Saturday - March 28, 2009

Left free to attack 71 women, number may reach 100 while another case as high as 200.

I have another reason for posting these crime stories beside the fact of awful blunders by what I now call The Keystone Kops.
I have always had this respect and you might even say a certain amount of awe, for people doing such an impossible job.  Not one I would ever want and if I did I wouldn’t have made the grade. 
Maybe it also stems from having kin (uncles) who were firemen and police.  But that was so long ago. That was in an age when calling a cop a name was NOT the accepted thing and could earn you a sharp clout.  And it would be deserved too.

But that was then and this crap is now.  More paperwork then ever before and criminals with more rights (it always seems) then the victimized public.
And blunders like this but it’s okay because the police said, “whoops, sorry.” Sorry.  Always sorry.  I have read that and heard that so often now that it’s lost all meaning.  It’s just something people are programed to say.  “Sorry.”
Now having said that, it still is not the entire reason for this posting.

Kirk Reid: serial sex predator left free to attack 71 woman after catalogue of blunders

Serial sex attacker

Kirk Reid preyed on at least 71 women in a prolonged campaign of terror after police blunders meant he remained a free man years after being named a suspect.

By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent and Caroline Gammell
Last Updated: 9:25AM GMT 27 Mar 2009

Reid roamed the streets of south London late at night for 12 years, hunting down and pouncing on single women as they made their way home.
Scotland Yard was forced into making a rare apology for its failings as the case was passed to the Independent Police Complaints Commission - the second of its kind to be referred in two weeks.

Detectives had Reid’s DNA profile on file from 2001 and were soon given the make and registration of his car, linked to an assault.
But despite being alerted to the 44-year-old football referee three times, officers failed to piece the clues together for four years - meaning that dozens of women were attacked because of their inaction.

One long-serving Met police officer said: “These are impermissible failings. There is a lot of soul searching as we ask ourselves why and how this could have happened.”

In January 2008, the case files were finally passed to a Scotland Yard murder detective, who solved in three days the investigation that had faltered for eight years in the hands of a local rape unit in south London.

Police now fear Reid, a chef and referee in local Wandsworth leagues for children, women and men, could have attacked hundreds of women who have yet to come forward.
He now faces a lengthy prison sentence after being found guilty at Kingston Crown Court of
sexually attacking 25 women since 1995, two of whom he raped.

Timeline of missed opportunities
Here is a timeline of the missed opportunities to catch serial sex attacker Kirk Reid.

Aug 2000 - Sept 2002: Police are put on alert over a serial sex attacker after linking 26 assaults on women in the borough of Wandsworth, south west London.
Nov 2002: DNA recovered from two of the attacks is linked to give a profile of the suspect.

Dec 2002: Kirk Reid is stopped by a police officer after following a woman in the street. He is let go and not formally questioned. The police officer records that no crime was committed but submits an intelligence report on Reid.

Jan 2004: A member of the public gave police Reid’s car and licence plate details after claiming to have witnessed a sex attack in central London but the report was not followed up.

Feb 2004: Reid was stopped in the same car tooting at a woman. He became an official suspect in the sex attacks but no further action was taken to interview him or take a DNA swab.
2004-2008: Reid attacks at least 20 further women, taking the total amount to more than 70.

OH WE’RE NOT DONE YET ...CHECK THIS OUT.
Another Keystone Cops Case and more blunders.

btw, Black Cab here is a taxi.  Used to be (might still. ?) the very top in cab service and the men who drove them took tests and in fact there were special courses.  Especially those driving in London.  A driver had to prove he really knew the city.  Wasn’t simply a matter in years past of just “getting a license.” I don’t know about now.  And the cabs themselves are really kind of special.  Not just an ordinary car with a meter. Very roomy and comfortable. And VERY clean.

Scotland Yard’s failure to catch serial sex attacker Kirk Reid until four years after he was identified as a suspect is one of a number of bungled investigations by police.

By Caroline Gammell
Last Updated: 7:03AM GMT 27 Mar 2009

Just two weeks ago, it emerged that police had arrested and released black cab rapist John Worboys seven months before he was finally caught in February 2008. He was arrested in July 2007 after he had driven a 19-year-old student back to Greenwich University and attacked her.
Even though the police had a statement from the victim and CCTV footage placing Worboys at the scene, officers decided not to proceed with the case.

He went on to attack at least another seven women and it is feared he could have targeted as many as 40 women during that period. In total he is believed to have attacked more tham 200 women.

Like Reid, the Worboys case was referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission to see what lessons could be learned.
Earlier this month, 22-year-old Karl Bishop was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of the Harry Potter actor Rob Knox.

It transpired that unemployed Bishop had a history of violent conduct stretching back to primary school and was known by police as a “habitual knife carrier”.
He served two years of a four-year sentence for slashing two men across the face with a knife and murdered Rob nine months after his release.

Two months before the killing, Knox was named as the suspect in a burglary and a knifepoint robbery but never arrested. The investigation was still “live” when he killed Rob.

The dead boy’s father Colin Knox said: “They admit they made a mistake.”
Last December, the police were forced to apologise to Colin Stagg after they finally convicted the right man for the murder of Rachel Nickell who was killed in 1992 on Wimbledon Common.

A female police officer had posed as a sexual deviant who tried to get Mr Stagg to confess in a “honey-trap”, which he failed to do.
The case against him was later thrown out by the judge who condemned police tactics.

It emerged that Miss Nickell’s life might have been spared had police tracked down the real killer, paranoid schizophrenic Robert Napper, several years earlier.

In 1989, Napper’s mother phoned police to tell them her son had confessed to raping a woman on Plumstead Common, but police never spoke to him or took a blood sample.

He was questioned over a number of suspected rapes shortly after Miss Nickell’s murder but again did not provide a blood sample which could have solved the crime.

Police are to investigate MI5 over torture allegations

Posted by peiper     on 03/28/2009 at 03:45 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Government • Insanity • Outrageous • Stoopid-People • UK •  
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