Police officers paid £150m in bonuses for doing their job

More than £150million is paid to police officers every year for what Paul McKeever, the chairman of the Police Federation, describes as “doing your duty.”

Five officers at Northumbria Police, the force which conducted the hunt for the gunman Raoul Moat, shared performance-related bonuses last year of £115,500.

In Durham, one chief picked up an £18,700 bonus in 2009-10. In South Wales another received £14,300, and in South Yorkshire four senior officers shared £69,000.

Half of the country’s 144,000 officers received an average of £2,200 each in payments last year, totalling an estimated £145 million.

The payments were introduced by New Labour in 2002.

70 year old widow threatened with £2,500 fine for smoking a cigarette

Sheila Martin, a 70 year old widow living in Oldbury, has been warned that she could be prosecuted and face a fine of £2,500, plus costs, for smoking a cigarette at a bus stop.

While waiting for the number 446 bus on May 26, 2010, Mrs Martin decided to enjoy a cigarette.

During the course of enjoying here cigarette, she was approached by an official from Sandwell Council, who issued her with a £75 fine for 'littering', due to some ash falling from Mrs Martin's cigarette end.

She said: "I still can't believe what happened. I was just sat at a bus stop quietly enjoying my cigarette and from nowhere a warden appeared and accused me of littering. I couldn't believe it, I was only smoking a cigarette. It is one of the few things I have left that I can afford to buy myself. I can't work out why the council would be so vindictive over such a petty matter. I'm so upset and angry."

Mrs Martin refused to pay the £75 fine, and has now the elderly widow has been issued with a 'Final Warning' from Sandwell Councils Prosecution Team, threatening her with prosecution, and a fine of up to £2,500.

Mrs Martin has vowed to fight on, and has stated that she would rather go to prison than pay this ridiculous charge.

Last year, an official from Sandwell Council issued a mother with a £75 fine, for feeding ducks with her son in a park.

Avon and Somerset Police taser innocent man in groin for no reason.

Peter Cox, 49, had 50,000 volts fired into his groin by a police officer in Bridgewater on the 13th of July, 2010.

Mr Cox was on his way to do some landscaping work at the home of a friend when he noticed a police patrol car was following him.

He pulled over outside friend Donna Allen's house in Bridgwater, Somerset, but after a short conversation with police officers collapsed to the ground after being shot in the groin.

Eyewitnesses say the male officer pointed the taser gun at Peter Cox "for more than 20 seconds" before lowering the weapon.

But the weapon discharged "accidentally" and Peter dropped to the ground in agony after one electric probe missed his genitals by two or three inches.

Mr Cox said: "I got out of the car and asked the police what they wanted. I then asked them to park on the other side of the road because we were working on the front garden.

"The officer didn't say anything, but he got out of the car and pulled out a taser and pointed it at me.

"I didn't know this at the time so I just went on with what I was doing and got a bag of stone for the garden out of the boot. Then he shot me.

"I wasn't looking but Donna says he had it pointed at me for 20 seconds before it went off.

"I was really shocked and I didn't know what was going on. I got one in my groin and one in my ankle.

"It really hurt. It just stunned me completely and felt like someone was stabbing me with a fork all over my body.'

The electric taser probes hit Peter in the groin and his right ankle.

Paramedics treated Peter, who suffers from debilitating Guillain Barri syndrome, on the front lawn of the property.

Father-of-one Peter denies acting aggressively towards the officers and was completely dumbfounded as to why he was tasered.

A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset police said that officers had wanted to speak to Mr Cox as they suspected the BMW he was driving was not insured.

But Peter called his insurers immediately after the incident and it was confirmed the car had valid insurance.

Peter now plans to sue the constabulary for damages and is seeking the advice of solicitors.

He added: "After it happened the driver of the police car came up to me and said, 'The reason we wanted to talk to you was because your car came up as no insurance."

"But I checked and there definitely is valid insurance.

"To this date they haven't contacted me or any of the other witnesses or neighbours. I would like an apology."

Donna Allen, 47, added: "When I asked them if they were going to take statements the sergeant actually said to me they wouldn't need to because the officer admitted accidently discharging the gun."

