. . . . without a warrant or even a single scintilla of evidence!
In early 2014, a UK Professor in Criminal Law highlighted the basic position (to me) that . . . .
"It is notoriously difficult to salvage a reputation after an erroneous arrest, and there are few, if any, opportunities for redress."
A position which was supported by a former Conservative government minister, describing to me much of the battle I would endure, if I wanted to challenge the Police's actions. He said "You never get any redress with the Police and if you do, it will be insignificant. It is likely to be a massive feat of endurance along the way" He went on to ask did I have "the stomach to pursue the police. As they will pull out all stops to protect their colleagues and position, refuse to divulge information under the guise of 'data protection' and will delay and delay responses in the hope that statutory time limitations would come into effect, preventing any real discussion". . ." with the worse case scenario (for anyone challenging the behaviour of an officer) was the retirement of officers placing themselves beyond investigation and questioning in complaints procedures". Further to this a barrister argued "Any police lies or deceit are difficult to expose, unless they are subject to subpoena issued through a public inquiry court jurisdicion of the 'Hillsborough Inquiry' level".
'Boy O'boy' How right they were. This is a plain iniquity and an affront to any natural justice and any fairness.
My 'hero' is Christopher Jefferies, who was falsely accused of a murder. He has written much abouit his experience of being in the radar of the Police. He talked about his detainment and the subsequent actions of the Police.
"At the time it felt as if the police were deliberately playing a game - promising the ordeal would soon be over and then finding it necessary to prolong the wait. It was a form of psychological torture."
This website is my factual account and 'journal', describing the impact of a false allegation (made by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary) and how it has fundamentally challenged my law abiding and rule following individual mind set; more so, it has changed my naive views on accusation, allegation and arrest and the impact it has on a 'common man', if they are arrested without just cause from a serious allegation, released from Police bail and all enquiries; then to discover that there is no redress when the truth about their innocence is revealed.
What is most impacting is when the police themselves are able to make an 'unsupported' and non-evidenced allegations and get away with it. Subsequent to my arrest my financial losses are yet to be determined, as the event destroyed my career (something I relied onto pay the mortgage); the emotional impact has been devastating and the event has broken most of my former relationship security I had with friends, family and former acquaintances. It has also severely corrupted my cosy, naive, trusting and simple view on fairness, the legal system and the Police service.
The United Nations Convention of Human Rights Article 5 is the convention on protecting prisoners from inhumane treatment. This UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS was set as a common standard of achievement , with all nations expected to comply. It included a convention on torture with electronic equipment, waterboarding, sleep deprivation, starvation and many other inhumane acts. This is not the same as Article 3 of the The UK 'Human Rights Act 1998' , which sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms that everyone in the UK is entitled to.
A 'Bugger's Muddle' - as described by Circuit Court Judge Richard Lowden in 2011.
⇒ A mess
⇒ Confusion caused by incompetence and/or lack of organisation
⇒ A complete cock up
⇒ Unsatisfactory result, often with comic consequences
⇒ Misguided effort
⇒ Fiasco
⇒ Result of failure to recognise consequences
My circumstances just becomes a case of ticking boxes for Devon & Cornwall Constabulary actions, leaving out the 'comic consequencies'!
"Your lodger was given a 3 year suspended sentence, by a Court, for wrongdoing. Whereas you were handed out a full LIFE SENTENCE by the police for doing nothing wrong!" (The words of a dying friend).
I have been given a 'LIFE SENTENCE' , that invades every thought in every day (and sometimes through the night). Reminded by every check of the electric meter, every balance check of my wallet and at the ATM, and every check to the diminishing friends (if any are left). Memories are completely dulled by the truama. Every action is frustrated by a lack of interest and the ability to 'get it together and hold it together'. Time is meant to be a healer, this is only when bit by bit you can tackle each issue and they become resolved. The order is broken when an issue influencing all others becomes insurmountable and in turn has a significant bearing on all the rest. I feel very tarnished and by to many (especially professionals) I am treated as 'dirty'.
