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UK: Police didn't have the money to catch burglars who beat me with a crowbar
The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | May 17, 2008 | MILES GOSLETT

Posted on 05/18/2008 9:23:51 PM PDT by Stoat

Police didn't have the money to catch burglars who beat me with a crowbar

By MILES GOSLETT - More by this author » Last updated at 23:45pm on 17th May 2008

A businessman who was almost beaten to death by three crowbar-wielding burglars claims police haven't carried out DNA tests to identify his attackers – because they can't afford to pay for them.

IT consultant Simon Pither, 36, was savagely beaten over the head when he interrupted the gang at his £300,000 home.

The married father of two sustained such serious skull injuries during the assault that doctors told him he was lucky to be alive.

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Simon Pither

Scarred: Simon Pither suffered serious head injuries in the burglary

He had emergency surgery, 40 internal and external stitches and two-and-a-half months of intensive physiotherapy.

Following the brutal attack, detectives took a sample of DNA from under his fingernails in a bid to track down the gang.

But two months after the incident a Scotland Yard officer called his home and said the DNA samples had been returned because the force did not have sufficient funds to pay for the analysis.

Mr Pither said: "The world is run by budgets. It is outrageous and disgraceful."

Commercial DNA laboratories offer similar profiling tests for around £200.

It was Mr Pither's sister-in-law, teaching assistant Sarah Cowmey, 30, who took the call from police while she was babysitting his two children.

She said: "The police said the DNA samples which they had sent in to the laboratory had been rejected because they didn't have sufficient funding, so they would be sending them again within a week or so because hopefully the funding would have come through.

"They didn't ask who I was, so I was a bit surprised that they were willing to give out that sort of information."

The attack took place in January when Mr Pither returned to his home in Norwood, South London.

He recalled: "I arrived and there were two guys standing with their heads round the back of the TV.

"One turned round and asked me what I was doing there, and I told him it was my house. All of a sudden we started to have a bit of a tussle."

Mr Pither, who used to teach martial arts, tried to prevent the men leaving but during the struggle one of them struck him with the crowbar.

He said: "I looked up and saw the guy leaving, and all of a sudden there was blood shooting down my face.

"I walked back in and there was blood dripping on the carpet.

"It was new and I thought, 'My wife will kill me if I get blood all over that', so I went outside the front door and phoned my father-in-law, who lives nearby, and he rang the police."

The three men, who were black and aged between 17 and 25, made off with a camera, an iPod, a watch and some memory sticks.

Conservative MP Philip Davies said: "This sounds bizarre and completely outrageous and unacceptable.

"If dangerous thugs are still at large because the Metropolitan Police cannot pay their tab, we've reached a pretty depressing state of affairs.

"The Met spends hundreds of thousands of pounds each year on diversity training.

"They should concentrate on their first priority: tackling crime."

A spokesman for the Forensic Science Service said: "On average, DNA tests can be turned around in three or four days.

"In urgent cases, they can be turned around more quickly, perhaps taking as little as 24 hours."

In a statement, Scotland Yard said: "We are currently awaiting the results from the laboratory relating to forensic and DNA opportunities that have been taken from the premises as a result of the offence.

"Financial considerations have never had any influence on the way this case has been handled."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: britain; burglars; crime; criminals; crowbar; diversity; dna; england; greatbritain; police; simonpither; uk; unitedkingdom
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The Met spends hundreds of thousands of pounds each year on diversity training.

Please say a prayer for the people of Great Britain

 

Mary

1 posted on 05/18/2008 9:23:51 PM PDT by Stoat
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To: Stoat

Universal health care. Stand in line— NO smoking!


2 posted on 05/18/2008 9:27:20 PM PDT by Mark (Don't argue with my posts. I typed while under sniper fire..)
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To: Stoat

Will gladly do so in the name of Jesus …


3 posted on 05/18/2008 9:28:27 PM PDT by doc1019 (I was taught to respect my elders, but it's getting harder to find one.)
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To: Mark
Our garage was broken into several years ago and some bikes were stolen. My neighbor tried to chase them down and one bike was found abandoned in a field. I asked for fingerprints. I was told I watched too much tv.
4 posted on 05/18/2008 9:30:23 PM PDT by CindyDawg
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To: Mark

This isn’t even a health care issue, it’s a police issue. Not only don’t police protect you, now they can’t even afford to work lead to catch suspects. Sad. Maybe they should disband the police over there.


5 posted on 05/18/2008 9:30:39 PM PDT by coloradan (The US is becoming a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
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To: Stoat

This is the kind of thing that happens when you have a Socialist government.


6 posted on 05/18/2008 9:48:58 PM PDT by FFranco
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To: Stoat
Gotta get 'dem priorities in order. Husbands with multiple wives have been given the go-ahead to claim extra welfare benefits following a year-long Government review

"Islamic law permits men to have up to four wives at any one time - known as a harem - provided the husband spends [arranges for British citizens to provide the resources so that he can spend] equal amounts of time and money on each of them."

[My corrections]

7 posted on 05/18/2008 9:49:43 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: CindyDawg

As someone that worked in law enforcement for over 28 years. The Cops that talked to you were speaking from experience. If they (robbers) were professionals, they wore gloves, if they were amateurs, their fingerprints would not, in all probability, be in the system


8 posted on 05/18/2008 9:51:42 PM PDT by doc1019 (I was taught to respect my elders, but it's getting harder to find one.)
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To: doc1019

You don’t know unless you check though. I got the impression that it was too much trouble.