Man arrested for email he didn't write, council and police believe they acted correctly

A businessman was arrested at home in front of his wife and young son over an email which council officials deemed ‘offensive’ to gipsies – but which he had not even written.

The email, concerning a planning appeal by a gipsy, included the phrase: ‘It’s the 'do as you likey' attitude that I am against.’

Council staff believed the email was offensive because ‘likey’ rhymes with the derogatory term ‘pikey’.

The 45-year-old IT boss was held in a police cell for four hours until it was established he had nothing to do with the email, which had been sent by one of his then workers, Paul Osmond.

But police had taken his DNA and later confirmed they would be holding it indefinitely.

The businessman, who has asked not to be named, was also fingerprinted in the police investigation estimated to have cost taxpayers up to £12,000.

His computer and other internet equipment were also seized.

The email, from a computer at his company, was sent last August to a website at Rother District Council, in East Sussex, on which the public can comment on planning applications.

It referred to an appeal by gipsy Linda Smith, who wants to keep a mobile home in an area of outstanding beauty overlooking the Battle of Hastings site.

The businessman, a father of two, said last night: ‘I had a sense of total disbelief. My wife and I decided to tell my 11-year-old son I had to go with the police because I had witnessed a road accident.

‘Even though the officers were fairly pleasant to me, I was informed I would be handcuffed if I didn’t go voluntarily. They then confiscated my computer and my wife’s computer and took them to the police station.

‘I was extremely angry. I was relaxing in the comfort of my home on a Sunday afternoon and then I was in a police car under arrest – all for an innocent comment by a colleague.’

He said: ‘I have never had any criminal record and try my best to teach my children right from wrong. This was a ridiculously heavy-handed police reaction to what they perceived as a racist comment. I am not the least bit racist and neither is Paul Osmond. The gipsy family concerned did not complain.

‘I did nothing wrong yet ended up in a police cell for four hours with my DNA stored on a criminal database.’

The case finally ended last week when Mr Osmond, who had been arrested and bailed, was told there would be no further police action. The planning case is continuing.

Mr Osmond, 39, of Icklesham, said: ‘I made it clear to them I am absolutely not racist. I said I was simply registering my objection to this application because it is 200ft from the most important and historical battlefield in the country.

Sussex Police said they had arrested the businessman over ‘suspicion of committing a racial or religious-aggravated offence’.

After consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, it was decided to take no further action against Mr Osmond.

Chief Inspector Heather Keating said: ‘Sussex Police have a legal duty to promote community cohesion and tackle unlawful discrimination.

‘We are satisfied we acted appropriately in identifying the owner of the computer used and through this, the identity of the writer of the offending line.’

Police said they would hold the innocent men’s DNA indefinitely, which they said was in line with national policy.

A council spokesman said: ‘As far as we were concerned it was an offensive comment, so we got in touch with the police.’

Police powers ruled illegal - New Labour tell police to carry on regardless

The number of stop-and-searches under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act of 2000 has trebled in a year, with police facing protests that they have targeted tourists, photographers and trainspotters under the legislation.

Yesterday the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the police right under the Terrorism Act of 2000 to question people without grounds for suspicion was illegal.

Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, vowed to fight the ruling.

The European Court ruling was prompted by the case of Kevin Gillan and Pennie Quinton, who were both searched on the same day in 2003 close to an arms fair at the Excel Centre in London's Docklands. It had been designated under Section 44 of the Act as an area where police were entitled to use wide anti-terrorist powers.

Ms Quinton was a journalist filming near the arms fair, and had already shown police her press card, while Mr Gillan was riding his bicycle past the building.

They decided to challenge the powers in the UK courts. The Court of Appeal and the House of Lords said the powers were legitimate given the risk of terrorism in London.

But yesterday the European Court of Human Rights rejected the Government's argument that Section 44 was a proportionate response. The Strasbourg judges said a police officer's decision to stop and search an individual was one based exclusively on the "hunch" or "professional intuition".

Last night the Government pledged to try to overturn the ruling by taking the unusual step of appealing to the court's grand chamber. But legal experts said the court's unanimous decision (7-0) showed government lawyers would have a steep hill to climb.

