia and couldn’t remember anything about the previous 5 years, the con was eventually unravelled when photographs were found of the couple, together, in Panama whilst looking at properties.

Now the pair have been t0ld to repay money they defrauded from insurance companies to the total of £600,000, with all but a token £1 sum being repaid by Anne Darwin as Mr Darwin has no financial assets to his name.

The case grabbed headlines across the country back in 2007-2008, and it seems that the two are finally getting the full punishment they deserved for misleading both their own family along with legal and financial authorities. They were originally sentenced to 6-6.5 years each.

You may remember the case of Jimmy Mizen – a 16 year old lad murdered in a bakery in London over a silly argument. You may also remember the case of Rhys Jones, a 11 year old who was shot dead by a cowardly gangster wannabe in Liverpool for absolutely no reason or warning. Well it seems the two murderers, Sean Mercer and Jake Fahri, are locked up in the same prison.

Just going to show how mindlessly violent they are, Mercer has attacked and stabbed Fahri in a fight whilst a 3rd convict held Fahri down. The weapon was a pair of tweezers, sharpened to a point and taped up to act as a makeweight shiv. Not that I’m all that bothered – they all deserve whatever they get.

What this does highlight though is that there is no concept of rehabilitation for people like this. They murdered two young people who had done nothing wrong and with Rhys Jones, didn’t even have any contact with the attacker – he was just going home after football practice. They’re violent through and through, and no amount of hand-wringing and social work will make them better people.

Of course, crimes like these are very out of the ordinary, thankfully, and the murderers in both cases were brought to trial and convicted, even though they got vastly reduced sentences compared to what they should have received (i.e. a life sentence). Still, at least they’re locked up for now, and tearing strips out of each other.

Long may it continue.

These days, everyone claims they live in the worst possible area for crime and that “things aren’t like they used to be”. But how often is this actually the case?

When I was living at home with my parents, I always thought that the towns and villages around mine could be a little shifty at night. Nothing amazingly bad but that was the limit of my experience as a kid. When I moved to a big city when I went to university, that all changed.

I ended up living somewhere in my final year where shootings, stabbings and muggings were things not so out of the ordinary and yet I didn’t really notice it, or rather it didn’t affect my life that much. It’s all perspective I guess. It wasn’t the worst place in the world, but it sure as hell wasn’t the safest.

So when you really think about it, how safe is your area? Chances are it isn’t as bad as you think it is…

With access to emails and personal information via the internet, Identity Theft is now a rising crime.  Individuals have their name, address and other personal information stolen which is then used to commit fraud.  This can include financial information which are then used by criminals to purchase goods in your name.  At the moment in the UK this kind of fraud costs the UK economy an estimated £1.2bn a year.  If you are a victim of this kind of crime, like many other crimes it can be very distressing.  It can be months before the fraudsters are caught and the damage they have caused undone.

A former work at a Jersey children’s home has finally been jailed for two years after being convicted of indecent attacks on teenage girls in the 1970’s.  Gordon Wateridge worked at the Haut de la Garenne home and had also been found of guilty of 8 counts of indecent assaults against three girls. The 78 year old live in the Parish of St Clement was sentenced at Jersey Royal Court. He was also found guilty of assaulting a teenage boy – as a result he has been jailed 21months for each of the 8 assaults.  Wateridge himself was born in croydon and was one of the first people charged for the abuse at the site.

Over the summer with the trouble experienced in the Carling Cup football match there is currently a appeal to help identify 66 individuals who are wanted for violent disorder.  The violent scenes broke out during the west ham versus Millwall match on Tuesday 25th August at Upton Park.  During the chaos a Millwall fan was stabbed in the chest outside the ground.  The Metropolitan Police have set up a group of officers called ‘Operation Balconi’ to investigate the violence that took place and catch the individuals under.  The police are also looking for 77 individuals who invaded the pitch throughout the game who will receive a life time ban from attending the matches.