Home Secretary calls for more transparency from police over suspects
Police should reveal more information about suspects, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said in response to allegations the authorities have tried to “cover up” alleged offences by asylum seekers.
She said guidance to police was already being examined but it was an “operational decision” for forces and the Crown Prosecution Service over what information to release.
The College of Policing said transparency is “essential to prevent misinformation”.
The issue has been the subject of fierce debate in a series of high-profile cases, including recently over the charging of two men – reported to be Afghan asylum seekers – over the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton.
The Home Secretary said “we do think more transparency is needed” in the information given by police.
She said: “We do think the guidance needs to change and we have also already, about six months ago, we asked the Law Commission to look at this and to accelerate their review around some of the contempt of court issues, that’s about what information can be released when there’s a trial pending.”
“Operational decision”
She referred to a case where Iranian nationals were charged with spying offences in May and the Crown Prosecution Service revealed three of them had arrived either on small boats or a lorry.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “It is an operational decision for the police and Crown Prosecution Service on an individual case, what and when information can be revealed in a live investigation.
“However, we do think that the guidance needs to change, the College of Policing is already looking at this, and Home Office officials are working with the College of Policing.”
A College of Policing spokesman said: “Media relations guidance for police is already under review and is looking at how forces can best balance their obligations under contempt of court legislation with their responsibility to prevent disorder.
“Police forces make challenging and complex decisions on a case-by-case basis and transparency is essential to prevent misinformation and reassure the public.”
False rumours
The Southport atrocity committed by Axel Rudakubana in July last year was also marked by a focus on the suspect’s ethnicity and immigration status – with false rumours spreading online that he was a Muslim asylum seeker, fuelling the riots seen in the aftermath of the stabbings.
The same force, Merseyside Police, were more transparent when a car drove into crowds during Liverpool FC’s Premier League victory parade, saying they had arrested a “white British man”.
Emily Spurrell, Merseyside’s Police and Crime Commissioner, told Today in Rudakubana’s case the situation was complicated because he was under 18 when he was arrested, which created “huge challenges” about what could be said.
She said: “I think the police will always aim to be as transparent as possible, but they are limited because of their need to protect the criminal justice process.”
She acknowledged that “we live in a very different world now” to when some of the guidance was first drafted as rumours could spread quickly online and there were some “bad actors who deliberately circulate false information to serve a particular agenda”.
The Nuneaton case has led to fresh pressure on police over the information they make public.
Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, was arrested on July 26 and charged the next day with rape, according to Warwickshire Police.
He appeared at Coventry Magistrates’ Court last Monday and has been remanded in custody.
Mohammad Kabir, 23, was arrested in Nuneaton on Thursday and charged with kidnap, strangulation and aiding and abetting rape of a girl under 13, the force added.
He appeared at Coventry Magistrates’ Court on Saturday and has been remanded in custody.
Warwickshire Police did not deny a Mail On Sunday report which said Mulakhil and Kabir are asylum seekers.
Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage and Warwickshire Council leader George Finch claimed there had been a “cover-up” in the case.
Mr Farage said it was a “cover-up that in many ways is reminiscent of what happened after the Southport killings last year”.
In a letter to the Home Secretary, Mr Finch claimed that a “cover-up” of immigration status “risks public disorder breaking out on the streets of Warwickshire”.
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Cobblers.
Fawning over racists.
Farage doesn’t bleat about white British crimes. Start this and people will less likley to be prosecuted. The other day the usual suspects were bleating about prison stats and foreign nationals but the same figures they used show that the vast majority of prisoners are British.
Farage wants a riot. He desperately wants a riot to make a big dent, lets keep to the law and not a bigoted leaders wish.
Don’t cave to the racists.
It’s amazing how he focuses on the small percentage of criminals in the small percentage of the population that are (for him, usually non-white) immigrants. The right wing don’t have any solutions, only scapegoats, some tiny group to target while they do something nefarious like pick your pocket or prevent press attention on something damaging, like an ongoing bromance with a convicted felon and suspected n***e. And people lap it up because blaming someone else is harder than fighting the people who can afford to fight back.
He never seems to propose change that would’ve stopped Sir Jimmy. But then again, doesn’t he believe Sir Jimmy is a working class hero.
I’m sure we have noticed this but here is the crystal clear confirmation. Labours’ plan to win the next election is to take every instruction from the de facto Prime Minister Nigel Farage.
i agree, Starmer is again pandering to racists. He is trying to steal Farage’s clothes, and in doing so is dragging the Labour party’s reputation down and abandoning their long-held principles.
Starmer seems to see political principles as transactional, to be changed to gain maximum support. This is why he is so reluctant to commit himself to any overall blueprint for the future.
Furthermore, if he was genuinely concerned about crime, he would not spend his time with convicted criminals (and racists) like Donald Trump, an adjudicated rapist.
Yvette always speaks with authority and passion. She is driven by passion and a razor sharp political mind.