Mr Johnson said: "Stop and search under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is an important tool in a package of measures in the ongoing fight against terrorism. We are considering the judgment and will seek to appeal. Pending the outcome of this appeal, the police will continue to have these powers available to them."

Not a single stop-and-search under the new anti-terrorism powers has resulted in a conviction for terrorism, despite police officers in England and Wales used the powers to search nearly 200,000 people last year.

The year before 124,687 people were searched, up from 41,924 in 2006-07.

After the ruling, Ms Quinton said: "The court has shown that Section 44 is an invasion of people's right to liberty and privacy."

Corinna Ferguson, a legal adviser to the civil rights group Liberty and acting for Ms Quinton and Mr Gillan, said: "The public, police and Court of Human Rights all share our concerns for privacy, protest, race equality and community solidarity that come with this sloppy law."

Officials now have 1,200 powers of entry to private homes

A fresh bid to curb wide-ranging powers for officials to enter private homes was launched in the Lords yesterday.

Spearheading the move, Tory Lord Selsdon said he had unearthed about 1,200 powers of entry in dozens of different Acts of Parliament.

He called for a code of practice to put strict limits on entry powers for all cases except those involving suspected serious crime or terrorism.

Introducing his Powers of Entry Bill, Lord Selsdon said he had been pursuing the issue for more than 30 years and had introduced several previous Bills.

He said the problem was that no one knew exactly how many powers of entry there were, adding: "Worse than that, the householder has no idea either. "The householder feels more and more insecure. He fears the knock on the door."

Under the Bill, entry would have to be authorised by a judge or magistrate and the householder would have to agree to it.

A maximum of four officials would be allowed in, only between 8am and 6pm on Mondays to Fridays, or between 8am and 1pm on a Saturday.

Backing the Bill, crossbencher Lord Scott of Foscote, a law lord and former Attorney General, said far too many powers of entry were exercisable not only without the consent of the occupier but also without the authority of a warrant.

Tory Lord Marlesford welcomed the Bill as an attempt to overthrow "overbearing, disproportionate and intrusive" powers. Too often, powers of entry were made without a magistrate and followed by "every officious officer", he said.

For the Liberal Democrats, Baroness Hamwee supported the premise of the Bill but cautioned that the situation required a "rather more complex and detailed, more subtle approach".

For the Tories, Lord Skelmersdale said: "Powers of entry have become so widespread and so draconian over this Government's time in office that there has arisen a considerable amount of unease to put it mildly, both in and outside Parliament." He added: "The whole purpose of this Bill is that we can't go on like this and I commend Lord Selsdon for bringing this issue forward."

Government spokesman Lord Brett suggested the Bill amounted to an "inflexible approach" towards limiting powers of entry. He told peers the Government did recognise there were "difficulties" that needed to be addressed.

He added: "What we are proposing is that any new or amending powers of entry are put before Parliament for consideration, in that case the sponsoring department must comply with a code of practice that sets out the considerations that I believe, many of the points that peers have raised today."

The Bill gained an unopposed second reading but without Government support is unlikely to become law.

Pompous oaf Peter Vaughan is too important to go shopping

This is Peter Vaughan.

Recognise him? Probably not.

He's the new Chief Constable of South Wales police.

He believes that he is so important, that he is unable to walk round a supermarket.

Speaking to the 'Police Review' he said

"There are additional pressures now that I am a chief constable. I used to be able to walk around my local supermarket, but now someone else will do my shopping, for security reasons."

The level of pomposity and lack of self-awareness is astonishing.

I doubt anyone in South Wales could even pick him out of a line-up.

Peter Vaughan - a man who is so full of his own importance that he is afraid to walk round Tesco without a bodyguard.

WMD inspector Hans Blix told Tony Blair that there was no evidence of WMDs in Iraq

Hans Blix, who has not been called to give evidence to Sir John Chilcot's inquiry, said his team had grown suspicious of the quality of intelligence pointing to Saddam Hussein having WMDs.

The inspectors visited many sites said by intelligence services in the UK, the US and elsewhere to contain WMDs, but had only ever found conventional weapons, documents or nothing at all, he said.

