Cleveland and Middlesbrough Police Corruption

UK Force faces 286 corruption claims  'Zero tolerance' officer Ray Mallon is being investigated A total of 286 complaints are being investigated in a corruption probe against Cleveland Police. Some 39 officers are under suspicion as part of the Operation Lancet probe, which began nearly a year ago.

Suspects have alleged "ritualistic" violence against them

Eight officers have been suspended, including the former head of Middlesbrough CID. Detective Superintendent Ray Mallon, gained prominence as the architect of 'zero tolerance' policing policy on Teesside.

    The Police Complaints Authority's investigation includes allegations of serious assault and intimidation. These involve "almost ritualistic" violence against suspects to extract confessions, as well as minor procedural irregularities. The inquiry began after a case collapsed at Teesside Crown Court last October when a defendant claimed that officers tried to bribe him with drugs. There are 43 allegations concerning drugs in the investigation and the PCA has received 11 of these. A remaining 32 are expected over the next few weeks. 'Hanging out to dry' In May this year, former president of the Police Superintendents' Association, Brian Mackenzie urged the PCA to conclude the inquiry as soon as possible. He said Operation Lancet had lost its way. He said: "What shouldn't be happening, is that people like Ray Mallon, who are caught up in the original inquiry should be left hanging out to dry while the last minor inquiry is finalised." Supt Mallon, feted by politicians for his tough approach to crime, has strenuously denied any wrongdoing. Although the allegations are apparently not related to 'zero tolerance' it is with this policy Supt Mallon will remain linked in many people's minds. 'Robocop' style When he was appointed in November 1996, he promised to quit if crime in the area had not gone down by 20% in 18 months. His tough-cop style earned him the nickname 'Robocop'. Reductions in crimes against property in Middlesbrough increased national interest in zero tolerance. Murder reduction But Supt Mallon received adverse publicity when he had to suspend two CID officers who allegedly gave a suspect heroin in return for confessions. Zero tolerance, or 'positive policing' as many prefer to call it, originated in New York. A large drop in the city's murder rate was attributed to the strategy. It attempts to tackle law-breaking from the bottom up by treating petty crime as seriously as other offences. This philosophy behind it is known as the 'broken windows' theory because its proponents argue even

How councils are using surveillance

• Press Association


• guardian.co.uk,


• Monday June 23, 2008


• Article history

Councils across Britain are routinely using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) to snoop on dog foulers, litterbugs and illegal parkers.

In April, the Press Association surveyed nearly 100 councils and discovered the legislation was used to find out about people who let their dog foul (at least seven cases), breaches of planning law (one case), animal welfare (one case), littering (at least one case) and even the misuse of a disabled parking badge (one case).

The research took place to find the extent of the "surveillance Britain" after a family in Poole in Dorset were tracked covertly for nearly three weeks to check they lived in a school catchment area.

The same council has made similar checks on two other families in the last year under Ripa and defended its actions by saying the cases were treated as potential criminal activity, which allowed it to spy under the law.

Poole council also snooped on fishermen to see whether they were illegally catching shellfish.

In the survey the large majority of the surveillance was used to combat rogue traders, benefit fraud, counterfeit goods and antisocial behaviour like noise nuisance and criminal damage.

Under Ripa, councils can conduct surveillance if they suspect criminal activity, they can also ask for subscriber details of internet and telephone bills but they cannot tap phones or intercept emails.

But the interpretation of what is criminal activity has led to some debate.

Four councils - Derby City, Bolton, Gateshead and Hartlepool - used surveillance to investigate dog fouling, with Bolton also using the act to find out about littering, the research found.

Kensington and Chelsea conducted surveillance in regard to the misuse of a disabled parking badge.

Liverpool city council used it for one case of a false claim for damages investigation.

Denbighshire county council used surveillance for one animal welfare investigation and Conwy council had one case where it used the law to spy on someone who was working while off sick.

In other areas, the surveillance law was used by Redcar and Cleveland for a food hygiene investigation (one case) and Newcastle used it for one case of "car parking surveillance re suspected contraventions of parking orders".

Redcar and Cleveland will of been the biggest snoops of them all and just hide it better.
Technorati Tags: redcar, cleveland, middlesbrough snooping, redcar snooping

Man may have plunged to death after arrival of police

Man may have plunged to death after arrival of police

A MAN is believed to have plunged to his death from his high rise flat just moments after police officers knocked on his door.

Kevin Frederick Williams, 46, died on Sunday morning after falling from the 12th floor of Fleet House in Cargo Fleet Lane, Middlesbrough.

Witnesses said they saw a man sat on the window frame of the flat as he engaged in a verbal exchange with someone inside.

