Why no arrests after my flat door was kicked in?

10:30am Saturday 2nd March 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By James Connell

ANGRY WITH POLICE: Peter Carruthers, right, and Pete Jordan outside their flats in Broad Street, Worcester. Both men were awoken last Saturday by a gang of youths trying to gain entry. ANGRY WITH POLICE: Peter Carruthers, right, and Pete Jordan outside their flats in Broad Street, Worcester. Both men were awoken last Saturday by a gang of youths trying to gain entry.

A FRIGHTENED man says a gang of youths who tried to kick his door down in the middle of the night should have been arrested.

Officers spoke to the suspects and the 60-year old victim has supplied CCTV evidence, but police have yet to make an arrest following the incident at flats in Broad Street, Worcester, in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Peter Carruthers was woken by knocking on his door and then heard loud bangs so called 999 at around 4.05am or shortly afterwards.

Six police officers attended and spoke to two men aged between 18 and 25, although Mr Carruthers says three are visible on the CCTV.

He said police told him the men had admitted knocking on his door but said they were “confused” and were looking for someone called George.

Mr Carruthers later viewed CCTV of the incident, since handed to police, which he says shows them trying to gain entry to his neighbour’s flat before his own.

He said: “All of a sudden the middle youth literally tries to kick in my door using his heavy-duty boots. This happens not once but twice.” Mr Carruthers believes arrests should have been made for breach of the peace, drunk and disorderly behaviour and for attempting to break in to his flat.

He said: “It seems to me like the police couldn’t be bothered to do anything about it.

“I’m now worried about who is going to smash my door in.

“We want to find out who these three idiots are.

“I was petrified that door was going to be pushed in. I could have been mugged, knifed or smashed up.

“I’m angry. I want to know what’s going on. The police have done absolutely nothing and we (himself and his neighbours) want to know why.”

A spokesman for West Mercia Police confirmed officers attended the address at 4.15am on February 23, following a report of someone trying to break into the property.

She said: “On arrival, officers located two men whose details were taken and inquiries were carried out.

“It was established that the men were trying to get into the property in order to speak to someone they knew, but had gone to the wrong address.

“There was no evidence to suggest that they had gone to the address with the intention to carry out a burglary or any other offence once inside the property. No damage was caused at the address.

“However, we have now been handed CCTV footage from the night, which we are currently investigating to see if there are any antisocial behaviour or other offences arising from the incident.”

Comments(18)

gmoore1207 says...
11:03am Sat 2 Mar 13

typical police will do nothing the cant find murderes what do you expect

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square1 says...
11:43am Sat 2 Mar 13

They found the ones that done locke over didn't they oh and heath.

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Mr A Mazing says...
12:41pm Sat 2 Mar 13

Nice 'arms-folded-miserab
le-look' faces again for the WN pic.

What a ridiculous comment gmoore1207, murders are the one area where police excel; there are very few unsolved murders.

It really is a no win job; in this instance there is little point making an arrest because 2 persons who were knocking on the door have given an account as to their actions. Arresting them so they can say the same thing in interview and walk out the door in the morning is a waste of police time and the officers probably knew that.

I have sympathy for the flat owner, but did these idiots come back after the police had left? If they are just drunken fools he is unlikely to be targetted again, and if the police do now discover some offences have occured then they have details so they can revisit them and deal with it if so required.

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Piccolo says...
1:35pm Sat 2 Mar 13

Is anyone else having trouble understanding what on earth gmoore1207 & Square1 are on about?

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spider666 says...
4:09pm Sat 2 Mar 13

Piccolo wrote:
Is anyone else having trouble understanding what on earth gmoore1207 & Square1 are on about?
Square1 was just telling gmoore1207 that police have charged people with the murders of Mr Locke and Mr Heath,both murdered in Worcester.

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M@lvernite says...
6:15pm Sat 2 Mar 13

Mr A Mazing wrote:
Nice 'arms-folded-miserab

le-look' faces again for the WN pic.

What a ridiculous comment gmoore1207, murders are the one area where police excel; there are very few unsolved murders.

It really is a no win job; in this instance there is little point making an arrest because 2 persons who were knocking on the door have given an account as to their actions. Arresting them so they can say the same thing in interview and walk out the door in the morning is a waste of police time and the officers probably knew that.

I have sympathy for the flat owner, but did these idiots come back after the police had left? If they are just drunken fools he is unlikely to be targetted again, and if the police do now discover some offences have occured then they have details so they can revisit them and deal with it if so required.
Not really a "waste of time" - it would send out the message that if you go around kicking people's doors in the middle of the night you get locked up for the night. Instead the police chose to send out the message that it's perfectly acceptable behaviour provided you can talk your way out of it.

In what way is it a 'defence' to say you had the wrong address, anyway? I would have thought the best thing to do would be to have stopped these three from going round to George's house and kicking his door in to 'have a word with him' instead of sending them off on their way to do exactly that.

This sounds like some kind of comedy sketch -
"Right, you're under arrest for breaking into this wine bar."
"Wine bar? But I thought it was a bank..."
"Oh OK then, you be on your way."

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lizzyloolah says...
7:10pm Sat 2 Mar 13

The headline says '.....my flat door was kicked in', the first line of the report says '...tried to kick his door down'.

Make your mind up!!

Maybe that is why the police did nothing.

