September 17, 2014

- A court said Brooklyn prosecutors buried documents in the kidnapping case of Everton Wagstaffe.

Everton Wagstaffe, who refused to leave prison on probation because he viewed it as a surrender of his claim of innocence in the death of a teenage girl, learned on Wednesday that he had prevailed in a struggle that he began from behind bars nearly 23 years ago.

A panel of state appeals court judges unanimously reversed the kidnapping convictions of Mr. Wagstaffe and his co-defendant, Reginald Connor, finding that Brooklyn prosecutors in 1992 and 1993 were responsible for “burying” documents that might have shown that detectives and the prime witness had lied. The panel also dismissed the indictments of the two men.

A spokeswoman for Kenneth P. Thompson, the Brooklyn district attorney, who has pledged to aggressively hunt down injustice, said the decision was being reviewed.

Mr. Connor, 46, served 15 years, and now works for a film-production company. For the moment, Mr. Wagstaffe, 45, remains in state prison. He has been in custody since his arrest at age 23 in January 1992. Over the years, he has refused to accept release on any terms — such as parole or probation — that would imply he had something to do with the kidnapping and death of Jennifer Negron, a 16-year-old girl whose body was found on a street in the East New York section of Brooklyn on Jan. 1, 1992.

“Finally,” Mr. Connor said on Wednesday afternoon, sounding dazed. “Finally.”

He learned of the decision just after leaving a meeting with lawyers from Davis Polk & Wardwell, who had been representing him pro bono for the last several years.

Mr. Wagstaffe first heard of the ruling in a call with a family member, who asked not to be identified, but said Mr. Wagstaffe had insisted that the entire ruling be read to him. “ ‘You cry for both of us,’ ” the family member quoted Mr. Wagstaffe as saying. “ ‘I want to research part of it.’ ”

If the case comes to an end now, it would be the final chapter of an epic guerrilla legal battle waged by Mr. Wagstaffe. He entered prison with minimal literacy and taught himself to read. He then wrote hundreds of letters pleading for help in finding the physical evidence from the case so DNA testing could be done, and in finding missing witnesses. For much of that time, he had no legal counsel. He drafted his own legal papers and succeeded in being granted hearings, though not in getting any relief.

In recent years, Mr. Wagstaffe’s relentless campaign won support from a team of lawyers who included two lions of the New York legal world, James W. B. Benkard of Davis Polk, and Myron Beldock. Mr. Benkard, who died in April, brought in three other lawyers from his firm, including David B. Toscano, to represent Mr. Connor.

Now 85, Mr. Beldock represented George Whitmore, who gave a lengthy confession to two notorious murders in the 1960s. With help from journalists, Mr. Beldock proved the confession was false and that Mr. Whitmore could not have been responsible. The case helped bring an end to the death penalty in New York and was cited by the United States Supreme Court in the 1966 Miranda v. Arizona decision. Another client was Rubin (Hurricane) Carter, a former middleweight boxer found guilty of a triple homicide in Paterson, N.J., whose conviction was later overturned.

At home in poor health for much of last winter, Mr. Beldock rallied to attend the appellate division hearing, and presented the argument that carried the day: that there had been “fraud and misrepresentation” in the testimony of detectives who said that they were led to Mr. Wagstaffe and Mr. Connor by a single witness, a crack addict who supported herself with prostitution.

In fact, a computer record unearthed by Mr. Wagstaffe showed that detectives had actually pulled up information on him and Mr. Connor a day before the witness was first interviewed about the killing. It was the contention of Mr. Beldock that the detectives had presented the witness, Brunilda Capella, with the two names, and that she had merely ratified them. The computer records were turned over just before the trial, with piles of other papers, the court said.

“Given the lack of any other evidence tying the defendants to the crime, the credibility of Capella and the investigating detectives was of primary importance in this case, so that the burying of the subject documents by the prosecution” was significant, the court ruled.

Mr. Beldock wept briefly when he learned of the results, then said he had to get ready for another case. “We’re overjoyed that the appellate division heard the arguments of Everton and myself,” he said.

The 75th Police Precinct, where the murder occurred, was one of the city’s deadliest in the early 1990s. Detectives there had few qualms about taking shortcuts, according to the squad’s former sergeant, Michael Race.

In a 2001 interview, Mr. Race said that of 750 murder cases that he had handled, only one had been “done the correct way, from A to Z.” Mr. Race, who oversaw the investigation into Ms. Negron’s killing, has said he remembered nothing about the case.

- By Jim Dwyer / New York Times

Monday September 9 2013

- A senior member of the Finks motorcycle gang wants police to return his guns after they were seized in a fiery raid.
Frank Dieni, the sergeant-at-arms of the club’s South Melbourne chapter, says Victoria Police does not have the right to keep the weapons.
He will take his fight to the Victorian Firearms Appeal Committee to have the four guns returned.
Last year’s seizure of Mr Dieni’s guns at his Melton home came as police confiscated more than 100 weapons in a major blitz on bikies. They were taken from gun owners deemed not to be fit and proper people because of their links to motorcycle gangs.
But Mr Dieni clashed with police, resulting in him facing 19 charges.
Mr Dieni, an invalid pensioner, was last week found guilty of six charges, including four of non-physical assault against the police.
He was fined $3000 in Sunshine Magistrates Court but no conviction was recorded.
At a bail application soon after his arrest, Echo Taskforce Detective Senior Constable Ray Tillekeratne described Mr Dieni as an enforcer with the Finks.
It was alleged Mr Dieni told police he had authority to “hold the boys back, but I also control them. I’m going to unleash them and tell them to smash every copper dog…” But Mr Dieni’s lawyer, Alan Swanwick, told the same hearing he had no convictions and was singled out because he was a member of a motorcycle club.
Mr Dieni’s supporters suggest the raid was heavy-handed and removing the weapons could have been accomplished without acrimony.
Both he and Victoria Police declined to comment on the situation when contacted by the Herald Sun.
Members of the Wangaratta-based Tramps motorcycle club lost a bid to have their guns and licences returned after a hearing in the Victorian Firearms Appeal Committee.
The committee ruled in favour of one applicant, former Tramp and adventure store operator Craig Norton.
Another Tramp withdrew his application because he was banned from having a firearms licence.
The Tramps who failed in their bids will try to get their weapons back through the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
– Mark Buttler

I’m quite seriously in disbelief at this letter from Victoria Police in response to a complaint being made by a member of the public (a mother of three) for a breach of intervention order by the victim’s ex-husband, who attended the victim’s address without warning, even though a court-ordered IVO prohibits the respondent from approaching within 10 metres of the victim or 200 metres of the victim’s address. The officer, a Constable Sandro Lombardi, from Prahran police station, suggests the victim varies the order so that the respondent can “drop off the kids” to the address, even though a child protection order under the Family Law Act was in place outlining that any communication regarding the children, was to be via a lawyer, police or text message and that the dropping off and picking up, of the children, was to take place in a designated public place with a third party present.

Yeah, no problems, Lombardi. The respondent of the order attempted to strangle the victim in front of their three children (all aged under 6), leaving the victim fearing for her life and safety, which is why the magistrate stipulated in the intervention order strict proximity conditions for the respondent not to approach within 10 metres of the victim or 200 metres of the victim’s address, but “hey, vary the conditions, because we’re going to ignore any breaches of the order and override the magistrates’ court”.

