Friday 4 February 2011

Eltham police again

Oh dear, Eltham police again. 
"Two police officers who sledgehammered their way into a south east London house and tried to frame a squatter on a drugs charge have been sacked.

Sergeant Marcus Garvey and Pc Wayne Campbell threw cannabis-smoking Ben Thacker off their patch in Greenwich in January 2008. But when he appeared in court accused of possessing cannabis the case was thrown out and the spotlight shone on their actions.

Mr Thacker revealed he had recorded evidence on a voice recorder hidden in his pocket, and the two men later lied about the circumstances.

Garvey and Campbell, based at Eltham Police Station, were acquitted of perverting the course of justice by a jury in May last year. But an internal police misconduct hearing concluded they deliberately gave inaccurate accounts of the arrest and used unlawful force.  The move followed an investigation managed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The arrest took place on January 26, 2008, at a house on Tudway Road, Kidbrooke."  Read more here or here.
Eltham Police didn't get a great press only last December when, in separate cases, an Eltham policeman was being investigated for a shooting, and another was found guilty of nine charges of indecent assault against three young girls. I'm sure there are good officers at the Eltham station but news like this doesn't instill confidence.

5 comments:

Marion said...

Oh dear. This isn't good.

Raven said...

It's a shame, isn't it, for the good officers there who must exist.

Paul W said...

A bit sloppy to suggest there may be a trend here.

The shooting involved a police officer trying to protect the community from armed robbers and is still being investigated. The sex offences were committed in Manchester long before the person joined the police.

In my experience the main grumble about the police in Eltham is that there aren't enough of them.

Anonymous said...
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Raven said...

My main point was that Eltham Police Station was in the news again, and in a relatively short period of time.

I didn't mean particularly to suggest there was a trend. Any negative vibes on this are really aimed at the latest case...