''I think this was one of the most significant things of the whole story,'' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

''We got tips not only from the UK but from other intelligence, the US as well, so perhaps some 100 all in all.

''We had time to go to about three dozen of these sites and in no case did we find any weapons of mass destruction.''

He added: ''We said if this is the best (intelligence), then what is the rest? Doubts arose from that.''

Dr Blix said he spoke to Mr Blair in February 2003, ahead of the March invasion, about his team's findings.

''I said to Mr Blair 'Yes, I also thought there could be weapons of mass destruction', but I said 'Are you so sure? Would it not be paradoxical if you were to invade Iraq with 200,000 men and found there were no weapons of mass destruction?'.

''His response was 'No, no', he was quite convinced, the intelligence services were convinced, and even the Egyptians were convinced, so I had no reason to doubt his good faith at the time. But I was doubtful.''

And he said the Iraqis were finally making progress in opening up to inspections and should have been allowed more time.

''We warned the Iraqis that they needed to be more active and they became more active and we reported that to the (UN) Security Council, that we were actually making a great deal of progress,'' he said.

Dr Blix added: ''We could not exclude that there was still something hidden, because you cannot prove the negative, but I think they should have taken to heart that there was a change in the Iraqi attitude, that there was more cooperation and that things that were unresolved were becoming resolved.''

New Labour invents 33 new crimes every month

Thanks to New Labour, it is now illegal to swim in the wreck of the Titanic or to sell game birds killed on a Sunday or Christmas Day – eventualities overlooked by previous governments.

New Labour has made 4,289 activities illegal since the 1997 election, at a rate of about one a day – twice the speed with which the previous Conservative government created crimes.

Gordon Brown was the worst offender, with his government inventing 33 new crimes a month. Tony Blair's administration made 27 new offences each month.

Some of the more inventive crimes dreamt up by New Labour include "disturbing a pack of eggs when directed not to by an authorised officer" and reporting the door of a merchant ship to be closed and locked when it isn't.

New Labour also introduced laws against activities which would already have been covered by previous legislation – such as "causing a nuclear explosion."

Liberal Democrat home office spokesman Chris Huhne, who brought the figures to light, will criticise the government's administrative binge in a speech tonight.

He will say New Labour has spent 12 years "suffering from the most acute and prolonged bout of legislative diarrhoea", calling the rate of 69 new Home Affairs Bills in 12 years "staggering".

Police to use military drones to spy on public

Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the routine covert monitoring of the public, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.

The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.

The Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates UK airspace, has been told by BAE and Kent police that civilian UAVs would "greatly extend" the government's surveillance capacity and "revolutionise policing". The CAA is currently reluctant to license UAVs in normal airspace because of the risk of collisions with other aircraft.

BAE drones are programmed to take off and land on their own, stay airborne for up to 15 hours and reach heights of 20,000ft, making them invisible from the ground.

Previously, Kent police has said the drone scheme was intended for use over the English Channel to monitor shipping and detect immigrants crossing from France. However, the documents suggest the maritime focus was, at least in part, a public relations strategy designed to minimise civil liberty concerns.

"There is potential for these [maritime] uses to be projected as a 'good news' story to the public rather than more 'big brother'," a minute from the one of the earliest meetings, in July 2007, states.

Behind closed doors, the scope for UAVs has expanded significantly. Working with various policing organisations as well as the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, the Maritime and Fisheries Agency, HM Revenue and Customs and the UK Border Agency, BAE and Kent police have drawn up wider lists of potential uses.

One document lists "[detecting] theft from cash machines, preventing theft of tractors and monitoring antisocial driving" as future tasks for police drones, while another states the aircraft could be used for road and railway monitoring, search and rescue, event security and covert urban surveillance.

Under a section entitled "Other routine tasks (Local Councils) – surveillance", another document states the drones could be used to combat "fly-posting, fly-tipping, abandoned vehicles, abnormal loads, waste management".

Military drones have been used extensively by the US to assist reconnaissance and airstrikes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Their use in war zones has been blamed for high civilian death tolls.

The Electronic Police State Report - UK is joint 4th with Russia

A report by internet security consultancy Cryptohippe has ranked the UK as being equally as repressive as Russia, in terms of having become an Electronic Police State.