Am I imagining all this? Are the police permitted to do this? Am I overreacting? In a climate where Chief Commissioner Ken Lay has declared war on violence against women and family violence? Quite seriously, I want to know, are the police actually within their rights to ignore and override a court-issued IVO?

I don’t even want to entertain the thought of how widespread this type of handling is throughout VicPol and how many other victims of similar crimes are subject to this kind of response.

The Letter

The court-issued IVO

Wednesday September 11 2014

- The recovery of a stolen Xbox gave police a “strong lead” to charge a man with the murder of a baby, a court has heard.
Harley Hicks, 20, is accused of murdering 11-month-old Zayden Veal in an alleged break-in on June 15th last year.
A committal hearing heard on Tuesday police investigated a link between the baby’s death and a spate of robberies in Long Gully, a Bendigo suburb.
Detective Senior Constable Tom Harper told the Bendigo Magistrates Court a number of stolen items were recovered from a Long Gully house where Hicks was staying with his two brothers. Among them was an Xbox computer game stolen on June 14th from a car on Eaglehawk Road – next to the property where Zayden arrived.
Zayden’s mother, Casey Veal, told the court she went to bed at 2am on June 15th and woke at 7am to find her house had been burgled.
Zayden had suffered a cardiac arrest and a number of injuries.
The court heard Ms Veal’s wallet and that of her partner Matt Tissell, containing $1900, were stolen.
Hicks sat still during the court proceedings with a grey jumper, earring in his left ear and a tattoo on his neck.
– Josh Fagan

Wednesday September 11 2013

- Police are hunting a man who raped a teenager in the foyer of an inner-city apartment in a horrifying attack.
The 19-year-old woman was approached by a man after she got out of a cab at the intersection of High and Chapel Streets, Prahran, on August 25th.
After the woman left the taxi between 2:30am and 3am, the man offered to walk her home but she refused.
He then followed her east down High Street and into an apartment complex, forcing her to the ground as she made for the lift, and then raping the teen.
The man, described as being of Indian appearance with an Indian accent was wearing a brown jacket, a white T-shirt and dark denim jeans.
Acting Detective Sergeant David Galea from the Sexual Crimes Squad labelled it a “brazen” attack by a man who could strike again.
– Herald Sun

Thursday September 12 2013

- Police are investigating if a mother murdered in her home was killed by someone “infatuated” with her.
Detective Inspector John Potter revealed the death of Kylie Blackwood, 42, in Pakenham, might have been by someone “known to Kylie, or somehow infatuated with her”.
But a burglary gone wrong could not be ruled out, he said.
Ms Blackwood, a mum of three, was found dead by her twin daughters when they returned home from school at 3:40pm on August 1st.
Detective Inspector Potter said response to the case had been “enormous” with more than 350 calls to Crime Stoppers.
“We’ve had quite a spike in calls to Crime Stoppers and those calls nominate potential suspects or persons who may be similar to the FACE image we released,” he said.
“We are working through all those carefully.
“At this point in time, we haven’t established a motive so we don’t know if it was a burglary gone wrong or whether the person either was somehow known to Kylie or somehow infatuated with her – we simply don’t know that. But we have to look at both options.”
He said police had interviewed several people of interest but at this stage had no suspects.
Detective Inspector Potter said he understood why the community was so affected.
“There’s a lot of interest and there’s lots of information coming in that we have to sift through,” he said.
“The worst part about it is that it’s a woman in her own home in a suburb that is in no particular way famous or notorious or anything like that.
“They see a particularly sad set of circumstances when two children come home from school and find their mum dead.”
He said husband Peter Blackwood, and their twin 11-year-old daughters and 13-year-old son were still traumatised.
A tradesman working in Mccaffery Rise, Pakenham, told police he saw a man in a striped hooded top looking into the Blackwood home shortly before noon.
It has been revealed the man returned 10 to 15 minutes later, when Ms Blackwood had come home from a shopping trip and left the garage door open. The tradesman had told police he saw the suspect “hurriedly” walking away about 20 minutes later.
– Jon Kaila

Thursday September 12 2013

- The DNA of the murderer of St Kilda sex worker Tracy Connelly was found at the crime scene, police say.
Detective Inspector John Potter, of the Homicide Squad, said the crucial evidence was found in a white Ford Econovan in Greeves Street, St Kilda, where Ms Connelly’s body was found on Sunday, 21st July.
There is no DNA match to anyone on the sex offender’s register. But police said “it was only a matter of time” before they caught the killer, believed to have been the victim’s client.
“We’ve got good evidence from the scene, from the van,” Detective Inspector Potter said.
“I’m confident we will make an arrest in this case.They (the killer) should do themselves a favour and give themselves up, because we will find them – there’s no question of that.”
Police have urged two people to come forward. CCTV cameras filmed a man at the corner of Vale and Greeves Streets just before 2am, and a dark XR6 ute in Greeves Street at 2:20am.
“They may have witnessed something…possibly seen Tracy with her killer,” Detective Inspector Potter said. “They are in no way being treated as suspects, and we are only interested in what they saw, not what they were doing there.”
Police believe Ms Connelly arrived back at her van at 2am and was killed before 2:30am.
“The smallest piece of information might help provide the answers we’ve been looking for,” Detective Inspector Potter said.
– Jon Kaila

September 24 2014

- Police have stepped up patrols after a boy of 11 was allegedly dragged from a London street in broad daylight and raped.

The horrific incident is believed to have happened in the stairwell of a building.

Within hours of the attack, a 42-year-old man was arrested and has been bailed to return in mid October.

A second man, aged 22, has also been arrested following the incident, which involved a Jewish boy who was on his way to school.

The second man has been questioned by members of Scotland Yard’s sexual offences exploitation and child abuse command.

He has also been bailed until October.

Details of two other incidents – described as “attempted abductions” – which are alleged to have taken place in the area on the same day are understood to have been passed to detectives.

The alleged 11-year-old rape victim is understood to have been approached in Old Hill Street in Stamford Hill, North London.

Police Superintendent Andy Walker from Hackney Police said: “These sorts of offences are thankfully very rare in this area, but they are particularly upsetting incidents and I understand the effect this may have on the people of Stamford Hill.”

He added: “Detectives from our specialist crime teams are investigating and you will see extra police patrols in the area over the next few days.”

Schools have warned parents to be extra vigilant following the attack on September 14.

Members of the Jewish community patrol group Shomrim have also sent out a warning to parents.

They told mums and dads to remind children never to accept food or gifts from a stranger – even if they are friendly and do not look suspicious.

A Scotland Yard spokesmen said: “Inquiries are continuing”.

- Gareth Roberts

Thursday September 12 2013

- Police are investigating whether a Pakenham mother who was stabbed to death in her home was murdered by someone who had an “infatuation”with her.

Kylie Blackwood, 42, was found dead by her twin daughters when they returned home from school on August 1st.

Detective Inspector John Potter said several people of interest had been interviewed and, while police were still investigating whether Ms Blackwood was murdered when a burglary went wrong, she may have been killed by someone she knew.

He said there had been more than 350 calls to Crime Stoppers about the murder.

“We’ve had quite a spike in calls…since our last appeal and those calls nominate several suspects,” he said.

“At this point in time we haven’t established a motive…So we don’t know if it was a burglary gone wrong or if the person was somehow known to Kylie, or was somehow infatuated with her.”

- Nino Bucci

Thursday September 12 2013

- Police hunting the killer of St Kilda sex worker Tracy Connelly have released security camera images of two people who may have seen her killer.

