yet another blog

Just spotted this on Indymedia, and well worth quoting in full…

Three Police officers in court for cannabis fit-up.

Three police officers are due to appear on a week long trial at Southwark crown court started august 17th 2009 charged with perverting the course of justice.
A young man who wishes not to be named until the trial has finished, was arrested in January 2008 for possession of cannabis on the Ferrier estate in Kidbrooke, South east London. However when he later again went to court on 25th March 2008, he produced to the court a digital voice recording which contradicted the statements of the officers.

Charges for possession of cannabis were dropped and official complaints against the police were made by magistrates and the crown prosecution services (CPS) which have been reffered to the Independent Police Complaints Commision. (IPCC)

The IPCC along with police investigation have put a case to the CPS who have decided they have a strong enough case to charge Sgt Marcus Garvey, PC Wayne Campbell and PCSO Stef Loftus with perverting the course of justice.

The defending police officers have been in and out of court several times since last year in an attempt to get the case dropped. All attempts have failed and the five-day trial is set to go ahead on august 17th 2009 at Southwark crown court.

Here is the statement from the man who is due to appear as no doubt the main witness against the accused police officers.

“I’m not really allowed to talk about the case, i’v been advised to by the investigating police officers as it might effect the case. I was arrested in 2008 for possession of cannabis but it as a total fit up. I got illegally evicted from my home, and refused bail that weekend.”

The reputation of the metropolitan police hasn’t been its best at recent times, and it would seem the bridge between the police and the community is widening. We can only hope the same true spirit of justice is present in the upcoming court case as in the previous one. However it is obviously expected that the ‘legal game’ inside the courtroom is going to be played as the officers lawyers attempt to get them off by any means how.

The man went on to say – ” i never expected any of this, all i did was take the recording to defend myself. But for sure i’m really pleased whats happened. I was legal kidnapped all weekend and had months of stress not knowing what was going to happen. I’d love to work with young offnders and children in care, and although i have smoked cannabis and been arrested for cannabis in the past, this was just a pointless blow to me, totally unfair”

For those who haven’t heard of the Ferrier estate where the man was arrested, it is one of the largest and most deprived council housing developments in london. With most of its properties empty, sureley it would be a blow to the isolated community to see officers allowed to get away with it to carry on harrasing as normal.

Our wonderful British cops fitting someone up? Surely not. They’d never do such a thing… er… would they?

More on this in the Bexley Times.

Mind you, it wouldn’t quite be the first occasion the cops have been caught out lying (for that’s what a fit-up is of course), now would it? See this, for example.

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