Oh Brave New World (2025)

15/11/2024

Nine-year-old among thousands investigated for hate ‘incidents’

Police record playground insults amid confusion about guidelines
More than 13,200 hate incidents were recorded in the 12 months to June

Children are among thousands of people being investigated by police for non-crime hate incidents, The Times can reveal.

Police forces recorded incidents against a nine-year-old who called a primary school classmate a “retard” and against two secondary school girls who said that another pupil smelled “like fish”.

They were among several cases of children being logged as having committed non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs), according to freedom of information requests to police forces.

Government guidance says that NCHIs are supposed to be recorded for incidents “clearly motivated by intentional hostility” and where there is a real risk of escalation “causing significant harm or a criminal offence”. Classroom incidents that do not amount to crimes are not supposed to be recorded, and neither are incidents involving journalists expressing lawfully held views with no hostility.

However, The Times has found evidence of widespread confusion among police over what types of incident should be recorded.
No 10 said that the Home Office would review its guidance to protect “the fundamental right to free speech” after the journalist Allison Pearson claimed she was being investigated over an NCHI. Ess*x police say this is inaccurate and have defended their handling of the case.

However, data collected by The Times shows the recording of NCHIs is widespread. More than 13,200 hate incidents were recorded in the 12 months to June this year, according to statistics from 45 of Britain’s 48 police forces.

Critics have asked whether the recording of non-crime hate incidents is an appropriate use of police resources, particularly in cases involving children.

In August, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, was reported to be considering reversing changes made by the Conservatives last year, designed to protect free speech, that downgraded the duty of police to monitor these incidents.

Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said on Thursday that the Home Office was reviewing guidance to balance “the fundamental right to free speech” and ensure that police could deal with issues “that matter most” to communities.

However, he said it was important that police recorded non-crime hate incidents where “proportionate and necessary”.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary and former policing minister, said: “These examples are obviously totally absurd. Pursuing these sorts of incidents is a total waste of police time — they should be concentrating on criminals. It risks having a chilling effect on free speech, one of the fundamental values of this country.
“Police should only record incidents where there is a clear and genuine risk that the behaviour in question could lead to an actual crime being committed.”

NCHIs are recorded for incidents with the potential to escalate into more serious harm or that show heightened community tensions. They can show up on enhanced criminal record checks.

A new code of practice that came into effect in June last year said that hate incidents in schools that do not amount to crimes should be referred to “the school management team”, and a record should not be made on policing systems.

Humberside police, which recorded incidents against children, said that it took all hate related incidents seriously and recorded a hate incident “where appropriate” after careful assessment. The force said it aimed to take a “common-sense and proportionate” approach.

West Yorkshire police, which also logged complaints against children, said its crime recording had been judged as outstanding by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services. It said this meant the force “may record higher levels of hate offending”.

As well as children, journalists have been investigated for non-crime hate incidents. Lincolnshire police recorded an incident over a November 2023 article for Scootering magazine after the journalist Mau Spencer used an outdated term while describing interviewing a deaf rider.

Spencer was looking back on his career in a feature and reflected upon his “most difficult experience”. He said the interview had been set up “via written letters” and “carried out using sign language, written Q&As … and lots of hand pointing”.

The complaint to police said that the magazine referred to the deaf community as “deaf and dumb” and said that Spencer had described the interview as the “strangest experience”. In fact, Spencer had described seeing the interviewee’s stuffed dog as his strangest experience.

A second story from the same magazine was also cited on the force’s hate incident logs. Mortons Media Group, which publishes Scootering magazine, declined to comment.

Lincolnshire police admitted that “occasional recording errors” could happen while following the “complex” NCHI guidance.
A spokesman added that no data about the alleged perpetrators was recorded, meaning that it would not appear on their criminal record.

In Suffolk, a man was reported to police for a NCHI after he “voiced his opinion on people using pronouns who are transgender”. Suffolk police insisted that it had fully adopted the changes in the College of Policing guidance, and regularly audited hate incidents.

A hate incident was logged with Dyfed-Powys police, in Wales, after two “transphobic” banners were raised over main roads in Carmarthenshire by the campaign group Outspoken Women.
A video shared by the group online showed an officer taking down one of the banners, which said “trans women are men”.