Police also said DNA recovered from the van did not match any known offenders and some clients of Ms Connelly had been cleared of any involvement in her slaying.

Detectives believe Ms Connelly, found dead on July 21st in her white Econovan in Greeves Street, returned to the van just before 2am. They believe she was killed between 2am and 2:30am, and have released footage from close-circuit television of a man who may have seen Ms Connelly and her killer walking together on Greeves Street about 1:45am.

The potential witness was seen walking on Vale Street towards the intersection with Greeves Street before turning towards St Kilda Road.

Police also want to speak to the driver of a Ford XR6 ute, seen in the area between 2:20am and 2:30am.

- Adrian Lowe & Nino Bucci

Friday September 13 2013

- DNA of a baby boy found dead in his cot was detected on a home-made baton found in the house, a court heard yesterday.

Zayden Veal-Whitting, 11-months-old, suffered at least 40 injuries in a frenzied attack, Bendigo Magistrates Court has been told.

Forensic testing on items taken from the home showed Zayden’s DNA on exposed wires on the end of a copper baton wrapped in tape.

According to a forensic report tendered in court yesterday: “The DNA profile…matches the profile obtained from Zayden Veal-Whitting.”

Harley Hicks, 20, is accused of burgling the Long Gully home and murdering Zayden on June 15th, 2012.

Pathologist Dr Jacqueline Lee said an implement may have been used to inflict severe injuries to Zayden.

“Once the injuries I saw were sustained, the child would’ve been dead shortly after,” she said.

According to a forensic analysis by Kate Outteridge, Mr Hick’s DNA and that of his two brothers couldn’t be excluded from the baton.

Dr Lee said Zayden received 25 bruises, abrasions and fractures to his face alone. He was probably dead by the time his mother found him.

Detective Senior Constable Tony Harwood, of the Homicide Squad, said the discovery during a search of Mr Hick’s brother’s home of a wallet, reported stolen from Zayden’s home, placed the accused at the scene of the death.

Mr Hicks has denied ever entering Zayden’s home.

In documents submitted to the court, Senior Detective Harwood said an undercover officer, codenamed “Rocco”, had tried to extract information from him.

“Rocco detailed to me a conversation he had with Harley Hicks within the confines of the Bendigo cells,” Senior Detective Harwood said in his statement to court.

- Herald Sun

Saturday September 14 2013

- Police have busted a suspected clandestine drug lab in Langwarrin, seizing drug-making paraphernalia.

Boxes of cold and flu tablets, a common source of pseudoephedrine used in methamphetamine production, and beakers were discovered at the Yarralumla Drive property.

Sergeant Martin McLean said Frankston Crime Investigation Unit detectives arrived at a house about 10:30am yesterday after Sheriff’s officers, were executing an outstanding warrant, saw alleged drug paraphernalia inside.

The house, which was considered a crime scene, was cordoned off.

“We have to bring our clandestine lab people to clear the house, we can’t do that ourselves, we need specialist people to do that,” Sergeant McLean said.

Police arrested a Langwarrin man, 27, who was released pending further inquiries.

- Herald Sun

Saturday September 14 2013

- A nursing home group closed down for failing to meet basic care standards is under investigation.

The Health Department, which revoked regulatory approval for two homes in the Cambridge Aged Care Group, confirmed that it was in contact with law enforcement authorities.

“The department’s investigations have extended as far as conducting searches of premises under warrant with the assistance of the Australian Federal Police,” spokeswoman Kay McNiece said.

“The department will continue to work with the relevant law enforcement and regulatory authorities.

“The department’s investigation is continuing and matters relating to investigation cannot be disclosed.”

Any investigations would be based on the activities of people involved in the group as charges cannot be laid against an organisation.

Only one home, Woodhaven Lodge in Croydon, remains operating. The home was receiving $130,000 per month before the Health Department revoked its approval last month. It is understood that fewer than 20 residents remain at Woodhaven Lodge.

Rosewood Mews in Greensborough, which also had its funding and approval cut, closed in the past week.

Elder Rights Advocacy chief executive Mary Lyttle has been at residents’ meetings in recent weeks. She said she was concerned the group had failed. “It should never have happened in an aged care home in Australia,” she said.

Staff at Woodhaven Lodge declined to comment.

- Stephen Drill

Saturday September 14 2013

- Women are being sexually assaulted by taxi drivers preying on lone females leaving clubs and parties, specialist doctors who examine rape victims warn.

Research by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine shows most victims – the majority of them “cognitively impaired” – have been picked up in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings.

in 25 cases over a three-year period, the institute found 21 victims who were affected by alcohol or drugs and another two were intellectually disabled. The condition of the remaining two was not recorded. All were aged 17 to 39.

Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder said he had asked the Taxi Services Commission to work with police on the problem.

“Women should be able to feel safe and protected in a cab,” Mr Mulder said.

The former head of clinical forensic medicine, Dr David Wells, said some drivers were claiming the sex was consensual and offered in lieu of a fare payment.

Dr Wells said the industry needed to ban drivers from having sex with passengers, introducing an automatic-dismissal clause in employment agreements.

“It is a no-brainer really,” he said. “The taxi authorities must act now.”

It has been found:

- Suspect drivers have tampered with in-car security vision to destroy evidence. In one case investigated by police, the in-cab camera showed the driver opening and shutting the rear door more than a 100 times in a car park in an apparent attempt to overload the camera’s memory so that the vision of an earlier attack would be lost.

- Some drivers who assault women are never found because the victims cannot identify the taxi involved.

- Many cases cannot proceed because the victims’ memories of the attack are clouded by drugs or alcohol.

- Taxi authorities were receiving about three complaints a month from female passengers, ranging from sexually intimidating behaviour to assault.

Since July 2011 taxi, bus and hire car drivers have been checked on the police LEAP database, which has resulted in the Taxi Directorate taking industry action on 865 criminal offences, including assault with a weapon, aggravated assault of a female, assault by kicking, attempted murder, murder, indecent assault, rape, an indecent act with child and incest.

Late last month a 30-year-old taxi driver was convicted in the County Court of three counts of rape after he attacked a 17-year-old passenger.

Dr Wells said the institute cases recorded over the past three years under-represented the extent of the problem because many victims did not come forward.

“We have quite rightly drummed into people that they should not drink and drive but the by-product is that we are herding some into the pathway of predatory behaviour,” he said.