This result emerges from Cryptohippie’s recently published Electronic Police State 2008 Report.

This is the first in what are intended to be a series of annual reports that will audit the "State use of electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence against its citizens".

The audit focusses on 17 factors, ranging from requirement to produce documents on demand, through to the extent to which states force ISP’s and phone companies to retain data, the blurring of boundaries between police and intelligence work and ultimately the breakdown of the principles of habeas corpus.

The UK has been ranked as having a score of 3.18 on the scale used, the same as the score obtained by Russia.

Only China, North Korea, and Belarus obtained higher scores, indicating that the UK is the most repressive electronic police state in Western society.

Police harass hundreds in Sefton

Police in Sefton have been busy lately, harassing hundreds of innocent people under 'Operation Beekman'.

This 'operation', is the latest idea from Chief Supt Ian Pilling of Merseyside Police.

Police inconvenienced 573 people who were travelling in the Sefton area, over a period of 6 nights.

Out of all of these hundreds of innocent people who had their journeys disrupted, Chief Supt Ian Pillin proclaimed the operation a great success, noting that over the period of 6 days, they did manage to find one man who had a small piece of cannabis, and they also managed to find the time to arrest one other man who took offence to the search.

Two men assaulted and fined by Merseyside Police

Two men were ‘handcuffed, punched and stripped’ by Merseyside Police’s Matrix team.

Andy Jones, 20, and Anthony Spencer, 21, believe pressure on officers to stop a string of arson attacks and shootings lay behind their “humiliating” ordeal.

Both men say they were quizzed about drugs, petrol bombs and weapons.

The life long friends from Waterloo were driving down South Road on Thursday, June 4, in Anthony's car when a Matrix van appeared in their rear view mirror.

Anthony had just performed a U-turn, when the van roared past his Vauxhall Vectra and eventually blocked the car in Handfield Road.

The men then watched as officers wearing tactical uniforms poured from the van and surrounded the car.

Anthony, who attended Chesterfield High School and works for Sefton Council in Bootle Town Hall as an employment adviser, said : “I was pulled from the car, cuffed, and forced to the floor. I felt a knee in my back and I remember they were screaming at me to 'stop resisting arrest.' I started screaming too, because I wanted to draw attention to what was happening, but I did not fight back.

“I remember on my way in to the van feeling terrified. You hear so many stories about people getting badly hurt in custody.

“I feared for my life. They told me that they were not from the area and wanted me to tell them about the arson.

“When the officers failed to find any evidence in my car, they realised we were not involved. The senior officer advised me to accept a fixed penalty notice rather than be arrested and have my car impounded.

“I agreed, but I am worried about having a police record.

“I am not anti - police, and I have applied to join Merseyside on two occasions. I was hoping to try once more, but not any more.”
Andy, who went to St Michael's and is now one 3 Mobile's top 100 sales men and a budding graphic designer, said: “I was cuffed too. I remember an officer walking past me and delivering a proper punch to my back. It really hurt.

“I was taken in to the back of the van too, and stripped.

“After the ordeal we both went straight to St Ann Street police station, to make a complaint.

“We were informed about the professional standards department, and advised to go straight to the Royal hospital, where we were both treated for bruising to our lower bodies.”

A spokesman for Merseyside Police said: “We can confirm that we have received a formal complaint against officers from two members of the public regarding an incident in South Road, Crosby, on Thursday, June 4, 2009.

Chief Constable escapes jail

A police chief has been forced to return 87 computer hard drives to an expert witness.

Colin Port, Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset, had been facing contempt of court charges for delaying the return of hard drives to Jim Bates, a computer analyst whose home was searched by police last year.

The police search of Mr Bates’s home was declared illegal by the High Court in May because Mr Port’s officers had drawn up a warrant incorrectly and taken away legally privileged material.

Mr Port took legal advice about how he could avoid complying with the court order.

But on Monday night, just hours before the chief constable was due in court to answer the contempt allegation, the computer material was delivered to the offices of Mr Bates’s solicitor.