A spokesman for Outspoken Women said: “If this has been regarded as a hate incident that’s pretty serious in a democratic society, which is supposed to have freedom of speech.” Dyfed-Powys police said it was satisfied that the incident, which was initially recorded as a crime, had been now correctly classified.
A NCHI was logged by Wiltshire police after stickers and shirts were promoted and sold that contained “anti-transgender phrases” such as “trans women are men”. Wiltshire police said it had put in place measures to help ensure understanding of the guidance and code of conduct.

Harry Miller, a former police officer who won a legal challenge in 2021 after the Court of Appeal ruled that the College of Policing’s NCHI guidance had been wrongly used, said: “Recording speech that is not directly connected to a crime is typically the habit of a Stasi state, and such practice has no place in British policing.”

23/07/2024

Police ‘ambassador’ for violence against women sacked for public wolf-whistling

The Thames Valley officer, a veteran of 22 years, was found to have made repeated s*xual innuendos and misogynistic comments to co-workers and members of the public

A police sergeant who acted as an “ambassador” for women and girls has been dismissed after a panel found he had wolf-whistled at female members of the public and bragged about his s*xual prowess to colleagues.

James Endean, an officer with Thames Valley police for 22 years, was sacked without notice last month after an independent panel found him culpable of gross misconduct.

Between early 2022 and March last year, Endean was found to have bullied his colleagues and made repeated s*xual innuendos and misogynistic comments towards female co-workers and members of the public.

This was despite the officer being made an ethics champion in 2022 and a White Ribbon champion a year later, to act as an “ambassador” for women and girls in ending violence perpetrated against them by men.

The panel laid out more than 12 allegations against Endean relating to his behaviour. All but one was proved or proved in part.

This included “rating” female members of the public based on their attractiveness while on night-time patrols and describing what he would do to them s*xually.

Witnesses said that they heard Endean, who worked from Reading police station, say a female member of the public was “asking for it”, make inappropriate comments about the public such as “look at the legs on that” and was heard wolf-whistling at women more than once.

The panel concluded Endean also made numerous s*xual innuendos about the size of his fingers to female colleagues once displaying them and saying “these should be on Britain’s Got Talent” — the ITV talent show.

This was denied by Endean, who said that during his first years of service he was given the nickname “sausage fingers” by colleagues and his comment was a reference to this. However, the panel said he knew this was an innuendo and his comments reflected “a pattern of him referring to the size of his own p***s in the workplace”.

Endean, who was made a sergeant in 2009, was also found to have bullied both male and female officers, “targeting them and humiliating them by his spiteful comments and threats”.

This included calling one as “thick as sh*t” and a “f***ing idiot” after they made an error. Some officers tried to avoid working with him.

Luke Ponte, representing Endean, alleged collusion between witnesses to exaggerate claims but this was rejected by the panel. He also told the panel that Endean’s life was under “acute strain” in 2022 due to family court proceedings in relation to contact with his daughter.

In its decision summary, the panel said Endean’s repeated misconduct caused “reputational harm” for Thames Valley police and could damage public confidence in the police.

“There is a significant public interest, particularly in recent years, in how male members of the police service behave towards women. This is because misogynistic or s*xual comments such as those the panel have found proved are likely to deter victims of crime from reporting to the police because they lack trust or confidence in the police.”

After the allegations were made against Endean he was moved from Reading to Bracknell and Wokingham where he continued to work in a supervisory role.

02/07/2024

An academy trust must pay a primary school head teacher more than £100,000 after it unfairly sacked her for TAPPING HER OWN CHILD’S HAND WITH HER FINGERS.

Shelly-Ann Malabver-Goulbourne faced accusations of “assault” after she attempted to stop her three-year-old from playing with a bottle of hand sanitiser in her office.

An employment tribunal was told that the head teacher had been reported to the school authorities after a staff member in charge of child safety saw her tapping the child with two fingers to attract his attention.

Malabver-Goulbourne was suspended from her role at Northwold Primary School in Hackney, east London and a police investigation was launched.