This is NOT a commercial website. All comment, in relationship to my interaction with the Police, is supported with letter and email evidence. It is a very personal website recounting a most serious and wrongful allegation made against me, by one police force, leading to my unlawful arrest by another. The life changing arrest, on a suspicion and without a warrant, was unjustified and proved to be wrongful, because of the zero amount of evidence to support police actions and their serious allegation. This position was ratified by an exoneration with the police removing all data finally (instructed by the Chief Constable David Jones of North Yorkshire Police under 'exceptional case' procedures) about me. This deletion has now included all data removal from the Police National Computer (PNC) Database after an investigation of the police actions, which were considered as wanting. Subsequently, all 'soft intelligence' data was removed (one of the most rare happening) from both localised data systems held by Devon & Cornwall Constabulary and North Yorkshire Police. This has taken over four years of 'heel dragging' by both Police forces.
Details of an arrest, that results from an allegation or suspicion that a 'serious offence' has been committed, are retained on the PNC for life unless removed under exceptional circumstances. For over 12,000,000 people, entries/records held on the the system, this information is usually retained by information hungry police services, who are eager to protect it, even if later it is proved to have come from very unreliable witnesses or false allegations. Putting the desire to see the removal of data from the PNC and localised 'under the desk' recording systems into perspective is simple. From 'Freedom of information' requests from 48 police services. An aggregated figure would be averaged at 5 removals a year per police force through 'exeptional case' procedures from under 900,000 arrests made every year.
It was Devon & Cornwall Constabulary who called for my arrest and they cannot be excused from some fundemental collaborative and tormenting actions, that lead to my arrest by North Yorkshire Police.
The arrest was called for without warrant*, determined by subverted minds; 011215 Detective Sergeant Brian Slade, Devon & Cornwall Constabulary and his now retired colleague Detective Inspector Simon Snell; mistakenly having a vague 'suspicion' without there being any evidence, leading to me being arrested, detained and bailed. Allegedly being in possession and distributing indecent images of children. This caused my reputation to be left in tatters, as I was dishonoured, leaving me with a precarious life from the moment of my arrest. The 'trusted' status bestowed on me (as a professional) was destroyed. My suspension was followed swiftly by dismissal by my employers, a path to an end of my career. The 'suspicion' was at its best very fragile, determined by an 'association with another person' and through my ownership of a house which was occupied by a house sitter (living there to protect my property). The house, for me, had become a holiday venue and at worst a refuge from my high pressure job for the occasional night and barely spending a few weeks a year there in total. My job committed me to being away throughout and pre-dominantly living on-site in North Yorkshire. Because of this 'owner' status, it seems to have become the pivotal reason for the suspicion that I might have had some involvement in a serious crime, by 'association', also my solicitors believed it was because I met a differential vague profiling criteria of a persons engaged in a specific type of criminal activity.
Any justifiable and significant reasons for my arrest have never been offered (even after a complaint procedure). Significant communication from me to Devon and Cornwall Constabulary has been ignored or at best they have responded with vague replies - Normally this type of action and vagary, from organisations, is a result of fear as they choose to mask and hide mistakes.
It was a very public arrest, on the 12th of September 2012, at my place of work (a college) in front of a colleague, conducted by Officers of North Yorkshire Police who had been requested to arrest me as a result of 'intelligence'. A later inquiry into police actions revealed this as the only criteria 'reason' for calling for my arrest and was a case of supporting the instruction to arrest, given by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary.
With the risk of concluding early, I feel 'Intelligence' and 'Police' in the same sentence is a bit of an oxymoron, if they are to be judged through my experiences. I sincerely believe there was never any evidence - just a vague suspicion from a team of officers. Devon and Cornwall Constabulary have never been prepared to release their 'intelligence' through using an honest broker with redactions on any evidence.