Mr Bates’s lawyers, who are to seek compensation for the illegal search of his home, said the hard copy images were contained in legal case files which were stored in his garage. They said some of the material had originally been given to him by police and prosecution authorities and dated back 10 years.

Lord Justice Stanley Burnton said Mr Bates had held all the material “in a professional capacity” and that that Mr Port’s delayed compliance with a court order was “regrettable”.

The judge added: “The conduct of the chief constable since the order was made has been of concern to us”.

Mr Bates, 68, is regarded as a pioneer of forensic computer examination and was widely used as a prosecution and defence expert witness for many years. But the Crown Prosecution Service stopped using him and in 2006 issued confidential guidance concerning him to prosecutors.

Avon & Somerset police began a fresh investigation into him last September after he was given by police a copy of the hard drive of a man charged with possessing child abuse images on computer. Mr Bates was given the material at a Bristol police station when he arrived in the capacity of assistant to another expert witness.

Police later raided his Leicestershire home and he was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to possess indecent images of children. That investigation has now been dropped.

Mr Bates has long contended that the actions against him are an attempt to discredit him because he now acts as a defence expert and is an outspoken critic of police investigations.

He is particularly critical of the conduct of Operation Ore, a nationwide inquiry into online child abuse which led to thousands of arrests, convictions and cautions.

Police searches “almost certainly” illegal

White people are being unjustifiably stopped and searched to provide racial balance in police statistics, the antiterrorism watchdog said yesterday.

Lord Carlile of Berriew, QC, described the searches in his annual report on the operation of counterterrorism legislation as “almost certainly” illegal. He said that he knew of cases where people were stopped by officers even though they did not fit any known terrorist profile.

He accused the police of wasting time and money by carrying out “self-evidently unmerited searches”, which were also an invasion of civil liberties. The searches, for example, of blonde women who fit no terrorist profile came against a backdrop of complaints from rights groups that the number of black and Muslim people being stopped and searched by police was disproportionate.

Lord Carlile said that police were stopping white people unjustifiably so that official figures would make it look as if they were not singling out black and Asian people under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. “No police officer has admitted that to me, but I believe that is the case”

Under Section 44, police can stop and search anyone in a designated area without suspicion that an offence has occurred. Last year the number of white people searched rose from 29,900 to 73,000, blacks from 3,600 to 15,200 and Asians from 5,500 to 20,700. Although whites made up the biggest number, in terms of population, blacks and Asians were more likely to be stopped.

Lord Carlile wrote in his report: “I have evidence of cases where the person stopped is so obviously far from any known terrorism profile that, realistically, there is not the slightest possibility of him/her being a terrorist, and no other feature to justify the stop.

“In one situation the basis of the stops was numerical only, which is almost certainly unlawful and in no way an intelligent use of the procedure.”

Lord Carlile said: “I believe it is totally wrong for any person to be stopped in order to produce a racial balance in the Section 44 statistics. There is ample anecdotal evidence this is happening. I can well understand the concerns of the police that they should be free from allegations of prejudice, but it is not a good use of precious resources if they waste them on self-evidently unmerited searches.”

A racial imbalance in the numbers of people stopped because they fitted a terrorism profile was fine, he said, “as long as it is not racist”.
Nearly 90 per cent of the searches were carried out by the Metropolitan Police, whose officers use Section 44 to carry out stop and search between 8,000 and 10,000 times a month.

Former Police officer jailed for sex abuse

A former Strathclyde police officer who claimed he was a "Black Magic" high priest has been convicted of sexually abusing three children in East Dunbartonshire.

John McFadden, 42, from Bearsden, was found guilty of abusing a boy between 1988 and 1992 in Kirkintilloch.

He was also convicted of abusing two other youngsters at various addresses in Kirkintilloch between 1983 and 1990.

The court heard how McFadden told one of his victims, a 12-year-old boy, that demons and spirits would kill him and drag him to hell unless he carried out sex acts.

He dressed in a black cloak and used a crucifix with a skull and crossbones and an onyx ring, which he claimed gave him power, to terrify the youngster into keeping the abuse a secret.

The victim, who is now 32, told the court that McFadden abused him almost every day for four years using threats to keep him silent.

