Charging headlong towards a secret state
Yesterday the Mail revealed how, in another disturbing lurch towards a secret state, Warwickshire police had quietly introduced a policy of refusing to name crime suspects even after they have been charged.
Worryingly, this decision coincided with the charging of an ex-police officer for allegedly stealing £113,000 from the force’s former HQ – raising suspicions they were protecting ‘one of their own’.
After protests from freedom of speech campaigners, Warwickshire has now belatedly backed down.
Yet, as we report today, there are 14 other forces nationwide – one in every three – who, with little or no public debate, have introduced similar arbitrary bans on identification.
Thus, across large swathes of the country, it is now possible for somebody to be arrested in the dead of night, kept on bail for months or even years, and then charged with the gravest of offences, without the public’s knowledge.
Inevitably, at the root of this insidious attack on openness and transparency is the Leveson Inquiry, which demanded an end to the long-standing practice of police confirming to journalists the names of arrested suspects.
The Association of Chief Police Officers has embraced this chillingly wrong-headed edict, which it has told all 43 forces in England and Wales to adopt.
But so long is the shadow cast by Lord Justice Leveson’s report that some chief constables feel emboldened to go even further, by maintaining the ban even after charges have been made.
More... The public has a right to know who's charged with a crime. This police secrecy insults democracy Hall case 'proves the benefits' of naming arrested suspects: Officers say naming him led to more victims coming forward 'Stuart Hall pushed me up against a wall and tried to force himself on me': It's A Knockout cheerleader recounts horrific moment BBC veteran sexually assaulted herMake no mistake: the risks to justice and liberty of arresting and charging suspects in secret could not be more serious.
If the public are not allowed to know an innocent man or woman has been seized, how are they supposed to come forward with any information which could clear the accused, such as a cast-iron alibi?
Where a guilty suspect is concerned, there’s a danger that witnesses’ or, indeed, victims’ evidence will never be heard.
Consider, for example, the sickening case of Stuart Hall, the now disgraced TV personality who yesterday admitted 14 counts of indecent assault against 13 girls aged between nine and 17.
More from Daily Mail Comment... Now let's address the real marriage crisis 06/06/13 Curb legal aid to win justice for taxpayers 04/06/13 DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Gay marriage, peers and a vote of principle 03/06/13 Is this why politicians want to gag the Press? 02/06/13 DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Mr Cameron and his web of Google cronies 31/05/13 Defend Britain from EU benefit tourists 31/05/13 Plastic bags, hot air and rank hypocrisy 29/05/13 Public service and a question of integrity 28/05/13 New homes, green fields and happiness 27/05/13 VIEW FULL ARCHIVEEleven of these victims contacted the police to say they, too, had been abused only after the Press reported that Hall had been arrested.
Had his arrest been kept secret, prosecutors may never have been able to establish the ‘pattern of behaviour’ which forced Hall – who coldly dismissed the initial allegations as ‘pernicious, callous, cruel and above all spurious’ – to concede his guilt.
Secret arrests are an assault on Britain’s hard-won freedoms.
In the interest of liberty and justice, the police should now admit that – in the post-Leveson frenzy – they have made a catastrophic mistake, and think again.
What now Jose?In January Jose Manuel Barroso, the head of the European Commission, declared: ‘In 2013, the question won’t be if the euro will or will not implode’.
Yesterday, barely four months on, the European Central Bank slashed interest rates to a record low in a desperate bid to stave off recession.
Meanwhile, it was revealed that unemployment among the 17 members of the single currency had reached an all-time high – with 19.2million out of work – and that the manufacturing sector across the eurozone is in sharp decline.
It is even contracting in Germany, which the basket case economies of southern Europe are reliant upon to stay afloat.
Crisis over? Mr Barroso’s self-delusion would be laughable if there was not so much at stake.