The complete lack of 'reasonable and significant' evidence breached the 'Serious Organised Crime and Police Act' and 'PACE 1984' regulations. The arrest played no consideration to any discharge from enquiries nor to the future consequences of police actions if they 'got it wrong', as it was to immediately and seriously impact on my life. Causing years of going through emotional 'hell' with derived long term mental health issues, including the contemplation of suicide and has proved to be a life changer from massive reputational damage, with the risk of home loss because of unemployment. It takes a brave person to support someone accused of being a paedophile and there develops a complete lack of trust in the wider world.
I was subjected to 14 hours of daytime detention and left without food, breaching article 5 of the1953 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights' scribed by the United Nations. "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." Only assumed to happen in tyranical states, where crimes against humanity are committed.
My fluids were restricted, by the police, to less than 250ml (less than half a pint) during the whole time in custody. This was evidenced by the findings of a police inquiry about custody officers actions. The body needs an average of 1.5 litres of fluid, to sustain life each day, some of which can be derived from food.
I was left in a soiled incontinence pad for 14 hours.
4 months of police bail, before release with no evidence found or recorded from a forensic and detective investigation.
I was immediately suspended by my employers and my employment was terminated within 6 weeks of the arrest.
I have endured nearly 4 years of 'fighting' to clear my name. There have been 2 police inquiries; after which 3 officers were disciplined and an officer was suspended for their failings and inappropriate action. Neither of the instigators of this whole sordid affair have been bought to book.
Then . .
All data was removed (under 'Exceptional Case' procedures) from the Police National Computer Data base and finally, in March 2016, it was established that all data had been deleted from the localised systems (This is 'under the desk' stuff, kept off the national system and shared to other agencies, not controlled by any regulations). By definition, 'Exceptional Case' or deletion of a data record, is a rare happening, usually on the tail of an unlawful arrest. The Police are reticent to see data removed. With thousands of allegations leading to arrest every year; from which the asking for their data removal only secures under 500 record deletions nationally from 900,000 arrests.
The impact on me has been profound and much of which I will take to my grave.
I have been unemployed since late October 2012, left without references until recently from my last employers and a CV showing a significant gap in my work history. My character is seriously tarnished, as the 'court of public opinion' is heavily influenced by the precept of 'no smoke without fire'. All ignoring the evidence to the contrary.
No apologies from the Police about their life altering 'mistake' and they failed any 'Duty of Care'. Demonstrating their arrogance was a lack of reply from Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer to a polite and carefully constructed 'Olive branch' letter in July 2014. In this letter I explained my situation and appealed for his support in allaying potential employers fears, that I might be still under long term investigation. I have still not had a reply to this letter three years on
- just plain arrogance, with delay after delay in getting the 'truth' from the police service that have barricaded themselves into their fortified stations.
If I make any apologies (something the police have never been prepared to do), it is only for the exponentially growing content on this web site and the commentary (driven by plenty of time on my hands and much anger), supporting the position of the enormous 'dark cloud of reputational doubt and damage' hanging over me, whilst enduring an incredible arrogance of the police service and the four year battle to move forward; on several occasions cusping the edge of suicide as a result of their actions.
* When an officer retires they become beyond the reach of Police Complaint Inquiries system.
Forrmer Detective Inspector Simon Snell was instrumental in calling for my arrest, sited on Page 9 of the report responding to my complaint to Devon & Cornwall Constabulary. The complaint asked about the significant reasons and evidence that supported my arrest.
No evidence was ever presented that supported my arrest. His imput into the local resolution inquiry was never requested. This smacks of a conspiracy to protect a former officer. Metaphorically "speaking no ill of the dead!' with silence being his greatest protection. Protected by the mantra of "Ask no questions, be told no lies!"
I do not know of the reasons for his early retirement in early 2013. Many officers do very nicely from their significant pension payouts and engage in consultancy work (as he has done) ensuring he has a comfortable financial life, something which was taken away from me.
*warrant - the only warrant issued was a legitimate 'search warrant' to enter my property in Devon. Something I have never contested.
When I am angry, I write. It orders my thoughts and allow me to process information.