“There clearly is a group of taxi drivers who are targeting women at their most vulnerable.
“Women are entitled to know they are safe in all forms of public transport. Unless this is cleaned up, females may be tempted to use their own cars when they shouldn’t and end up in the mortuary.”
He said he had spoken to a disturbing number of women who said taxi drivers had offered them money for sex or who had touched them inappropriately.
The head of the sexual crimes squad, Detective Inspector Paul Binyon, said police were concerned at the sex assaults.
“There is an expectation that passengers will be safely ferried home. The drivers should be part of the solution not part of the problem,” he said.
The new Taxi Services Commission Graeme Samuel, said: “We have started talking to police at the highest level and will rely on their expertise to find a resolution to this issue.
“Driver standards are our number one priority.”
Last week Mr Samuel suggested that cab companies may be able to use different coloured taxis so customers can select their trusted option.
In July, the Gold Coast Centre against Sexual Violence called for the introduction of women-only Pink Cabs after taxi drivers allegedly raped two passengers in a fortnight.
The pink cab system of women drivers for women passengers has operated successfully overseas, including in London and Dubai.
– John Silvester

Saturday September 14 2013

- She was not much more than a kid really, the drugged, drunk and depressed schoolgirl left at a suburban railway station in the early hours of the morning, hopelessly disorientated and incapable of finding her way home.
The Saturday night party had broken up hours earlier, the last train left long ago and her friend headed off in a taxi, unaware the teenager would be stranded.
Alone and long past rational thought, she finished her bottle of vodka and downed some Valium followed by prescription medication. The results were as predictable as they were life-threatening.
“Sue” staggered from the suburban railway station, falling over as she tried to cross the main street. It was about 2am.
Nearby a married couple and two friends were waiting for a taxi after a 30th birthday party at a Whitehorse Road restaurant when one spotted the girl, immediately commenting on how drunk she appeared.
Finally the 17-year-old collapsed outside a bank and simply couldn’t regain her feet. The four ran over to help and seeing that she was nearly unconscious tried to take control.
“We were concerned for her. She was young, drunk and alone. We all had Jill Meagher [who was abducted and murdered in Brunswick two months earlier] in the back of our minds and knew we couldn’t leave her,” one of the group, “Jane”, said.
The married couple even considered taking her home to sleep it off while one of their friends rang police for help. But as he did a taxi pulled up even though the driver had not been flagged down.
Experienced drivers try to steer clear of drunks and dramas but this one showed no concern at what he saw unfold in front of him.
The teenager was so incapacitated she couldn’t tell her helpers where she lived. Jane checked the teenager’s wallet, found the address and used the taxi’s GPS to find the directions home.
The whole process took 20 minutes and yet the driver waited patiently. A second cab pulled up to take the four remaining passengers home but lost interest after two minutes and left.
She was a dead weight when they put her in the car, even having to lift her
legs into the vehicle as she “just flopped in”.
One of the men gave the cab driver $50 he withdrew from the ATM for the fare and was assured it would more than cover the journey. Jane said the girl sprawled over the back seat and couldn’t sit up. No one could even attach a seat belt.
“We thanked the driver for waiting. He seemed really nice,” Jane said. As he disappeared the girl couldn’t be seen as she was still lying across the back seat.
The “patient” taxi driver drove about 15 kilometres to a leafy suburb before he pulled over in a quiet spot, apparently convinced his passenger would never remember what would take place.
And then he raped her – three times – in the back seat of the taxi the good Samaritans had hired to take her safely home.
“She was drunk and she was little – he knew she was an easy target. He saw his opportunity and took it,” Jane said.
Satisfied he would never be identified he then drove her home. Sue, who weighs less than 50 kilograms, may not have been physically strong enough to protect herself but she was mentally strong enough to refuse to hide from the truth.
When she woke, her first reaction was, “Oh my god, what just happened?” She told her parents and was examined by doctors who confirmed the attack.
She made a statement to police and despite the fact that about five minutes of the in-car security video was missing (the surviving vision showed the driver apparently trying to tamper with the system) he was arrested, interviewed and charged.
He refused to answer many questions but volunteered an obvious lie, “All I can say is, like, she was very much conscious…the whole way…since I picked her up until the time I dropped her.”
He was due to leave the country a few days after the attack. Whether this played on his mind when he turned on his helpless passenger will never be known.
At the County Court she was resilient enough to give evidence (at one point when she involuntary gagged watching some of the surviving taxi video she was warned such actions could prejudice a jury) and the 30-year-old taxi driver was convicted of all charges. He is yet to be sentenced.
“Being cross-examined was really bad. I was made to feel like a criminal,” Sue told The Saturday Age.
She recalls him stopping the car and making an offer of money for sex. “I said ‘No, way, take me home’,”. He then drove her to an area she didn’t recognise and assaulted her.
The case was overwhelming as it was not just her word against his.
As well as four good Samaritans’ evidence (they were tracked down through the $50 ATM withdrawal) that she was near collapse, police recovered footage from the bank’s external CCTV that showed her condition when she was bundled into the cab. And his GPS showed his path to the ambush.
In isolation this is a case of a predator effectively capturing the helpless victim he was paid to assist.
But it is not a case in isolation. It is so much more.
Experts say it may be happening as often as once a week in Melbourne, when incapacitated women are attacked in taxis that should be their havens.
Just after Christmas, Victoria’s then head of clinical forensic medicine, Dr David Wells, was comparing notes with two colleagues. All had just examined women allegedly sexually assaulted by taxi drivers in the previous few weeks.
It was enough to make Wells, a passionate defender of victims’ rights, wonder how deep was the problem.
Simply by conducting a records search using the word taxi or taxi driver they had 25 hits relating to cases over the previous three years.
“The vast majority of cases were victims aged 17 to 39 and most incidents occurred early Saturday or Sunday mornings,” Wells said.
Near retirement, Wells could have left a note for his successor.
But that is not in the nature of the doctor who has examined thousands of sex crime victims and believes the majority are treated poorly by the criminal justice system.
He checked the 25 cases on record and found 21 were “cognitively impaired” (by alcohol or drugs) while two were intellectually disabled. In the remaining two cases there were no recorded notes on the victims’ mental state of awareness.
Concerned, he contacted the Taxi Directorate and was told the figures were wildly underestimated. “They responded to me in writing that they received on average three complaints a month.”
Wells said even those cases would be under-reported as many victims would be unable or unwilling to lay complaints due to their cognitive incapacity.
“We have quite rightly drummed into people that they should not drink and drive but the by-product is that we are herding some into the pathway of predatory behaviour.
“There clearly is a group of taxi drivers who are targeting women at their most vulnerable.
“Women are entitled to know they are safe in all forms of public transport. Unless this is cleaned up, females may be tempted to use their own cars when they shouldn’t and end up in the mortuary.”
Wells said that when confronted, some of the drivers argued that sex was consensual, often claiming it was offered in lieu of the fare debt.
“There is a simple solution to that. Having consensual sex with a passenger should be a sackable offence while an assault is obviously a criminal one.”
The respected expert raised his concerns at a presentation to forensic specialists this year.
Several female members of the audience approached him later to say they had been offered money for sex or had been “groped” by cab drivers when travelling alone in taxis.
Police are aware of the problem and are convinced there is a small group of opportunistic drivers who are repeat offenders. Many attacks go unreported, they say, because the victims are embarrassed or believe their recollections are too sketchy to be credible.
Detectives also say there has been a spike in sex attacks near nightclubs where incapacitated women are assaulted in laneways or car parks.
In one case, two university students claimed to have been touched inappropriately at the end of a trip but police were unable to identify the company or the driver.
In another police investigation, the in-cab camera showed the driver opening and shutting the rear door more than 100 times in an empty car park in an apparent attempt to overload the memory capacity so the vision of his earlier attack would be lost.
One experienced taxi driver told this reporter the industry was well aware of the problem and had refused to act for years.
“It happens more than anyone thinks. We have all picked up young girls who have passed out. Our job is to get them home.”
He said he picked up a woman who managed to mumble her Williamstown street address before falling asleep after a hen’s night. “I drove up and down that street until I saw a light and they told me where she lived. Her husband
picker her up and carried her inside and she was still snoring.
“He gave me a nice tip and said thanks.”
– John Silvester