He went back into the flat before reappearing and then dangled himself from the window by his fingertips.

Moments later he fell to his death.

Yesterday, it emerged that no one else was inside the flat at the time he fell.

However, officers from Cleveland Police were outside the flat at the time, and The Northern Echo understands they were attempting to speak to Mr Williams when he made for the window.

As is normal with any case where police are present or involved when someone dies, Cleveland Police contacted watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) about the incident.

However, yesterday, the IPCC said they had looked at the case and would no longer be conducting a probe.

Instead, an investigation into what happened at the flats will be carried out by Middlesbrough CID.

Police refused to say why they had been outside the man's flat on Sunday, but said they were not treating his death as suspicious.

A witness outside the flat, who did not want to be named, said she heard the man shouting that he was going to jump.

Others said he was shouting and swearing before he fell.

An inquest into his death was opened at Teesside Coroner's Court yesterday afternoon and adjourned for further enquiries.

Anyone with information should call Cleveland Police on 01642-326326.

Lords to rule on hacker Gary McKinnon's extradition

Author:

Ian Grant

Posted:

17:07 13 Jun 2008

The US government accuses McKinnon of breaking into the
computer network at the Earle Naval Weapons Station, stealing computer
passwords, and shutting down the network in the immediate aftermath of
the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

A second indictment charges McKinnon with intentional damage to a
protected computer, with intrusions into 92 computer systems belonging
to the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Department of Defense and NASA.

McKinnon is also charged with hacking into two computers located at
the Pentagon and six private companies' networks. He is accused of
causing approximately £450,000 in damages to computers located in 14
states.

"As a result of the intrusions into the US military networks,
McKinnon rendered the network for the military district of Washington
inoperable," a US Attorney statementsaid.

McKinnon admits entering US computer systems without authorisation, but denies causing damage or non-operation of any of them.

If convicted, McKinnon could face 60 years in a US jail.

Members of the former National High Tech Crime Unit arrested
McKinnon in 2002, three years after he began looking for evidence of
extra-terrestrial beings and technologies on US computers, McKinnon
told Computer Weekly.

British taxpayers will pay both the CPS's costs and much of McKinnon's. The total so far is estimated to be close to £900,000.

Technorati Tags: Gary McKinnon, brian howes, extradition, house of lords, unfair extradition, liberty, kerry howes, howes family

High Court certfies two points of law for the House of Lords to consider in the Gary McKinnon extradition to the USA case.

fg

on May 29, 2007 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The Administrative Court (one of the High Courts) has certified two questions on points of law, for the House of Lords (the highest Court in the the United Kingdom) to consider.

The House of Lords is not automatically bound to consider this final appeal, e.g. they chose not to do so in the case of the the NatWest 3 bankers

Media statement from Gary's solicitors Kaim Todner:

We are pleased to report that the Administrative Court have certified two questions of being of public importance in the case of Gary McKinnon. These questions relate to the diplomatic note confirming that Mr McKinnon will not be treated as a terrorist under Military Order No. 1 by the American Government and secondly the conduct of the American Government in offering Mr. McKinnon a plea bargain but only on the basis that if he did not accept it he would subsequently not be repatriated if extradited to the USA.

We will now be applying for leave to the House of Lords for these points to be argued in full.

Kaim Todner LLPTechnorati Tags: Gary McKinnon, brian howes, extradition, house of lords, unfair extradition, liberty,

Time runs out! Should this happen with no evidence?

Time runs out!

Family await appeal verdict

Published Date: 06 June 2008

By Allan Scott

A COCKROACH-INFESTED cell in a tough Arizona jail could be home to Bo'ness businessman Brian Howes for three years as he awaits trial in the United States.

This week, Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill gave his approval to demands that Mr and Mrs Howes should be extradited to the United States.

Mr Howes is appealling that decision. If the appeal fails he could be in an American jail within 28 days.

The father of six then faces a lifetime behind bars if claims he illegally supplied chemicals which are used to create the deadly illegal drug crystal meth are substantiated.

Also facing a miserable future is Mr Howes' bride of three months, Kerry-Ann Howes (30).

Mr Howes (44), of Bridgeness Road, told the Journal: "I don't think either Kerry-Ann or myself is strong enough to withstand the Arizona penal system which is said to have the worst human rights record in the United States.

"Temperatures hit 140° Fahrenheit, there are chain gangs and racism. Saughton prison, where I spent seven months on remand, is a holiday camp in comparison!"

The couple, who have no funds, will have to rely on a public defender to plead their case in the US. That could mean a three-year wait before their case goes to trial.

"Cases taken by the public defender, the equivalent of our legal aid system, are seen as low priority," said Mr Howes.