But despite officers ruling that the mother’s actions were “reasonable chastisement” by a parent, bosses at the Arbor Academy Trust sacked Malabver-Goulbourne for gross misconduct.

The head teacher sued the trust for unfair dismissal in a claim that was backed by a tribunal judge in March after ruling that there was no evidence that the 46-year-old had committed an assault. The tribunal has now awarded Malabver-Goulbourne £102,300 in compensation.

During the hearing, the tribunal was told that Malabver-Goulbourne had been a teacher for “many years”, having joined the trust in 2005, and had been employed as head since 2017.

The incident with her child took place in 2022, when Malabver-Goulbourne was working late in her office after a meeting with Samantha Bhagwandas, the teacher responsible for safeguarding at the school.

The headteacher’s 11-year-old daughter and her three-year-old son, both of whom were pupils at the school, were in her office at the time, the tribunal noted.

Her son, referred to as J, was said to have picked up a bottle of hand sanitiser from a table and his sister told their mother that he had squirted some of the liquid on to the floor. Malabver-Goulbourne took the bottle from her son’s hand, and, said the tribunal in its ruling, it was likely that “she then bent down to his level to speak to him about why he should not be playing with hand sanitiser”.

Judge Julia Jones added: “When she did so he turned his face away from her and she tapped him with two fingers on the back of his hand to get his attention, so that he would look at her to hear what she was saying.”

The tribunal was told that a fortnight earlier, the toddler had put hand sanitiser in his eye. The judge said that it was “with the knowledge of that earlier experience” that his mother “wanted to speak to him again to ensure that he understood that hand sanitiser was not a toy that he should be playing with”.

But Bhagwandas told the head teacher that she should not have hurt her son and that she should have spoken to him instead. She completed a “cause for concern” form to report a “safeguarding incident”. In that report, the safeguarding teacher said she had witnessed the head teacher “smack J on the hand” having told him that she was going to do so and expressing “disregard” for Bhagwandas’s presence. The safeguarding teacher added in her report that the child had been crying “and that she had pacified him”.

Regardless, trust officials ultimately sacked Malabver-Goulbourne for having “assaulted a pupil/child whilst in a position of trust and on school premises”.

Awarding the head teacher the payout, the judge noted that the school’s code of conduct did not prohibit physical contact between pupils and teachers and pointed out that as a parent of pupils that would be a difficult rule for the head teacher to abide by.

“It is this tribunal’s judgment that [the trust] had sufficient evidence … that [the head] was trying to prevent injury to her child and addressing his behaviour,” said the judge

04/05/2024

SOCIAL WORKER SUSPENDED OVER GENDER CRITICAL VIEWS AWARDED £58,000

Rachel Meade was subjected to harassment by Westminster city council and Social Work England, a judge ruled

Sunday April 28 2024, 9.15pm, The Times Law

A social worker who was suspended over her gender critical views has been awarded almost £58,000 in damages from Westminster city council and Social Work England.

In what lawyers described as an unprecedented move by a court to award exemplary damages against a regulator, an employment tribunal called for both the council and the watchdog to train their staff in the principles of freedom of speech.

Rachel Meade, the social worker, said she was “delighted with such a positive judgement after a such a long and dreadful experience. It’s been a hard fight, but I feel relieved and liberated that justice and freedom of speech has prevailed.”

Meade, from Dartford, Kent, had sued the council and Social Work England in 2022 for harassment and s*x discrimination after she was suspended over her belief that a person “cannot change their s*x”.

Meade was given a one-year warning by case examiners at Social Work England after the regulator received a complaint from a member of the public in 2020 about posts that she had shared or liked on Facebook. The council then suspended her on charges of gross misconduct before giving her a final written warning.

The regulatory sanction and employer’s warning had both been withdrawn before the tribunal case was heard.

A judge ruled in January that the regulator and council had subjected her to harassment over her gender-critical beliefs by threatening her with fitness-to-practise proceedings and sanctioning her for misconduct.

Meade, 55, said that she had been “completely vindicated” after the employment tribunal’s ruling. She has now been awarded almost £58,000.

