21 February (Part 2) - Bad day for Craske
Yesterday’s News Shopper carried two letters from Bexley residents debunking
councillor Peter Craske’s nonsense about the
Thames crossing situation which the newspaper published two weeks earlier.
A third letter from Bexley Labour leader councillor Chris Ball countered Craske’s political
lies. The letter writers reminded us that ferries are affected by poor visibility but no one
mentioned that they haven’t ever operated through the night. I wasn’t back from Newham yesterday particularly
late but the Woolwich ferry was already shut. Does it ever run after 8 p.m?
It wasn’t a good day for Craske on the obscene blogging front either because the
fact it was traced to councillor Peter Craske’s phone line is refusing to go away.
Contrary to expectations the Crown Prosecution Service doesn’t as yet seem to be
too keen on covering up police - polite version - incompetence. Ten days ago
it was reported here
that the CPS had told Elwyn Bryant that in their view Peter Craske should have been
charged and had offered to confirm the statement in writing.
By the time that fact was posted here it was two weeks old because I
would have preferred to see the letter of confirmation first, but it never
arrived. What wasn’t clear was at what stage of the police’s on-off
investigation the CPS had offered their charging advice or opinion.
In the absence of the promised letter Elwyn wrote to complain at a higher level within the CPS and
two days ago he was rewarded with a reply. Two actually.
First he received the letter he should have had at the beginning of the month - it had spent 16
days in the first class post from Croydon - and an email from the more senior manager.
Some aspects of that email may be reasonably described as staggering and maybe I should
await further developments before going live with them. The contents of the long delayed
letter were low key by comparison but nevertheless provide new insights into
police mischief.
A short history lesson is in order. My MP, Teresa Pearce, Elwyn Bryant and I met Chief
Superintendent Dave Stringer and his Acting Deputy Tony Gowen on 10th February
2012. They told us their investigation was progressing well and they expected to
soon send a case file to the CPS. A month later (15th March) Stringer announced
to Ms. Pearce that the file was with the CPS. On the evening of 21st March 2012 Acting
Superintendent Gowen confirmed the same to me when
I briefly spoke to him
outside the Civic Centre. He expected it to be returned within a week or ten days.
The CPS letter gives no confirmation of that. It says that they considered the case on
the 15th of February - five days after the meeting with Dave Stringer - and they
rejected it straight away. The opportunity to prosecute for the low grade
offence proposed had expired six months after the crime was committed.
You would think a policeman of Stringer’s rank would have known that his case
papers were worthless after November 2011. One would have hoped that he would
tell the MP the whole story rather than choose to mislead her.
Apparently the CPS advised that Craske should be charged with another crime.
Whether that was for an entirely different criminal offence or just a new label
for the original crime is left vague.
On 12th January this year Detective Chief Inspector Gary Holmes of Bexley police decided that he had
insufficient evidence to send the Craske file to the CPS again. I was advised of
that by telephone the very same day and DCI Holmes confirmed it during
a brief encounter
at the Civic Centre. The CPS however doesn’t agree. They have said “the investigation of the police is
incomplete and [we] have set out an action plan for them to follow”. That, the CPS
confirms, was done since Elwyn raised the issue with them. i.e. in
the past two or three weeks. The police however claim their investigation is
at an end - and they wonder why I decided to eventually make a conspiracy
to pervert the course of justice allegation against the lot of them. But events
keep overtaking me.
There is more but that will do for today. A bad day for Craske? You bet. But not
good for Olisa and co. either.
Timeline updated.