Tuesday - November 18, 2008

FATHER ARRESTED ON WORD OF WITNESS DEEMED “NOT FIT” TO MAKE STATEMENT. HUH?

And according to the keystone kops, the witless witness wasn’t in any condition to what ?  Not “fit to make a statement that night?”

I’m all for nailing adults who abuse kids to the wall and leave em there as a warning to others but this case is ridiculous. Or so it seems here anyway.

It this a case of guilty till proved otherwise? 

Father locked up in cell for smacking son
A father was arrested and locked in a police cell overnight for smacking his son’s bottom.

By Richard Savill
Last Updated: 12:48PM GMT 18 Nov 2008

Mark Frearson, a co-director of a parcel company, said he told off his son Harry because the seven-year-old walked away from him alone after dark while they were shopping together at a local store.

Mr Frearson, 47, found him in a nearby park 10 minutes later. “I called him to me and smacked his bottom for leaving me, telling him never to do it again,” he said.

But a witness called police and, three hours later, four officers and a specialist child support officer arrived at his house.

They told him that a child had been assaulted, and Mr Frearson replied that he had smacked his son once on the bottom.

“They asked my son what had happened and he said ‘Dad smacked me for being outside the shop’. The police then examined my son for any marks and there were none.”

The officers took Harry in a police car to his mother’s home. They arrested Mr Frearson on suspicion of assault, and took him to the police station.

“I was horrified and bewildered at the course of action being taken on some stranger’s action,” he said.

After about an hour, he claimed, officers told him they could not carry out an interview as the witness “was not fit to make a statement that night”.

Mr Frearson spent the night in a “freezing” cell with two blankets and was released the next day at 10am.

He said: “The first words said to me were ‘The witness has changed his statement’. The ‘witness’ had originally alleged I was kicking my son to the floor.

“I can understand the concerns of the police but they seemed far too ready to presume me guilty and then cause distress to my son by taking him from me.

“My ex-wife (the boy’s mother) told them the allegation was ridiculous but they proceeded regardless with what I considered their over-the-top reaction.”

Mr Frearson has made a formal complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

He said the police reaction was “massively over-the-top” and the experience was traumatic for his son.

Mr Frearson, from Plymouth, in Devon, said: “I find it shocking how easy it is to have someone arrested. To think that all this happened on the back of one allegation. I want an apology.

“I am still angered and bewildered at the events of that night. Why was I not allowed to stay in my own home until statements could be made in the morning? It seemed a knee jerk reaction.”

Mr Frearson said he wanted to know what state the witness was in, if he was unable to make a statement that night. “Whether he was drunk or drugged, I don’t know. Why has he not been arrested for wasting police time, and mine, come to that?”

Mr Frearson said the incident happened at about 6pm on October 28, while Harry, who lives with his mother, Kate, 33, from whom Mr Frearson is divorced, was staying with him during half term.

He said: “I can hardly ever remember smacking my children. I have two older children. I don’t smack a child to hurt them, but to show they have done wrong. There is a difference between smacking and hitting.”

Devon and Cornwall police said it could not comment as a formal complaint had been made.

http://tinyurl.com/6fvb39

Posted by peiper     on 11/18/2008 at 12:12 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Daily Life • Miscellaneous • UK •  
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