The victim said: "He started to get us into this Black Magic. He described himself as a high priest with this Black Magic circle.

"He said he could have out of body experiences and could talk to demons and spirits.

"One day he said he was going to initiate me into the circle and this became the main driver for my silence.

"He had a cast iron bowl and he pricked my finger and put some blood in it, then he took some of my hair and said that he had to have some of my semen and then it all had to be burned."

The abuse came to an end when the man joined the Royal Marines and moved away.

The court was also told that another man came forward in 1999 to complain that he had been indecently assaulted by McFadden, at the age of seven.

McFadden resigned from the police that year but was not convicted at that time.

He was finally charged years later after two others came forward to report similar incidents.

When police searched McFadden's home they found a devil mask and two wands alongside sex toys and lubricants.

He tried to claim that his victims were making up the abuse but a jury declined to believe him.

Police Officer jailed after lying about having cancer

A police officer was jailed for a year after lying to his wife, children, and work colleagues about having cancer.

Michael Matts, 34, was described as a 'conniving cheat' for telling his relatives, colleagues and friends that he was undergoing radiotherapy.

Matts was ferried to hospital by sympathetic colleagues for radiotherapy while senior officers were only too happy place him on less strenuous duties and sign him off for long periods.

He also took time off for depression while working at the serious and dangerous offenders unit in Leicester.

While his now-former wife Emma, 30, brought forward their wedding day because she was convinced Matts might die, concerned friends and workmates took the time to drive him to hospital for 'treatment'.

But Leicester Crown Court heard there was nothing wrong with the father-of-two, who secretly busied himself during his extended period of 'sick leave' by setting up a bicycle shop.

He was jailed for one year for a series of frauds.

Matts admitted obtaining financial benefit by receiving police pay when falsely claiming he was unfit to work with cancer, between July 2004 and January 2005.

He also admitted fraud between March 2007 and 2008 by falsely telling Leicestershire Police he was absent due to illness.

When he joined the force in 2001, he told colleagues that seven times Tour de France winner, and testicular cancer battler, Lance Armstrong was his inspiration.

He then promised £900,000 to sponsor a Belgian cycle team while posing as a wealthy businessman. The bogus pledge left a Belgian sports management firm with a crippling £485,000 bill and a £64,000 lawsuit.

Matts also admitted fraudulently making an Alliance and Leicester guarantee and dishonestly using it in relation to the bogus sponsorship deal.

A customer at his shop who paid £2,100 for a bicycle he never received was also fobbed off with lies, the court was told.

John Heighton, the father of Matts' former wife Emma, said the officer's actions were despicable and slammed the judicial system for giving him such a short prison sentence.

Speaking from his home in Wigston, Leicester, the 78-year-old said: 'My daughter came home last year to find police swarming the house - she thought Michael had died.

'They didn't tell her much at the time and Michael continued to spin her lies. She thought he was a good person.

'Not only did he manage to dupe my daughter, but he managed to fool the police too.

'Its unbelievable what he has done, my daughter is absolutely devastated.

'He should have got at least three years for what he's done.

'Even when they got married he was saying he was ill because of his cancer treatment, the amount of lies he has told have been harrowing.

'It has just felt like the lies are never ending and this will stay with my daughter and her children for the rest of their lives.'

A spokesperson from Leicestershire Police, said: 'It is the role of the police service and of every man and woman who serves as a police officer, to uphold the law.

'This individual has let down both his former colleagues and the community that he had served by being involved in criminal activity.'

Man fined for littering after accidentally dropping £10 note

A man who accidentally dropped a £10 note in an Ayr street was given a £50 fine for littering.

Stewart Smith says he was at first grateful when police pointed to his dropped tenner in Newmarket Street.

And he thanked them for pointing it out to him.

But the 36-year-old, living on benefits, says that the cops then handed him the fixed-penalty fine.

Mr Smith said: “I’m living on £98 a fortnight at the moment, so £50 is a week’s living expenses for me.”

Mr Smith says he had just bought a £3 T-shirt in a charity shop, paid for with a £20 note given to him by his mum.

He said: “I came out the Capability Scotland shop with my T-shirt under my arm.