"I have it on good authority that, if I had £30,000 to pay our legal costs then, if our appeals fail and we're extradited, the case could be heard within a year."

Mr Howes said he did not blame the justice minister for signing the extradition warrant.

"My information is that he was sympathetic towards us but that it was not in his power to refuse," he said.

Mr Howes insisted no firm evidence has yet been produced to link his businesses with the production of crystal meth in the United States.

He said: "I have asked Kenny MacAskill and Alex Salmond if they would, in an independent Scotland, support an extradition treaty that can see people stand trial without prima facie evidence. I have not had a reply from either of them."

He went on: "I can't envisage the damage extradition would do to our whole family.

"Our two youngest children would be take into care and the elder two would also be farmed out. As it is, my bail conditions prevent me from seeing my two children in England."

Mr and Mrs Howes face 82 charges of supplying chemicals over the internet to people believed to be involved in producing methamphetamine, commonly known as "crystal meth".

The couple were arrested in January 2007 by officers from Central Scotland Police acting on behalf of the US Drug Enforcement Agency.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court in April, Sheriff Isabella McColl said she was satisfied the US request met the requirements of the Extradition Act. The court heard claims that chemicals supplied by the couple were traced to more than 80 illegal laboratories in the US.

The court was also told that, between August 2004-06, the couple's business was alleged to have supplied 653lb of red phosphorous and 97lb of iodine to the US.

Use of methamphetamine can lead to depression, paranoia, violent behaviour, kidney failure and internal bleeding.

Mr Howes has a son, Ryan (11), and daughter, Jessica (9), in England from a previous relationship.

He and Kerry-Ann, who were married in Bo'ness Registry Office just days before they learned that they were to be extradited, have two children, Ellie (5) and Leela (2).

Mrs Howes has two daughters, Denni (10) and Bethany (9) from a previous relationship.

Technorati Tags: brian howes, kerry howes, extradition, unfair extradition, justice minister,

Human Rights Doubts over terror law safeguards

The government hopes its concessions will head off a Commons defeat

The government has still not done enough to protect individual liberty in its anti-terror plans, an influential committee of MPs and peers says.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled a series of amendments earlier this week aimed at heading off a Commons defeat.

But in a new report the joint committee on human rights said the safeguards were "inadequate".

And plans to hold terror suspects for up to six weeks without charge would "almost certainly not be lawful".

Ms Smith told The Spectator she thought the government would win next week's crunch Commons vote on 42 day detention.

But she also stressed that defeat would not bring down the government, as some commentators have predicted.

"I think if it was turned into a vote of confidence there would be massive support of the government, I don't think it would be a problem," she told the magazine in an interview to be published on Thursday.

'Grave threat'

Ms Smith has unveiled a series of amendments to the Anti-Terror Bill aimed at winning over critics.

This report takes paint-stripper to the government's claims that it is installing adequate safeguards Chris Huhne Liberal Democrats

These include greater Parliamentary oversight and the stipulation that extra detention powers could only be used in the event of a "grave exceptional threat".

The government argues that the scale and complexity of terror plots mean police will inevitably need longer to hold suspects in the future.

But Lib Dem, Conservative and up many Labour MPs are still thought to be planning to vote against the plans on civil rights grounds.

It had been thought as many as 50 Labour MPs would vote against the plans, but some are thought to have changed their minds after studying the amendments.

The government's case will not be helped by a report by the joint committee on human rights published on Thursday, which said the plans could breach European human rights laws.

The report adds that the amendments offered were "inadequate to protect individuals against the threat of arbitrary detention".

The committee said the description of a "grave exceptional threat" was not tight enough.

'Heavily circumscribed'

Committee chairman Labour MP Andrew Dismore said: "The government has talked of a major emergency, the 'nightmare scenario' of simultaneous plots across Britain or two 9/11s at once.

"Yet the amendments tabled by the government provide for possible events falling well short of that."

The report also said requiring the home secretary to declare publicly there was a serious enough emergency to justify the powers was not much of a safeguard without independent scrutiny.

And allowing Parliament to vote on the individual case within seven days - another concession - would make little difference as any debate would be "heavily circumscribed by the risk of prejudicing future trials".

The committee says the proposals should be abandoned and instead the government should set out how it would opt out of human rights obligations, should there be an "emergency threatening the life of the nation".

It concluded: "No amount of additional parliamentary or judicial safeguards can render the proposal for a reserve power of 42 days' pre-charge detention compatible with the right to liberty in Article 5 of the ECHR (European Convention of Human Rights)."

For the Liberal Democrats, Chris Huhne said: "This report takes paint-stripper to the government's claims that it is installing adequate safeguards for the use of 42 days of detention without charge."