Awarding the damages, the tribunal judge, Richard Nicolle, said that Social Work England’s actions constituted a “serious abuse of its power as a regulatory body”.

The judge said that the regulator had “allowed its processes to be subverted to punish and suppress” Meade’s lawful political speech, and to do so on grounds of her protected beliefs. In doing so it had violated her right to free speech as protected under human rights law.

The judge added that the regulator had a “pre-ordained view” that Meade’s beliefs were “unacceptable”.

Meade had told the hearing that she was “made to feel like a criminal for over two years”

Addressing the responsibility of Westminster city council, the judge said that a decision by officials to suspend the social worker would have “had a very profound effect on her, and would inevitably have fundamentally eroded her dignity, given that her career was very important to her”.

The ruling on damages went on to say that Meade, who had worked at the council for more than 20 years, “would have felt ostracised and stigmatised. She was precluded from having any contact with her colleagues and thereby increasing her sense of isolation.”

As well has making the damages award, the tribunal recommended that the council act within six months to ensure “that all of its managers and human resources staff receive training on freedom of expression and protected belief”.

It also recommended that Social Work England should within six months “ensure that all its triage staff, investigation staff and case examiners shall receive training on freedom of expression and protected belief”.

The tribunal noted that Meade had told the hearing she was “made to feel like a criminal for over two years”. Meade had explained that letters from the council warning about the cost of pursuing legal action had “terrified her”.

And the tribunal noted that Meade was “incredibly disappointed” that her regulatory body had “not even now apologised to her or taken responsibility for its biassed and flawed investigation”.

Commenting on the damages award, Meade said she hoped “that the recommendations for training on freedom of expression and legal right of expressing protected beliefs serves as a stepping stone for positive change”.

Her lawyer, Shazia Khan, described the judgement as “a damning indictment of Social Work England and Westminster city council’s prolonged and oppressive treatment of my client. An award of exemplary damages against a regulator for the manner in which it has carried out its function is unprecedented.

“This should serve as a resounding warning to all regulators that they must not let their processes be weaponised by activists who seek to punish and silence legitimate debate.”

Colum Conway, chief executive of Social Work England, said the regulator was considering the judgement.

He added: “We recognise that this has been a particularly difficult case for those involved, conducted against a backdrop of debate on many issues within society in relation to freedom of expression. Our professional standards reflect the diversity of social work practice and the positive impact it has on people’s lives, families and communities.

“We will continue our work in this area and clearly articulate the reasons when there are reasonable grounds to investigate a social worker’s fitness to practise.”

A Westminster city council spokesman said: “We have received the findings of the remedy hearing and will need to take a little time to digest before responding more fully. We have apologised to Rachel Meade and the points which emerged during the tribunal and remedy hearing are an important and helpful guide in clarifying what is acknowledged to be a rapidly evolving area of employment law.”

17/04/2024

An instructor responsible for training new police officers made three female recruits place their heads on a table while he used bolt cutters to remove their earrings, a disciplinary hearing was told.

PC Martin Briggs’s “astonishing” treatment of the women before a fitness test left one of them with bleeding ears.

The instructor was overseeing a bleep test at Dorset police headquarters — a drill which involves performing timed shuttle runs — and insisted that the 63 trainees remove all jewellery.

Three officers — PC Georgia Hedditch, PC Elizabeth Christie and PC Holly Law — told him that they were unable to remove their stud earrings.

When Hedditch jokingly suggested “you’ll have to cut them out”, Briggs left the sports hall and returned with a pair of bolt cutters. He then had them file one by one into an office and told them to put their heads down on a jacket on a desk, it was heard.

Briggs then “forcibly cut” their earrings. After finishing with one officer he held up the bolt croppers, opened and closed them and asked “who’s next?”, it was heard.

The women were left “distressed and embarrassed” after their ordeal in April last year, it is alleged. They all said that they complied as they thought that if they did not do the test they would fail the course and damage their career prospects.

Briggs is now facing a disciplinary hearing after claims that his actions breached police standards of behaviour and amounted to gross misconduct.

He admitted to making a “highly regrettable error of judgment” but denied behaving “discreditably”, stating that he removed the jewellery with the students’ consent.

