not enough evidence,doubtful if a crime commited.

cashman · 01-03-2008, 22:59

paris n i ran into a couple of friends of mine this afternoon in town,both mid 60s the husband uses a walking stick due to poor health, they told us they were walking down Burnley Rd, approx 9-00 one evening about 2 weeks ago, when this yob charged inbetween em knocking her into a wall n snatched her handbag, her right elbow is still badly bruised (black) the yob never managed to take off with the bag even though the strap snapped, my friend beat him off with his stick, they then reported the incident to the police,only to be told - theres not enough evidence to persue this.

they obviously went nuts about this, she wrote to the Home Office, and also Greg Pope, (perhaps Greg will clarify this?) greg responded, it is now deemed an offence, i advised her to seek advice, what the "Hell" is going on thesedays? when incidents like this are NOT being deemed an offence? it makes me wonder it perhaps now depends WHO is attacked? they are just 2 ordinary decent folk who never did anyone any harm. would the police look at this in a differant light if it was an immigrant who was attacked? i suspect they would. it dont give me any confidence in the law.

AccyLass · 01-03-2008, 23:05

I work over the rd from where this happened
We were asked if we noticed anything
Unfortunately we couldn't be of any help
Sorry to hear that nothing was done for these people

slinky · 01-03-2008, 23:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by cashman

would the police look at this in a differant light if it was an immigrant who was attacked? i suspect they would. it dont give me any confidence in the law.

Well, according to this weeks Observer, they are being given lessons in Polish. So if this did happen to one of them, they would probably understand them better than they understand us now.

slinky · 01-03-2008, 23:14

Oh and sorry to hear about your friends cashy. I hope the numb scum will get his/her comeuppance

cashman · 01-03-2008, 23:14

thanks accylass, its the police saying not enough evidence to say theres been a crime,thats really wound me up. thats from 2 people thats getting on,n never seen the inside of a police station, if they cant believe folk like that,were on a bloody slippery slope.

cashman · 01-03-2008, 23:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by slinky

Oh and sorry to hear about your friends cashy. I hope the numb scum will get his/her comeuppance

if a certain accyweb member finds out who- he will.

steeljack · 01-03-2008, 23:29

it's surprising the police didn't tell them they shouldn't have been out and about at that time of night , but should have been home locked and barricaded in.

hope the couple recover ok

Rosencrantz · 01-03-2008, 23:42

Obviously it's not nice to be robbed but how exactly would you prosecute something like this? If there was evidence, they would prosecute. Someone mentioned the police asked if they saw anything and nothing was seen. The police have done their job and can't do anything more.

And that's ridiculous to suggest that an immigrant would have better police support than another citizen. No evidence means no evidence. Even the worst lawyer would have the case thrown out in 30 seconds and the police would have wasted both time and money bringing whoever the couple blamed to court.

cashman · 01-03-2008, 23:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosencrantz

Obviously it's not nice to be robbed but how exactly would you prosecute something like this? If there was evidence, they would prosecute. Someone mentioned the police asked if they saw anything and nothing was seen. The police have done their job and can't do anything more.

And that's ridiculous to suggest that an immigrant would have better police support than another citizen. No evidence means no evidence. Even the worst lawyer would have the case thrown out in 30 seconds and the police would have wasted both time and money bringing whoever the couple blamed to court.

the point is they said no evidence a crime has been commited, if they cannot take the word of 2 honest people 1 who had a badly cut n bruised elbow,then you my friend should be road sweeping not at uni.

Rosencrantz · 02-03-2008, 00:10

They're not denying a crime, they're basically saying they can't prosecute on the evidence they have. Only an idiot would say there was no crime committed full stop.

cashman · 02-03-2008, 00:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosencrantz

They're not denying a crime, they're basically saying they can't prosecute on the evidence they have. Only an idiot would say there was no crime committed full stop.

did you read what i said? "they have no evidence a crime has been commited" as Greg Pope can verify if he cares to comment,

unless of course you know better.

Rosencrantz · 02-03-2008, 00:36

The fact that the police are using the word "evidence" in that sentence implies a legal connotation rather than a literal one. A better interpretation might be "they have no damning, watertight evidence submittable in a court of law that a crime has been committed by a particular individual". They're not saying that they can't see that the two people in front of them are angry and hurt victims of crime, they're saying that from a legal perspective there's not enough to incriminate any specific individual.

To be fair, it does sound like a fairly vague case and I can understand why it would make you angry. Maybe I'm too much of an apologist for the establishment.

cashman · 02-03-2008, 00:39

so in that case, at that point the police did not persue that yob, therefore that gives him free range to attempt to rob others, the next person may not be as lucky.

steeljack · 02-03-2008, 00:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosencrantz

The fact that the police are using the word "evidence" in that sentence implies a legal connotation rather than a literal one. A better interpretation might be "they have no damning, watertight evidence submittable in a court of law that a crime has been committed by a particular individual". They're not saying that they can't see that the two people in front of them are angry and hurt victims of crime, they're saying that from a legal perspective there's not enough to incriminate any specific individual.

To be fair, it does sound like a fairly vague case and I can understand why it would make you angry. Maybe I'm too much of an apologist for the establishment.

From what Cashy has told us of the incident it seems to me that there is ample evidence available that at least three crimes have been commited , two assaults (one causing injury) and the attempted theft of the lady's handbag , there might not be enough evidence available to secure a conviction , but there is enough to make it a reportable crime and as such it be noted and shown in the crime stats for that particular area as an unsolved crime ,

Rosencrantz · 02-03-2008, 00:50

How do you persue him? In an ideal world that would be the right course of action but I imagine the best description the victim could give was along the lines of a stereotypical teenage tracksuit mugger - and with no other objective witnesses the process would be incredibly difficult. Don't get me wrong, justice definitely wasn't served here, but I'm just not sure how much more action could conceivably be taken under the circumstances.

Edit: I agree, it should definitely go down as an unsolved crime - did it not?