Saturday September 14 2013

- A Melbourne actor and filmmaker who claimed taking medication to stop his hair thinning had caused him to commit child pornography offences has been jailed for a year.
County Court Chief Judge Michael Rozenes said on Friday that Jarrod Reuven Factor, 31, who has had roles with Bell Shakespeare and the Melbourne Theatre Company, would contact young girls over the Internet and ask them to perform sexual acts for him.
His father said Factor’s offending could have been caused by medication for thinning hair he began taking as a teenager.
Factor was caught in May last year after he approached an undercover Australian Federal Police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl in a chat room.
– Mark Russell

Saturday September 14 2013

- Lawyers for former St Kilda AFL player Stephen Milne are considering making an application that the rape charges against him are an “abuse of process” and should be thrown out of court.
Defence barrister Philip Dunn, QC, told Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday the application could potentially be made before a committal hearing into the charges begins in November.
The hearing, which has been set down for at least three days from November 12th and will involve 17 witnesses, will determine if Mr Milne should stand trial on four rape charges.
Mr Milne, 33, of Cheltenham, who appeared in court with his wife, Melissa, is accused of raping a 19-year-old woman at the Highett home of his teammate Leigh Montagna on March 15th, 2004, after St Kilda’s family day to celebrate the club’s win in that year’s pre-season competition the previous night.
Mr Milne and Mr Montagna were investigated at the time, but no charges were laid.
Mr Milne was charged on June 18th this year after a police review of the case had been requested by the Office of Police Integrity.
In a statement released after Mr Milne was charged, Victoria Police acknowledged the original investigation had been “substantially inadequate”.
Mr Dunn told the court on Friday that eight of the witnesses at the hearing would be police investigators from the original 2004 investigation and those involved in the 2010 investigation, which had been prompted by a television interview given by former detective Scott Gladman.
Mr Gladman claimed police members with alleged links to the football club had attempted to sabotage their investigation into the 2004 rape allegations.
The former detective told Nine News at the time that tapes of interviews with the two Saints were stolen from his desk and the alleged victim’s statement was leaked to the club during the investigation.
Mr Dunn told the court on Friday that questions would be asked about the original investigation and if the OPI was pressured into reactivating the case in 2010.
Mr Dunn then raised the issue of a subpoena Mr Milne’s defence team had issued to Radio 3AW and talkback host Neil Mitchell demanding they hand over the tape of an interview he had with the alleged victim and her mother on May 17th, 2004.
Mr Dunn said the tape was important to the case because the alleged victim’s story had varied from time to time.
A special hearing into the matter of the tape will be held in September 30th.
– Mark Russell

Saturday September 14 2013

- A book by the disgraced former detective who led the initial investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann had a “devastating” effect on the search, a court in Lisbon has heard.
It also heaped extra suffering on Kate and Gerry McCann as they struggled to clear their name and continue the search for their missing daughter, close friends of the couple told a court at the start of a libel trial against Gonçalo Amaral.
“I watched them suffer these untruths and waste a lot of precious energy trying to defend themselves when they could have been spending all that energy looking for Madeleine,” Susan Hubbard said.
“The fact that all these people believed she was dead was devastating,” she said.
The McCanns are suing Mr Amaral, who led the investigation for six months until he was dismissed from the case, for $1.7 million.
Mr Amaral’s book, The Truth of the Lie, suggested the McCanns staged an abduction to cover up the fact that Madeleine had accidentally died because of their negligence.
The case continues.
– The Age

Monday 21 August 1995

- An assassin sips tea in a south London cafe before stepping up behind two men and firing a handgun into the back of their heads. A Chinese restaurant-owner in Glasgow struggles to open the door of his Mercedes, the lock of which has been deliberately jammed with matchsticks. Suddenly, he is hacked down with four blows from a meat cleaver. The leader of a group of black gangsters dies in a hail of bullets fired by three rivals as he attempts to leave a London drugs den.

This is modern gangland Britain. Gone are days of the working-class mobsters, ruling with a razor blade and an iron fist. Organised crime in the UK is more complex than ever before. It is also, according to a recent investigation by a parliamentary committee, a “substantial” and growing problem that is involved in every illegal money-making scheme imaginable.

Britain does not have a “Mr Big”, or single national organisation that controls the distribution of drugs, with gang members in every city and an interest in every major scam. But we do have an increasingly violent and sophisticated number of organised outfits. Some have influence all over the country which extends even into the world of finance.

The British banking system is used to laundering illegally obtained money. By investing in the UK, criminal groups can hide their original source and obtain a legitimate cover for their income. This technique enables foreign criminals to gain a foothold here without stepping on British soil. Police believe between pounds 2.5bn and pounds 4bn of criminally generated money is entering the UK financial system each year.

But the vast majority of gangs control small patches of the UK with specialist interests. These are the Glasgow drug gangs, the Newcastle protection racketeers, the north London forgers, and the south London crack dealers. However, there is evidence that these small zones of influence are beginning to merge and grow.

It is this concern that has prompted the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) to compile a gangland register. From October six police forces and customs officers will provide details of suspected organised criminals. This pilot scheme will be extended to all forces in April, and will for the first time provide a composite picture of gangland Britain.

“We want to be able to spot trends quickly,” says Peter Richie, head of the Organised Crime Unit at NCIS’s Strategic and Specialist Intelligence Branch. “We want to see whether a Mafia-style gang is developing.”

While all agencies acknowledge that organised crime in Britain is small compared to countries such as Italy and the US, NCIS already has a list of 366 “criminals of major significance”. The vast majority – 227 – are in the South-east, mainly London, with roughly equal numbers in the North- east (47), and the North-west (45), and half as many in the South-west (22), and the Midlands (25).

Almost all organised crime in the UK is bound up in the control and supply of drugs. Police believe this is responsible for more than half of all the illegal activities of these groups. In the North-east and North-west of England the figure jumps to around 80 per cent. But more and more gangs are getting involved in currency counterfeiting, firearms smuggling and money laundering.

Every city has its own gangs, although so far no gang or family has occupied such a powerful position as the legendary Krays (although even they failed to extend their influence much beyond south London).

One of most powerful family outfits of recent times has been the Arifs, a large extended family from Stockwell, south London, who were involved in armed robberies and drug smuggling and owned a string of clubs, pubs and restaurants – almost certainly bought from the proceeds of their criminal activities.

The family first gained notoriety in May 1977, when Osar Arif was acquitted of the murder of a guard during a security van robbery in which pounds 103,000 was stolen. The vehicle’s windscreen was shattered with a sledgehammer and the crew was blasted with a shotgun. Bekir Arif was later jailed for five years after being convicted of disposing of guns.

Their reign during the Seventies and Eighties ended after a series of successful police operations: during an attempted armed robbery in November 1990 one of the gang was shot dead by detectives and Dogan Arif, 42, the head of the family, is currently serving 14 years for his part in an pounds 8.5m drug-smuggling plot.

In Scotland in the past six months rival drug factions fighting for their share of a business worth pounds 10m a year have carried out a number of killings and attacks in the Paisley area of Glasgow. In March, John Kelly was shot in the face in a crowded bar in Paisley. The shooting was followed by three more in the area in as many days. In one, Andrew McLaughlin, 31, opened his door to an unknown man who blasted him with a shotgun. He died on the way to hospital.

In May, David Ungi, 36, died under a hail of bullets after his car was blocked by a black VW Golf at a crossroads in Liverpool. The killing is believed to have been carried out by a rival gang.