“I put £7 into my front pocket, as I was going to buy some juice.

“I thought I was putting a £10 note and the receipt in my back pocket.

“But I’ve missed my pocket, and the £10 note – along with the receipt – had fallen on to the street.”

Mr Smith insisted: “I made an honest mistake.”

The ticket gives him 14 days to pay up to South Ayrshire Council.

But he has already consulted a lawyer to see if he can fight what he sees as an unjust fine.

Formerly of Kincaidston, Mr Smith now lives in a flat in Dalrymple.

He worked at the Bed Shed warehouse at Skeldon, before arthritis in his hands forced him to leave at the end of last year.

He said: “I really thought the police were trying to be helpful, but maybe I just have the kind of face they don’t like.”

He insists he didn’t swear at the police or deliberately litter.

Inspector John Cairns of Ayr police office said: “I can confirm a male was issued with a fixed-penalty notice for an alleged act of littering on the day in question.”

G20 police officer under investigation for alleged second assault

A Metropolitan police sergeant who was filmed assaulting a female protester at the G20 protests is under investigation for allegedly assaulting a second woman.

The sergeant, a member of the Met's specialist Territorial Support Group (TSG), was suspended from duty two months ago after footage emerged of him assaulting the protester Nicola Fisher with the back of his arm.

The film also showed him striking Fisher, 35, from Brighton, on the legs with a baton while she attended a memorial vigil for the newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson on April 1, leaving her with severe bruising.

The sergeant is still under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) over the Fisher attack and could face charges.

Today it emerged he is also under investigation by the IPCC over a second assault, against Katie Surridge, a 24-year-old student who he is alleged to have confronted in an alley off Bishopsgate, and thrown to the ground.

It is understood the IPCC only recently launched the second investigation, after establishing the allegation involved the same sergeant as the Fisher case.

Surridge, from London, has previously described an incident, in which she was shoved to the ground at the Climate Camp demonstration, as "totally unprovoked". The incident took place around 10pm on 1 April, just hours after riot police charged at the mainly peaceful demonstration.

Police have already been criticised for their actions after footage showed officers charging protesters, who resisted peacefully by holding their arms in the air and chanting "This is not a riot".

Rob Faure-Walker, 27, a teacher who witnessed the alleged assault and has given evidence to the IPCC.

"He just burst through the police cordon, pushing a couple of police out of the way," Faure-Walker said. "He picked [Surridge] up off her feet and threw her to the ground. It is my opinion that she was lucky not to have been more seriously injured than she was.

"She had her back to him at the time, and was talking to someone else, when it happened. I've no idea why he did it. Even other police officers looked shocked at what happened."

Faure-Walker demanded the officer's badge number, which was attached to his shoulder. "He walked around looking agitated for the next few minutes before I lost sight of him."

Separately, a journalist demanded the officer's number after noting what he saw as the aggressive treatment of demonstrators around the same time.

By the following day, when he was filmed striking Fisher, the sergeant's badge number was concealed. Faure-Walker said he recognised the sergeant as the officer who had thrown Surridge to the floor when he saw footage of the attack on Fisher broadcast on the news.

Three independent IPCC investigations are continuing into Met officers alleged to have assaulted women at the G20 protests. The IPCC would not disclose whether the latest assault investigation involved the sergeant filmed attacking Fisher. However, a spokesperson said: "The officer in question is subject to another complaint which is being independently investigated by the IPCC."

The IPCC has received more than 270 complaints about the actions of officers at the G20 protests. More than 50 relate to allegations of "excessive force with reported injuries". More than 75 G20 complaints to the IPCC related to police tactics.

Give the police your DNA or face investigation

Residents of Walthamstow have been given a choice by police : Surrender your DNA to us, or face an investigation.

Police have decreed that residents of nearly 10,000 homes in Walthamstow will have to submit their DNA to the police, or they will be investigated by the police in connection with several murders.

Murder squad detectives have been drafted in from all over London to help complete the canvassing of houses within a 3.4 mile-wide perimeter in Walthamstow, East London.

Police have said that residents who do not surrender their DNA will face further investigation.

Police have not said for how long the samples will be stored, or for what purposes they may be used.