I remember after Stagg was acquitted a policeman saying they would not be looking elsewhere as they were so certain they had "got" the right man.

I cannot tell you how extraordinary the lack of morality, efficiency and level of corruption in Britain's Police Force - and the CPS - is.

Ah well, at least I wasn't an innocent Brazilian.

You'll notice all the news reports mention... "the CPS says... the Police say"...

No they don't. They are organisations. They do not have a voice.

Accountability? Doesn't exist.

Name the guilty individuals and stick 'em in Belmarsh.

They had little evidence to have any right to 'say' they were convinced of Stagg's guilt. Thy will no doubt say the same about Barry George despite the fact George's conviction has been quashed. They are simply crossing their testicles until such time he is re tried. They were also 'convinced' of Stefan Kisko's guilt. Their arrogance is sickening.

So glad you mentioned Barry George and Stefan Kiszko Chrissy - Colin Stagg in his interview on the news really reminded me of the worst part of police corruption - they often pick on those mentally vulnerable.

That evil bullying is the nastiest aspect of all and the one which spurs me on in my battle against miscarriages of justice.

Can someone tell me - is the police woman who snared Stagg in the "honey trap" in prison? Is the person who authorized her to do it locked up? If not, why not?

Indeed I seem to remember the bitch in question tried to prise money out of the tax payer for the stress caused to her.

Or am I mistaken there?

Just asking.

Accountability?

JK2006 wrote:
Can someone tell me - is the police woman who snared Stagg in the "honey trap" in prison? Is the person who authorized her to do it locked up? If not, why not?

Indeed I seem to remember the bitch in question tried to prise money out of the tax payer for the stress caused to her.

Or am I mistaken there?

Just asking.

Accountability?

Jonathan,

You have this habit of raising issues which make my blood boil. She did didn't she?...distressed following her 'ordeal'. No-one brought to book at all as far as I'm aware. I think Stagg's case really does illustrate how such dreaful miscarriages of justice occurr. It was incidentally the police who claimed Barry George had an obsession with Jill Dando. Yep...they found a magazine in his flat with her picture in it. This was actually used as 'evidence' in court.

No doubt that Stagg was a fantasist, he collected various parerphenalia associated with the dark arts, he often wandered Wimbledon Common alone; he harboured dark sexual fantasies.

What angers me is that the police are fully aware they had targeted the wrong man, but refused to budge an inch. It beggars belief.

One thing I do recall about the original case is that her son (then only 2yrs old) gave a basic eye witness description of the attacker which did not match Colin Stagg. The police claimed that he was too young to be a reliable witness. I wondered at the time whether they'd have classed him as reliable if his description had matched Colin Stagg.

It'll be interesting to know whether the boy's description matched Robert Napper.

I take on board what you guys are saying. However I actually think the police in this country do an excellent job under very difficult circumstances. After all they are only human beings who like the rest of us have a job to do to pay the bills and make ends meet. As in every profession mistakes are made, unfortunately when it happens with the police or CPS it is highlighted and they get a bad name, ie the police could arrest 1000 people and 999 of those people could be GENUINELY guilty however the one person who is innocent and wrongfully convicted will bring the whole thing into question. Although this is a dreadful thing to happen to the wrongfully convicted (arrested) person I think it is in more cases than not down to human error(s) within the police force and/or CPS rather than corruption to get a conviction.
For example Jonathan King has been responsible for creating some of the most successful groups and hit songs this country has ever produced but he has also had a few songs which were flops, which brings me to my point. NOBODY IS PERFECT.

That's what I would have thought 7 years ago Cecil, before this happened to me.

Now, after my own experiences and after three and a half years meeting other victims of police behaviour, I've had my eyes opened.

Because there is no accountability and because most people (police included) just "do their job", the eventual results can be truly appalling.

Both the morality and the efficiency of the police has become so eroded that miscarriages of justice have increased beyond acceptable levels.

Also, the rules have been relaxed somewhat. It used to be that the police/CPS had to prove their case. Now they can take someone to court and win a conviction on zero evidence. A reasonably well balanced system which has been built up over centuries has been dismantled in a few years. When no evidence is required, it's obvious that there is no presumption of innocence - a complete reversal of British legal practice.

Now that the double jeopardy law has also been "revised", there is no incentive for the police to get it right first time.

Various safeguards were incorporated into legal practice and procedure over the decades for good reasons. Human error is one of those reasons. Protection of the innocent is another.

Now there are no safeguards.

Do you suppose at this moment some police are gathering DNA samples from retards or morons and smearing them onto Jill Dando's clothes in case Barry George gets acquitted so they can pull someone else in after a few years?

I see in the Guardian that "Lizzie", the police bitch in the set up, was awarded

Did Colin Stagg get any payment for the distress caused to him?

JK2006 wrote:
[quote]I see in the Guardian that "Lizzie", the police bitch in the set up, was awarded

"doing her job" is an age old excuse employed by a lot of nasty so'n'so's; the guards at Belson for example.

Doing your job, or obeying orders, does not absolve you of any responsibility. Even if Stagg had been guilty this was a very underhand method of setting him up, this being the reason why the judge threw out the case. It was an unlawful 'sting' operation. The woman officer must have known there was something fishy about it, but she carried on regardless.

On the other hand, even if it had been legal and she was just "doing her job", why should she deserve compensation? Didn't she know what her job might involve? Police officers have to deal with some nasty people. If they can't cope with that, they should not enlist. All things considered, she made her own decision.

If this Napper guy is convicted, Stagg can expect to pocket a six figure compensation package from the met and up to

JC wrote:
"doing her job" is an age old excuse employed by a lot of nasty so'n'so's; the guards at Belson for example.

Doing your job, or obeying orders, does not absolve you of any responsibility. Even if Stagg had been guilty this was a very underhand method of setting him up, this being the reason why the judge threw out the case. It was an unlawful 'sting' operation. The woman officer must have known there was something fishy about it, but she carried on regardless.

On the other hand, even if it had been legal and she was just "doing her job", why should she deserve compensation? Didn't she know what her job might involve? Police officers have to deal with some nasty people. If they can't cope with that, they should not enlist. All things considered, she made her own decision.
She had been trained to trust the decisions of her superior officers.

For good or bad, that is necessary.

The fault was not hers, she didn't direct the operation. Insulting may suggest an hostile narrow view of the sort that is condemned on this forum.

Why compensation? She went to extraordinary lengths to do what she saw as her duty as a police officer (Rightly or wrongly, she was acting in good faith.)

Extraordinary efforts deserve extraordinary reward.

Edmund Burke was right. Evil is allowed to triumph because we say that people are only doing their job, and we fail to protest when the need arises. So innocent people suffer, some serve jail time, some break down or commit suicide, and some are shot on the underground, while nobody is held to account because those responsible were doing a difficult job and only following orders.

Having just read a book by investigative journalist Richard Shears from the Daily Mail about the Peter Falconio disappearance in the Northern Territory it appears to me (as Shears points out) that it's highly possible an innocent man has again been jailed for the murder of Falconio-and his body hasn'r even been found.

It also brings up the double edged sword of DNA. DNA has recently righted a lot of wrongs but Bradley Murdoch was convicted purely on 2 drops of his DNA under highly suspect circumstances.

All the other evidence changed from first interviews until the final trial ie: a red setter dog changed to a black and white dalamation when Murdoch was arrested and police realised he had a dalamation.

Similarities with the McCanns as well. The backpacker tourist market in Australia is it's biggest moneyspinner and government offcials were terrified the NT would have a reputation if a killer was out on the loose.

DNA-it can free the innocent but may jail the innocent as well.