In the North-west and North-east of England, the distribution of drugs is often controlled through bouncers who operate in pubs and clubs. The door men, who are part of criminal organisations, allow only their own dealers into the premises or are paid a percentage from freelance traffickers. In Newcastle the fierce rivalry between different groups of bouncers has led to a number of shootings.

There is growing evidence that a loose-knit national network is being established between some of the traditional family or working-class gangs. Some swap services, such as the hiring of guns or hitmen, and trade drugs.

“Recent investigations have continued grossly to underestimate the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the British criminal classes,” says Dr Barry Rider, a senior legal academic at Cambridge University. “This is particularly so in regard to financial frauds and money-laundering services.”

None of the traditional criminal groups has been well organised or ambitious enough to extend much beyond its home base. But they have prevented rivals from encroaching on their territory through the use of violence and their contacts with the local community.

Only the terrorist groups in Northern Ireland have had the fire and manpower along with the willingness to use extreme violence to prevent any significant encroachment of newer gangs.

Since the late Seventies, as new ethnic communities established themselves in Britain, a different type of organised criminal has emerged. The strongest of these are the Chinese Triads and the Jamaican Yardies, who operate within their own communities, at times extremely violently.

In 1991 the problem of extortion, or “tea money”, became so severe among London’s Chinatown community that restaurant owners called on the Government and police for help. The final sanction used by Triads against anyone who fails to pay is to be chopped with a 14in beef knife.

Four separate Triad societies are now operating throughout the UK, with bases in every city with a large Chinese community. Strathclyde Police, for example, report that these four triad groups have all firmly established themselves among the Chinese communities, mainly in Glasgow.

“In recent years,” say the police, “a Triad group achieved notoriety in Glasgow with the professional killing of a Chinese businessman. Inquiry into the murder revealed the depth to which the Triad societies had infiltrated the Chinese community in Glasgow and the power they wield through extortion, drugs and gambling.” The police were unable to charge anyone with the murder largely because witnesses were too frightened to testify. Triads use intimidation, and the inbred fear of their organisation to prevent members of the Chinese community from informing against them.

The influence and power of the Yardies has gradually grown along with the boom in crack cocaine. Although predictions that Britain was going to face an American-style “invasion” by West Indian gangsters has proved unfounded, in recent years the police have reported an upsurge in violent Yardie drug wars.

John Brennan, detective sergeant of the South-East Regional Crime Squad and one of the country’s leading experts on Yardies, says that the Jamaican gangs now control most of the supply of crack cocaine in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds and Bristol.

Yardies often use brutal tactics against rivals. In 1991 in north London a Nigerian drugs courier had her face and breasts ironed by a drugs gang to obtain details of her shipment. Boiling water was poured over her head when she passed out during the torture.

In March 1994 a cocaine dealer shot two unarmed policemen – in the back and in the leg – as they carried out a routine check in a south London street. Leroy Smith, who was convicted in February of attempted murder, had boasted to his girlfriend: “Those two deserved to get it. I should have got them good and proper.”

Japanese Yakuza gangs and the Italian Mafia have also established themselves in Britain, primarily via money-laundering. But the most recent threat to Britain, according to both police and NCIS, are criminals from the former Soviet Union. The break-up of the USSR, they argue, has resulted in weakened or non-existent border checks and a gradual decline in law and order. This has enabled gangs to exploit weak banking regulations in their own countries to launder money through the UK. There have also been fears that increasing numbers of firearms will be smuggled into the country.

Organised crime is alive and kicking in Britain. But despite the glum predictions, British police have as yet found no evidence to suggest that Britain is likely to be overwhelmed by gangs or run by a “godfather” figure. As the Home Affairs Select Committee concluded: “Organised crime raises images of the Mafia or the Krays … but to confine concern to such relatively tightly organised groups would be to miss most of today’s criminal activity which, if more loosely organised, is nevertheless actually more threatening.”

THE MAJOR OPERATORS

TRIADS

Who they are: Chinese gangsters, originally from Hong Kong and South- East Asia. Four main societies: 14K, Wo Shing Wo, Wo On Lock, San Yee On.

Where they are based: London, also in Manchester, Hull, Glasgow.

How they make money: drug trafficking, prostitution, credit card fraud, protection, extortion, illegal gambling and immigration. Also counterfeiting, video piracy, money laundering.

Power rating: expanding their interests in the UK. They use violence and intimidation within Chinese communities to maintain power. There is great difficulty in persuading witnesses to come forward because of brutal reprisals and intimidation.

YARDIES

Who they are: often inaccurate term used to describe drug dealers with links to the Caribbean, in particular Jamaica. No evidence that they are run by bosses; usually a Yardie with a reputation for violence and murder obtains the services of British Afro-Caribbeans to help to run drug rackets. Many simply appropriate the Yardie title to gain respect .

Where they are based: mainly in south London, particularly Brixton, also Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, and Leeds.

How they make money: almost exclusively through drug dealing. Jamaican gangs now control most of the supply of crack cocaine in the UK. Also gun trafficking and protection rackets.

Power rating: Yardies are distinguished by their readiness to use extreme violence and firearms. There are also concerns about their increasing use of witness intimidation. Police believe that with the increase in the crack cocaine market, the Yardies are the group most likely to push the police into arming themselves more widely.

TRADITIONAL FAMILY GANGS

Who they are: often working-class groups of criminals who operate in a specific patch, frequently controlling the distribution of drugs. Families make up the core of gangs, which have a strong regional identity.

Where they are based: every major city has its gangs, but there is evidence of growing links between the different outfits, particularly in the distribution of drugs. Major centres: London, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle.

How they make money: mainly enterprise crime with little penetration of the financial world, and in drug trafficking, often through control of pubs and clubs. They have moved from traditional crimes such as armed robbery to counterfeiting and fraud, and are also involved in extortion, protection rackets, and theft of heavy goods vehicles.

Power rating: recent outbreaks of killings between rival drug gangs in Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool illustrate their willingness to revert to violence. However, they do not have the ambition or power to expand much beyond a single city, though there is some evidence of a loose network.

OTHER ORGANISED CRIME GROUPS:

Eastern Europeans

Particularly from the former Soviet Union. They use the British banking system to launder money, but are also involved in gun running.

Terrorists

Despite the ceasefire, both Republican and Loyalist terrorist groups are still fund raising in Northern Ireland through armed robberies, extortion, protection rackets, smuggling, illegal gaming, video piracy, and gun running. The groups also control many pubs and clubs. Sections of some Loyalist groups are involved in drug dealing, but the IRA refuses to handle drugs.

Mafia

The National Criminal Intelligence Service has reported an increase in Mafia-related activities in the UK in the past five years, particularly in London. In the UK they have focused on fraud and drug trafficking, but are also involved in gaming.

Bikers

These includes the Hell’s Angels, who have 12 chapters in the UK – an estimated 250 members, involved in firearms, drug trafficking, car theft and extortion. Several gangs are believed to have set up legitimate businesses with an underground banking system.

West Africans

Particularly Nigerians, who have been involved in housing and benefit frauds, forgery and fraud. Only a small number of “cells” in operation, comprising about 50 people, mainly in London.

Colombian cartels

Almost exclusively involved in drug trafficking and money laundering.

Turks and Kurds

There is evidence of a small number of clans involved in drug trafficking, extortion and car theft. Political groups, Dev Sol and PKK, have become involved in criminal activities to bankroll terrorism. About 1,000 members here.