9 posted on 05/18/2008 9:53:03 PM PDT by CindyDawg
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To: doc1019

You’re kidding, right? People that break into garages to steal bicycles are probably dumb enough not to wear gloves and have probably spent most of their lives going through the system.

Petty theft like that is either kids or druggies.


10 posted on 05/18/2008 9:59:54 PM PDT by FreeperinRATcage (I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for every thing I do. - R. A. Heinlein)
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To: WilliamofCarmichael
Gotta get 'dem priorities in order.

A desperately, passionately depressing article; but essential and relevant, thank you.

This FR thread from April may also be of interest:

Great Britain Muslim is spared a speeding ban so he can drive between his two wives

11 posted on 05/18/2008 10:02:19 PM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2012: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Stoat
DNA opportunities that have been taken from the premises as a result of the offence.

Shakespeare that ain't!

12 posted on 05/18/2008 10:03:19 PM PDT by razorback-bert (If yer gunna regret this in the mornin, we kin sleep til afternoon.)
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To: CindyDawg

Considering all that is happening (crime wise) in our neighborhoods, mayhap this was something less than topmost on their radar? I know how must have felt, and rightly so, that it was topmost on your radar, however, priorities must be adhered to. Did you push the local police in this matter? Sometimes the police have to be pushed to get their attention.

Unfortunately, I worked in a large metropolitan police department so I have trouble relating to local, small town municipality departments and their priorities.


13 posted on 05/18/2008 10:07:42 PM PDT by doc1019 (I was taught to respect my elders, but it's getting harder to find one.)
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To: razorback-bert
Shakespeare that ain't!

Sadly, I haven't found our own American 'news' papers to be any better.  Decades ago, newspapers held themselves to an extremely high standard of literary excellence, to the point that word usage in newspapers was frequently cited when evaluating and judging the 'correctness' of grammar and sentence structure.  This is one of the things that has been lost in the news business, along with a dedication to objectivity.

It's sad to have to watch something die......although in many ways along with death comes a rebirth, at least in this context.  Although bloggers and 'newmedia' sources will oftentimes have a specific point of view, they are (usually) quite open and proud about that, and they are often quite proper in their use of grammar.....frequently far more so than the 'major' papers, at least in my experience.

14 posted on 05/18/2008 10:20:55 PM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2012: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Stoat
Thievery and assault are amazingly common in England now. The police don't even bother to leave their closed-circuit TV monitoring booths to fight it. About the only way you can get them to appear at your house in a hurry is to announce, "There's a ni**er in my home and I am about to shoot him." Of course, they will be racing over to arrest YOU, so you had better not use this tactic unless you are in real fear for your life.

-ccm

15 posted on 05/18/2008 11:45:20 PM PDT by ccmay (Too much Law; not enough Order.)
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Thank goodness this guy didn’t have a gun! Somebody might have gotten hurt!

Mark


16 posted on 05/18/2008 11:48:02 PM PDT by MarkL
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To: CindyDawg
A friend's house in OKC was broken into, and they stole well over $8000 of property and ransacked the house. The police stopped by, took a report and left. They weren't in the house for more than about 10 minutes. No fingerprinting, no "CSI," no nothing.

Mark

17 posted on 05/18/2008 11:50:13 PM PDT by MarkL
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To: Stoat

Good thing he didn’t fight back and hurt one of the criminals or he’d have gone to jail.


18 posted on 05/19/2008 12:13:08 AM PDT by AlaskaErik (I served and protected my country for 31 years. Democrats spent that time trying to destroy it.)
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To: MarkL
I just had a credit card number stolen this month. I got a call from the credit card and they asked if I bought a laptop, I said no. We canceled the acct and got a new card. I called Dell to ask them where they were going to send the laptop. I gave my name( they already had it) and my old CC number( of course they had it) and my phone number( they already had it). They asked my address and I said you just tell me where you were going top mail it to, they refused unless I said where I live. I said I live where you were going to mail it and I'm making sure its correct. They said tell us where that is and we will tell you if it matches. I said look, you aren't going to get paid, the number is bogus, and you are protecting a thief, now tell me where you were going to mail it. They refused. The Credit card co. fraud division contacted them and I don't know the outcome yet, but I bet they won't even go see who was going to pick up the laptop. I did find out his email is in Hanoi Vietnam. Dell did admit the addy was in the US.

Nobody cares.

19 posted on 05/19/2008 12:19:30 AM PDT by chuckles
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To: doc1019
As someone that worked in law enforcement for over 28 years. The Cops that talked to you were speaking from experience. If they (robbers) were professionals, they wore gloves, if they were amateurs, their fingerprints would not, in all probability, be in the system

Professionals don't steal bikes out of garages. That sounds more like dopers and their prints would more than likely be in AFIS. I see the same people come in and out year after year. There are simply too many burglaries and too few cops to properly investigate each and every one.

20 posted on 05/19/2008 12:30:48 AM PDT by AlaskaErik (I served and protected my country for 31 years. Democrats spent that time trying to destroy it.)
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