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MUFC83 says...
7:38pm Sat 2 Mar 13

Why is it that people want the Police to arrest people for anything? The Police deal with situations as they see them, yet again WN confusing story, it seems like the door was just being knocked rather than kicked in, make up your mind!! Since when was it a criminal offence to knock a door?

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Mr A Mazing says...
7:49pm Sat 2 Mar 13

M@lvernite, I understand what you are saying. But believe me, the reality is unless the police can disprove what you are saying things are heavily weighted on the side of the criminal.

Arresting those suspects would likely have taken several officers off thee streets for the rest of the night; those officers could have spent the best part of their shift 'booking them in' and preparing paperwork.

We have no idea what the suspects and the officers said to each other; how about the police are given some credit; they attended promptly and nobody got their door kicked in as far as I can tell.

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M@lvernite says...
8:53pm Sat 2 Mar 13

Do you not think it sounds somewhat suspicious though?

I would be interested to know what they wanted to "talk to" this George about, why there were three of them, why the occupant of the house thought they were trying to kick the door down with "heavy-duty boots" rather than simply knocking on it, and why it was so important they couldn't have waited until a reasonable hour.

The police seem too keen to accept the guilty party's played down version of events - "we only wanted to talk to him", "we were only knocking on the door", "I was just trying to find out what was going on", "It was only a tap"...

It's a sad state of affairs when a group of people who had potentially gone to someone's house in the middle of the night to kick his door in and beat him up aren't arrested because the police want to avoid doing a bit of paperwork.

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lizzyloolah says...
10:45pm Sat 2 Mar 13

I dont think its a case of the police not wanting to do anything, I think possibly that there hands are tied as on paper all that happened is that some plonkers banged very loudly on a couple of doors at stupid o'clock in the morning. Unless Mr Carruthers has suspicions that someone in particular has it in for him, I doubt that anyone would randomly knock on doors in the hope that someone might answer one so that they could bash their head in.

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lizzyloolah says...
5:25pm Sun 3 Mar 13

Speculation, Pronstar?
My post clearly suggests mistaken identity due to the name! That report was written in 2010 so the Mr Jordan they refer to is obviously not going to be 28 now is he?

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lizzyloolah says...
5:34pm Sun 3 Mar 13

I have no idea Pinkfluff, but you can see the predicament that this would put Mr Carruthers neighbour in if someone put two and two together and came up with a nasty revenge plot against an innocent man, who would be about the same age as the offender who quite obviously couldn't move back to his pre prison address for fear of reprisals. I think the police should be making arrests and soon!

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Worcester Lad says...
5:51pm Sun 3 Mar 13

Worcester News.Some of these comments are speculative and should possibly be removed as some idiot will put 2 and 2 together and make 3.Please vet comments.

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M@lvernite says...
6:05pm Sun 3 Mar 13

lizzyloolah wrote:
I dont think its a case of the police not wanting to do anything, I think possibly that there hands are tied as on paper all that happened is that some plonkers banged very loudly on a couple of doors at stupid o'clock in the morning. Unless Mr Carruthers has suspicions that someone in particular has it in for him, I doubt that anyone would randomly knock on doors in the hope that someone might answer one so that they could bash their head in.
I think there was more to it than "some plonkers banging very loudly on a couple of doors at stupid o'clock in the morning", but that's what the police seem to have written it off as - the 3 youths said they were looking for this 'George' guy and wanted to 'speak to him' which to me means something more than going round for a topical debate on current affairs.

You bring out the tired old cliche about the police having their hands tied, but I'm sure some summary justice could have been dispensed by taking these three down to the police station to sober up before questioning them, even if they were later released without charge to walk home. I don't see why it should take all six of the constables who attended just to 'book them in' and 'prepare paperwork'.
Yes some constables would have been "taken off the streets" but if they're not going to arrest any bad guys there's not much point having them on the streets in the first place.

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pronstar says...
6:13pm Sun 3 Mar 13

lizzyloolah wrote:
Speculation, Pronstar?
My post clearly suggests mistaken identity due to the name! That report was written in 2010 so the Mr Jordan they refer to is obviously not going to be 28 now is he?
Are you simple or something? I was replying to pinkfluff who was wondering whether the person in this story was the same one in yours about the pervert, when clearly they are very different people both by age and location.

I really think your original post with a non-related story is very dumb.

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lizzyloolah says...
6:23pm Sun 3 Mar 13

I'm far from simple, Pronstar. And neither do I think my post was dumb. Infact I think it was pretty dumb of the police not to investigate further. I also dont think that if this chap was the same one as in the report he would be dumb enough to be photographed for the local paper. As it was Mr Carruthers who made the complaint maybe the police couldnt be bothered to investigate that little bit further and take the men into custody for questioning. The story isnt mine. It is a WN story about a crime that was detected in June 2009 and came to court in October 2010. Quite clearly you are the simple one who cannot see how mistaken identity could be behind the incident given the name and the time scale.

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DarrenM says...
6:07pm Mon 4 Mar 13

it took six police officers to say to a pair of drunks:

"ello ello ello what's going on ere then?" and for them to reply "we're trying to get hold of our friend - oh fiddlesticks were knocking on the wrong door" or words to that effect.

Plus the 14 police officers to arrest the road rage man in malvern last month.

It seems these cuts are a good thing as they appear to be ridiculously overmanned

(or overpersoned as no doubt the police have to say now)

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