Vietnamese

There is some evidence that the Triad gangs are hiring the Vietnamese to carry out violent hits and high-risk jobs.

Asians

A growing number in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, often set up in response to racist attacks. The Home Office has warned that a demographic time bomb is about to explode, with young Asian criminals about to come of age. Favoured crimes: extortion and protection, credit- card fraud, drugs, immigration, smuggling and car theft, mainly in Bradford, London, and Bolton.

Japanese Yakuza

Members of the Japanese organised crime Boryokudan (“group of violence”). Little direct involvement here, but some evidence of laundering money by buying up UK property.

- Jason Bennetto

March 24 2004

There are different models of intelligence activities and repression used against organised crime in Europe, some of them having been an example for specialised structures of crime control in the region of Southeast Europe. Probably the most efficient ones are those developed in Italy and, methodologically totally different – structures in Great Britain. Namely, these countries have almost completely different philosophies and use different institutional mechanisms to control crime but still, they are both rather successful in combatting against security threats. The structure and basic characteristics of Italian Antimafia Investigation Department (DIA — Direzione Investigativa Antimafia) and British National Crime Squad will be briefly presented here. These two organisations use the system of measures, means and ideas which give enough basis for understanding modern systems of combatting new threats against “soft security”, first of all organised crime and terrorism in Europe, as well as for developing a model which could be feasible in Southeast Europe.

Direzione Investigative Antimafia — DIA
Investigation Department for combat against Mafia is a specialised service, organised within Italian Interior Ministry and its exclusive mandate is to carry out preventive investigations, in connection with organised crime. DIA is formally authorised to carry out all formal investigations of crimes connected with Italian Mafia, which is – clearly, its basic field of interest. The service consists of 1,500 units, whose members are recruited equally from the national police, carabineros and the units of financial police, which in Italy is equivalent to “police for business crime” in police structures in Southeast European countries.

Fundamental elements of the DIA investigative strategy are directed to its basic task, which is to prevent development of mafia type organised crime, through collecting, analysis and operative use of intelligence material, as well as through coordinated work of other agencies for crime control. This strategy strongly stresses the analytical work and the concept of long-term collecting information. DIA concentrates on “learning more about the enemy”, first of all through learning about subjects of security interest (criminal organisations, rather than single crimes) so its actions do not respond to particular charges, which is usual way for activating conventional police structure, but are carried out in order to estimate the security threats and predict trends and possible future activities of criminal groups. This philosophy of the police work is fundamentally different from the usual “police mentality”, which is often reduced to a strictly normative way of thinking, according to which police should act only if a crime has been committed and when required by the law. Although DIA cooperates closely with the police in uniforms, its mission is more alike an intelligence service mission than a classic agency for combat against crime. However, the results achieved by this organisation since 1992 when it was established, are impressive.

Speaking about its structure, DIA has a director and two deputies – one for operative activities and the other for administrative work. There is one central office and several local ones, which support the work of three operative groups, which are: (a) preventive investigations, (b) criminal investigations and (c) international coordination. It is important to say that in most of the West European systems, police carry out the investigation in cooperation with the prosecutor, so “investigation” is in the mandate of police structures, while the situation in Serbia and Montenegro is different – police carry out so-called “pre-investigation activities”, and the investigation is carried out by an investigative judge. There are ideas that the judiciary system of Serbia should be changed so the solutions enabling the prosecutor and police to carry out investigations should be taken over.

DIA has 12 field offices and 7 so-called “resident offices” all over Italian territory. However, it is interesting that the offices have no territorial jurisdiction themselves since their goal is exclusively to enhance operative mobility and flexibility of DIA teams in particular regions of Italy so they act as local platforms for the DIA teams’ operations and not as separate administrative units within DIA with their own and exclusive competencies for operating in their regions. This brought significant progress against traditional problems of mutual competition and rivalry between particular organisational and territorial units of the same service, while at the same time maximum operative activity is achieved for any DIA team in any part of Italian territory.

Some of the important results achieved by DIA include the solved cases of murder – of Italian member of Parliament Salvo Lima in 1992 and Ligato, former president of Italian Railways. Only one year later, in 1993, DIA members solved the case known as the “Capaci bombing”, in which the judges Falcone and Morvillo, as well as their three police bodyguards, had been killed. These cases were solved thanks to the wiretapped telephone conversations between two high-ranked mafia members, which enabled DIA to get important information about the plans of the group they followed and about internal structure and organisation of Kosa Nostra.

One of the most important arrests DIA completed were the arrests of Leoluca Bagarella, well known chief of Sicilian Cosa Nostra, in Palermo in 1995. Bagarella had been a fugitive since 1991. After that, DIA arrested Giuseppe Buffa, high-ranking member of Palermo-based Mafia family San Lorenco, as well as Natale Rosmini, chief of Rozmini family from Calabria. Both had been fugitives from justice for several years. In 1998, DIA arrested Francesko Schiavone, alias “Sandokan”, who ran a criminal clan “Casalesi” out of his high-tech equipped shelter and who was considered to be “number one” fugitive from justice. Closer to Southeast Europe, DIA destroyed several smugglers’ groups from Puglia in 1998. Those groups were strongly connected with Russian, Montenegrin and Albanian groups over the Adriatic. Italian services considered Albanian groups to be particularly dangerous, due to their affinity to large calibre military weapons and due to their intensive connections with the Italian Mafia. Besides, DIA paid special attention to the security threats directed from Albanian criminal groups against Italy and therefore it established a special Organised Crime Observatory in Albania, aimed to follow the development and dynamics of organised crime in Albania itself. Therefore, DIA became an example of the way efficient special units can be formed in the states of Southeast Europe so some of the countries in the region have established the same structures in the past few years.

British National Crime Squad
Specialist nature of the British National Crime Squad is based upon a partly different concept of “a special unit” in the British system of crime control, compared to the one that characterises continental European police structure. In the latter, the fact that a unit is specialized or special usually means it is specially trained to combat against a special kind of crime and that it is specially equipped to perform extremely demanding and difficult operations. In British system, specialisation includes stronger emphasis on the analytics and collecting special knowledge and experiences of existing police formations although here some elements of special additional training and equipment also exist.

British police consists of 56 local police forces, each of them include a special unit for combat against organised crime and terrorism, and six Regional Crime Squads for England and Wales. National police structure is “the weakest one” and it considerably counts on the resources of local and regional police forces. National Crime Squad was formed in 1998, joining criminal units of all the six regional police forces. Recruiting is based on collection of existing special human and other resources, instead of forming completely new, specially trained structures. This creates the situation completely different from the one in Southeast European countries and even from those in continental West European states, in which the criminal police is isolated – in a great deal, from the new, specially trained special structure for combat against terrorism and organised crime, which often have an elite position, compared to the traditional services of criminal police. In Great Britain, criminal police provides basis for recruiting members of special units. National Crime Squad has about 1450 detectives or operatives and all detectives are recruited out of local police forces that additionally strengthen the integrity and participation within the complete British police structure.

National Crime Squad has a central headquarters in London and 44 offices all around Great Britain, similar to the territorial organisation of DIA, therefore without any territorial jurisdiction for local offices. The Squad has about 380 employees in the support sector, it is based upon “thin” organisational structure aimed to avoid double structures and functions, which enables cost reduction, clearer and simpler lines of command and coordination, higher salaries and better work conditions, clearer organisational responsibility and mission, as well as stronger stability of jobs for all the members.