PC Samuel Davies, a police colleague, also faces allegations of gross misconduct as he witnessed the incident but failed to intervene or report it.

Mark Ley-Morgan, a barrister representing Dorset police, said: “[Students] were not told beforehand that they must remove their jewellery to do the fitness test. PC Briggs’s behaviour was described by different witnesses as angry, abrupt, rude and impatient. He was swearing a lot.”

Ley-Morgan said: “He insisted all jewellery must be removed before anyone did the test.

“He came back with bolt cutters and what looked like secateurs. Three very junior officers came into an office, putting their head on a table, having their earrings forcibly cut out. Surely steps should have been taken to rearrange their fitness tests to the next morning, to give them time to have their earrings removed.

“It is a serious incident which should never have happened and it is astonishing that it did. What would a member of the public thinking of joining the police service make of this?”

The hearing was told that although Briggs produced a pair of bolt cutters he may have used smaller “tin snips” to do the removals, but the women believe the bolt cutters were used.

Hedditch said she had only been an officer for three weeks on the day of the fitness test. She told the hearing that PC Briggs had been losing his temper with the students and seemed exasperated by them.

She told him: “If you want to get the earring out, you’ll have to cut it out.” She added: “I didn’t think that it would actually be actioned … In hindsight, it should never have happened.”

Christie also told the hearing that she feared she would lose her job if she did not let Briggs take out six of her earrings.

She said: “I thought I was going to lose my job that day over some earrings. When I said I can’t get them out, he said he had some cutters at the back.

“When it was my turn to go in Martin Briggs was in the room. He was holding these really long bolt cutters in his hands and was opening and closing them. He said ‘who’s next’.

“It was overwhelming. I was shaking with adrenaline and trying not to cry.”

Guy Ladenburg, representing Davies, conveyed his client’s apologies to all three officers for the “distress and anxiety” caused by his failure to challenge Briggs.

The hearing continues

15/03/2024

POLICE CHARGED AFTER ONE-LEGGED MAN, 93, WAS TASERED AT CARE HOME

Two officers are to appear in court in connection with the case of Donald Burgess, who had dementia and died three weeks after he was allegedly also pepper-sprayed in his wheelchair

Two police officers have been charged with causing actual bodily harm after a 93-year-old, one-legged dementia sufferer was allegedly shot with a Taser in his wheelchair. He died three weeks later.

Police were called to a care home in East Suss*x in 2022 after reports that an elderly man was threatening staff with a knife. Two officers found Donald Burgess, 93, in his wheelchair in his room holding a knife.

It is alleged that, after talking to him briefly, one of the officers pepper-sprayed him and then hit him with a baton. When he failed to drop the knife the second officer tasered him.

After disarming Burgess, who had advanced dementia, the officers handcuffed and arrested him, and drove him to the police station. On arrival his condition was judged to be serious and Burgess was taken to hospital, where he died three weeks later.

Suss*x police referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which is investigating the incident in June 2022 at Park Beck care home in St Leonards-on-Sea.

PC Stephen Smith, 50, and PC Rachel Comotto, 34, have been charged with causing actual bodily harm and will appear at Westminster magistrates’ court on April 24. Smith faces two charges, and Smith one.

Mel Palmer, the regional IOPC director for the southeast, said: “Following our investigation, the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] has authorised charges against both officers and criminal proceedings will now take place.”

14/03/2024

There are in each person's life, at least one event or picture whose horror simply remains in their mind as they age. I shan't tell you of the two of my seventy odd years but I have to share this which I heard yesterday. Not Gothic horror, but a terrible indictment of this country.

After the class had finished playing with the cut-out potatoes and it was time to tidy up, a little girl sidled up to her teacher and asked what they were going to do with the cutout scraps on the floor? Could she have them to take home to allow her mother to feed the family?

It broke my heart. 2024 and this country has families who are starving. Literally.

This country is retreating to beyond Dickens' time in its poverty and despair.