He said the extension would be "draconian" and "nearly four times as long as in comparable English-speaking countries". Technorati Tags: anti-terror, gordon brown, terror bill, anti-terror bill, liberty

UK cops arrest six alleged BitTorrent music uploaders

Surprise new arrests in OiNK investigation

By Chris Williams → More by this author

Published Monday 2nd June 2008 14:29 GMT

---

Updated Cleveland police have today confirmed that six people have been arrested for allegedly sharing music files via the defunct BitTorrent tracker OiNK.cd.

Five men aged between 19 and 33, and a 28-year-old woman were detained "in relation to uploading pre-release music", the force said in a statement. Three of the arrests were made on Friday 23 May, and three on Wednesday 28 May.

All have been bailed without charge, pending further inquiries. A spokeswoman for Cleveland police was unable to provide details of which specific criminal law or laws the six are under suspicion of breaking.

The swoop comes more than seven months after OiNK.cd was shutdown by a widely-publicised raid at the Middlesbrough home of its adminstrator, 24-year old IT worker Alan Ellis. A coordinated move by Dutch police also seized the invitation-only website's servers, which were later returned wiped.

Ellis remains on police bail under suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright law. His bail has been repeatedly extended, with the next deadline set for 1 July.

Reports of further arrests in the investigation emerged on Friday 30 May on the filesharing blog Torrentfreak. Today it cites sources saying that the majority of those arrested did not know Alan Ellis. It's claimed they have been asked to hand over details of their OiNK.cd accounts, including passwords.

Section 49 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act can be used by police to force suspects to disclose encryption keys and passwords. Failure to comply with with a section 49 order carries a prison sentence of up to five years.

At the time of the shutdown, investigators took over the OiNK.cd domain, posting a warning to the site's users. It said: "A criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site's users." Many BitTorrent users had believed further arrests were unlikely, however.

Control of the domain has since returned to its owner.

OiNK.cd was reckoned by many filesharers to be the internet's most complete music source. It focused on high quality files and featured trackers for pre-release material, which drew it special attention from record industry anti-piracy investigators. ®

Update

The BPI, which represents major record labels in the UK, sent us this statement in response to the news:

The BPI and IFPI worked with the police in order to close down the OiNK tracker site last October. The illegal online distribution of music, particularly pre-release, is hugely damaging, and as OiNK was the biggest source for pre-releases at the time we moved to shut it down. We provided the information to assist this investigation, but this is now a police matter and we are unable to comment further at this stage.

Technorati Tags: OiNK arrests, OiNK, cleveland police, extradition

Blunkett: Labour at rock bottomThe end of Labour

Gordon Brown's government has "hit rock bottom", but defeat over
anti-terror plans would not be a "knockout blow", ex-home secretary

David Blunkett says.

Attempts to extend the limit to 90 days in 2005 ended in defeat for Labour

He told Simon Mayo on BBC Five Live that Labour's present unpopularity meant things could not get any worse.

Mr Blunkett backs the plan to extend from 28 days to 42 days the time terror suspects can be held without charge.

Mr Brown says he will not retreat on the issue despite the number of Labour rebels threatening to inflict defeat.

Mr Brown says the extension from 28-days is needed because of the complexity and sheer number of plots.

We've hit a rock bottom in my view and we can only climb out of it David Blunkett Sheffield Brightside MP

But he faces opposition from about 50 Labour MPs, in addition to Lib Dems and Tories amid fears over civil liberties.

Mr Brown says he has "tried to build a consensus" on the plans - due to
be subject to a Commons vote next week - and urged MPs to back him.

He also refused to be drawn on whether defeat would mean a vote of confidence on his leadership.

Mr Blunkett said he did not believe losing the vote would spell the end for the prime minister.

Civil liberty concerns

"We've hit a rock bottom in my view and we can only get... climb
out of it, so I think that, whilst it would be yet another knock, it
would not be a knockout blow," he said.

He insisted there was no alternative to keeping suspects in
custody, despite claims by some critics the measure would infringe
civil liberties.

"I really don't understand how anyone can believe that you can
pat a terrorist on the head and say: 'Don't worry, we won't hold you
while we investigate these multiple links across multiple boundaries
across the world - we'll let you out, so we're being ultra-careful not
to infringe your rights, even though you might well infringe our
lives'," he said.

"We're trying here to ensure that when evidence is available of
the threat of terrorist action, we don't allow the very act of having
an open, democratic, civil rights based society to undermine our
ability to protect ourselves - that would be very foolish."

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is set to meet Labour backbenchers
on Monday evening in a bid to try to persuade them of the need for the
42 day plan.Technorati Tags: gorden brown, labour party, civil liberties, brian howes