Basic mission of the Squad is to combat against “serious and organised crime”, in cooperation with other control agencies in Great Britain and abroad. Such a formulation of the mission suggests a special understanding of the notion – organised crime, connected to the term “serious crime”. In this context, the notion “serious crime” suggests structurally and longitudinally serious crime, in the sense of those kinds of crime which make a structural threat and which are capable of independent reproduction. Therefore, the notion of “serious crime”, in the British system, totally different from the notion of “serious crime” in the meaning used by the most of continental European police structures and judicial systems. In continental Europe, “seriousness” of the crime is understood, first of all, correspondingly to the gravity of the crimes resulting from such criminal activity, while the gravity of a crime is usually estimated in practise according to severity of the punishment prescribed by the criminal law for that crime. The most severe punishments are, generally, prescribed for the most dramatic crimes, characterised by the high level of violence, so in the Continent the most violent crimes would be considered as the most serious ones. On the other side, in the British police system, the philosophy behind the phrase “serious and organised crime” means the emphasis is on the structural complexity of the crime and the level of difficulty in solving the criminal case, and not on the violent or dramatic nature of the case.

Therefore, the vocabulary used in formulating the mission of National Crime Squad may appear to be voluntarily chosen, from the point of view of the Continental criminology and it may look like the result of confusion between two different things – serious crime (grave crimes) and organised crime.
Organised crime is different because it is not primarily connected to the manner of committing a crime, since those crimes that do not belong to the very notion of organised crime may be “marked” by “organised” manner. The very essence of the notion is connection to the fact that there is a crime organisation as entity that is behind the committed crimes, not the organised manner of committing a crime itself. It is possible to commit robbery which reveals the detailed organisation of the crime and still, in most of cases, this would not be an act of organised crime but so-called “classic crime”. There are also many “serious crimes”, according to the Continental standards described above which do not belong to organised crime but there are also crimes which would not be considered as particularly “serious”, according to the very same criteria but still belong to organised crime, in the light of more or less complex criminal structures which are behind these crimes and the manner they had been planned and committed. This fine difference should be kept in mind in order to understand the official formulation of the mission of National Crime Squad.
The notion of “seriousness” that is used in the British model of police organisation and philosophy stimulates longitudinal operations and planning of the policy against organised crime on the scientific basis, while the notion of “seriousness” used in the Continental model of police primarily tends to achieve “the bang effect”, which is the effect in the public, through dramatic police operations. It strengthens the cizitens’ control by stimulating the feeling that in certain moments significant results have been achieved, in the concrete, provable and efficient way. While the second approach has perhaps better effects in strengthening control and confidence in public security in shorter terms, the first one is more useful in long-term perspective since it gives the citizens more stable feeling of being protected by permanently active structure which follows security situation in every moment, although it does not insist on single dramatic actions. This is the second important difference between operative philosophies of security systems in Great Britain and in the continental part of Europe.

British approach cultivates the development of the intelligence as the core of security system. Official position of the British Interior Ministry (The Home Office) is that “reliable processing reliable intelligence material is the basis of complete police work”. This thesis, which would be considered as oversimplification in the Continental police systems, still contributed to the development of the police model which enabled British police to solve numerous cases which are usually presented as so called “black figure” of the criminal (committed crimes which have not been reported or not been discovered, therefore not been shown in official statistics on the rate – in fact, “the black figure” is the remainder between official image of public security and the real deficit of security in any society).

The approach taken toward the crime control, based on the police work primarily oriented to intelligence requires well developed analytical dimension of the police structure, in which analytics is understood as “the way of organising and interpreting intelligence material in the way that significantly enhance the (cognitive) value of the material and the probability of success in the combat against organised crime”.[4] However, analytics is a very expensive part of police work, since it requires relatively high level of expertise as well as the headquarter organisation of the police structure which resembles military hierarchy. However, this organisation makes police look completely like “civil” and “civilian” one and cause no association of a military organisation. While its appearance is “friendly” to the citizens’ community, the structure behind “a policeman in the street” is based on planning and command of military type, while police officers and analysts are on the top, many of whom are not policemen by their training and authority. The emphasis on the intelligence and analytics also has concrete consequences for “the policeman in the street”, because greater individual initiatives are encouraged in such a surrounding and greater are the possibilities for promotion (for example, through training and education), and the police service is more democratic – the policy of the service is formulated through participation and consultation, based on higher expertise and experience. One of good consequences of this type of police organisation is lower level of repressive spirit within police itself. Therefore, it can be concluded that, although the model of combat against organised crime based on intelligence and analytics requires “tower structure” of hierarchical planning and commanding of military type, since the analytical product needs to be filtrated down the hierarchy structure and command line, it creates the atmosphere within that “tower-structure” which is more “civilian” and creative than it is in some other police structures which, at the first sight, appear to be less hierarchically organised.

Within the British National Crime Squad, intelligence units are connected to Operative Areas and Operative Branches, where each intelligence unit has its own analytical unit and a financial police unit, meaning a unit for business crime since this kind of crime is considered to follow most types of organised crime. Hierarchy of the analytical service corresponds to the organisational level at which a concrete unit operates. At lower levels, which mainly include “field operations”, analytics is very concrete and deals with intelligence material that is corresponding to the concrete tasks of the unit and everyday police investigations.

Methodologically speaking, analytics is divided into strategic and tactic ones, while the former deals with identifying and predicting development of trends in activities of criminal organisations and structures, as well as studying particularly relevant problems such as development of narco cartels or human trafficking. Tactic analysis deals with committed crimes and identified activities of criminal organisations, following the investigations and processed cases. The priorities in strategic analysis done by National Crime Squad are as follows:

1. analysis of criminal groups’ capacities to carry out organised crime activities and activities connected with serious crime;

2. study of particular fields of most probable security threat;

3. study of general trends in development of criminal groups’ activities;

4. analysis and prediction of specific intentions of criminal groups;

5. infiltration into criminal groups down the security structures, with the lowest levels of intelligence network, while undisturbed flow of information up the police structure and feedback down as the result of analysis and interpretation of the information are secured.

Specifically, priority 5 means that infiltration into a criminal group will typically be carried out at the lowest level of the intelligence organisation, that is by the operative agents, while the criminal group will be simply opened at the lower level. At the same time, the procedure of infiltration and intelligence activity is designed to allow undisturbed flow of the collected intelligence information from an agent through the intelligence structure up to the top of the analytical “tower” and to allow the feedback to the level of agent, as much undisturbed as possible, in order to allow usage of the information in particular cases, for the agent’s safety or for better efficiency in collecting intelligence material.

The Squad is primarily involved in preventive activities, not repressive ones. All operative and intelligence teams have their own analysts, and predictive and preventive investigations are carried out at national and international level, through bilateral cooperation with police of other countries, participation in Europol and Interpol activities and through other forms of multilateral police cooperation. Predictive approach means intelligence and analytical activities are directed, above all, toward predicting future criminal activities and attempts to prevent them, rather than to react to committed crimes and performing standard police job, which is mainly the task of local police force.

Application of the models presented here in short is one of the reform issues for Serbian police, within the reform, which is being carried out. European Agency for Reconstruction located 11 million euros for police reform and the process will be supervised by a British police expert, which is – generally speaking, promising that the British models of police work, which appear to be more creative than the Continental models, will be more applied.

- Professor Aleksandar Fatic, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for International Politics and Economics, Belgrade