22/02/2024

You’ve met the devil, Met officer told woman he r***d and kidnapped

Scotland Yard failed to sack an officer who breached a non-molestation order and then went on to r**e and kidnap a woman at knifepoint.
Cliff Mitchell, 24, of Putney, southwest London, r***d the victim at least four times and cable tied her wrists at a property in south London on September 5 last year.
He threatened to slit her throat before telling her, “You’ve met the devil.” He then forced her and another person into his white Audi and warned her he would “kill her in front of everyone” if she tried to run. He claimed he “knew how to dispose of bodies from his knowledge gained as a police officer”.
CCTV captured the moment the “distraught and scared” woman fled the car, begging motorists for help.
Catherine Farrelly, for the prosecution, said the incident was the “culmination of years of s*xual abuse”, telling a jury: “He [Mitchell] would use the fact that he was a police officer to intimidate her, saying that no one would believe her if she were to report what had been happening.”
Croydon crown court was told that the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, applied for a non-molestation order (NMO) against Mitchell on July 20, 2023. Once granted, courts will notify a local police force so they can take action if an order is breached.
The Metropolitan Police received the NMO but said it “made no mention of Mitchell being a police officer”. The force did not make any checks and Mitchell, who was attached to the unit covering the boroughs of Ealing, Hillingdon and Hounslow, was not sanctioned or removed from frontline duties.
Mitchell denied the woman’s claims but a jury found him guilty of seven r**es against the woman, one kidnap charge and breaching the NMO.
He was also convicted of six further r**es, including three of ra**ng a child under 13, between 2014 and 2017. The victim, who also cannot be named, described feeling “empty and numb” after the attacks, which Mitchell denied. He will be sentenced for all 15 offences on May 1.
The Met said it has since revised its policy and guidance, telling The Times: “Checks are now completed on every NMO at the point we receive it, meaning that any relevant matters — such as the individual being included on a previous police report — would be raised. Subject details are also checked to ascertain if they are a Met police officer or member of police staff.”
At present, three serving officers are subject to NMOs and all were already known to the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards, responsible for investigating complaints about officers’ conduct. Mitchell was dismissed for breaching his NMO at an accelerated misconduct hearing on December 7.
Stuart Cundy, deputy assistant Commissioner at the Met, said: “This is a truly shocking case and I am sickened by Mitchell’s abhorrent behaviour and the pain he has caused the victims, who have shown enormous bravery by coming forward and giving evidence in court. It is down to their courage that he has been convicted and faces a significant custodial sentence.
“Mitchell not only carried out a sustained campaign of abuse against both of his victims, but he told one of them she would never be believed due to the fact he was a police officer. This brazen abuse of power makes Mitchell’s actions all the more deplorable.
“I know this is another case which will impact the confidence people have in us. We are doing more than we have done in decades to rid the Met of those who corrupt our integrity.”
Mitchell was located hours after the knifepoint abduction when officers flagged down his car in Putney. Days later officers searched the home of Mitchell’s uncle to find his bag and mobile phone. Mitchell’s father was also present.
Farrelly told the jury: “The defendant’s father went into one of the bedrooms and began tidying some items into a plastic bag. One of the officers asked if he could check the bag and found within it a plastic bag containing cable ties, similar to those used around [the victim’s] wrists.” Officers seized the bag. Mitchell’s phone has never been found.
During the trial it emerged that Mitchell was questioned by Met detectives in 2017 after a child reported a string of r**es. Mitchell was arrested and bailed pending further inquiries. It was suggested that detectives did not understand the medical evidence and initially “decided not to refer the case to the Crown Prosecution Service” for a charging decision. In August 2019 Mitchell was told no further action would be taken. He joined the Met in August 2021, the court was told.
After Mitchell was charged in September last year, the 2017 case was re-investigated by the force’s domestic abuse and s*xual offences unit.
The Met said: “Due to the strength of the 2017 and 2023 cases being considered together, a file was passed to the CPS in December 2023, who agreed to charge Mitchell. Over recent years, we have transformed the way we investigate r**e and s*xual offences. A key part of this is putting victim-survivors at the heart of everything we do, and putting a greater focus on suspects and their behaviour.”

Oh Brave New World

15/11/2024

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02/07/2024

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