Arrested for Honesty
An honest student was arrested for the theft of a mobile phone he was handing in at a police station.
A-level student Paul Leceister, 18, was celebrating his birthday when he saw the handset lying on the pavement. He picked up the phone and called the last dialled number to inform the owner's friend that he would be handing it in to the police.
Paul was arrested for "theft by finding" and was fingerprinted, DNA sampled and locked in the cells for four hours before his release.
He told the Sunday Express: "I thought I was doing the right thing and had it thrown back in my face. I wouldn't go to the police in future. All I was doing was the honest thing. It was a shocking experience."
Paul's father Vinnie is understandably outraged by his son's arrest, telling the newspaper: "It should never have happened. Paul's mum and I brought him up the right way. They should give him an apology."
Chief Superintendent Ian Pilling of Merseyside Police said: "We are reviewing the circumstances of the arrest."
It has been a really bad week for the police with one of them convicted of killing a schoolgirl with his woeful driving skills and another being investigated for his part in the death of an innocent man at the G20 protests.
It's unfortunate that these police-critical stories have all come along at once, because some of you will be under the mistaken impression that I'm on some sort of anti-police crusade. I'm not. I do however believe that the law applies to everyone and should not be exploited by virtue of public office.
A-level student Paul Leceister, 18, was celebrating his birthday when he saw the handset lying on the pavement. He picked up the phone and called the last dialled number to inform the owner's friend that he would be handing it in to the police.
Paul was arrested for "theft by finding" and was fingerprinted, DNA sampled and locked in the cells for four hours before his release.
He told the Sunday Express: "I thought I was doing the right thing and had it thrown back in my face. I wouldn't go to the police in future. All I was doing was the honest thing. It was a shocking experience."
Paul's father Vinnie is understandably outraged by his son's arrest, telling the newspaper: "It should never have happened. Paul's mum and I brought him up the right way. They should give him an apology."
Chief Superintendent Ian Pilling of Merseyside Police said: "We are reviewing the circumstances of the arrest."
It has been a really bad week for the police with one of them convicted of killing a schoolgirl with his woeful driving skills and another being investigated for his part in the death of an innocent man at the G20 protests.
It's unfortunate that these police-critical stories have all come along at once, because some of you will be under the mistaken impression that I'm on some sort of anti-police crusade. I'm not. I do however believe that the law applies to everyone and should not be exploited by virtue of public office.
1 comments:
shame on the police.
he's already act such a good citizen to return the cellphone.
maybe it's a misunderstanding (i'm sure this got to be a misundesrtanding!), however, is it that hard to say "it's our mistake. we apologize for the inconvenience. bla bla bla"???
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