Category Archives: Policing – Surrey

YOBS fought a pitched battle with police after gate-crashing a party that had been advertised on Facebook.

The plush property in Copthorne, West Sussex where trouble flared

Officers were pelted with bottles and missiles and several patrol cars were badly damaged as they tried to control a rowdy 200-strong crowd.

A woman officer was taken to hospital with hand injuries as chaotic scenes at The Linchens B&B in the village of Copthorne, West Sussex, (but lying on the Surrey border), spiralled out of control.

Frightened neighbours called police after scores of people began turning up at the £800,000 property on Saturday night.

The situation was deemed so serious that police dispatched a helicopter and dog handlers to the incident.

Three youths were arrested, including two 17-year-olds held for affray. A 19-year-old was detained for criminal damage after urinating in a police van.

Inspector Paul Grove of Surrey Police said: “Officers were called to the scene after a party got out of hand and more people than anticipated turned up.

“Uniformed response officers and the dog unit dispersed the crowd but were met with some opposition.

“Several missiles, believed to be mainly bottles, were thrown at those responding to the incident.

“Several police response cars were also damaged.”

Neighbours reported hearing “tremendously loud music” coming from the house before the street disturbances began.

Last night it was revealed The Linchens is run by Sally Smyth and Tony Little. The B&B offers upmarket accommodation along with transfers and parking for people heading to and from nearby Gatwick airport.

A young man who answered the door at the property yesterday refused to give his name, but revealed: “I was the host of the party.

“I posted the event on Facebook as a private invite, only I probably invited too many people. The people I invited then invited their friends and the chain effect took hold.”

The property is on the private Domewood Estate, an upmarket collection of large detached homes, most of which sit in gated compounds.

It has a summer house in the back garden, which is where most of the crowd gathered before skirmishes took place at the front.

‘The situation was deemed so serious that police dispatched a helicopter and dog handlers to the incident’

Yesterday teenagers claiming to have been at the wild party took to Twitter and boasted to friends about their experiences.

One girl said there had been, “like 30 police cars, 10 police dogs, a helicopter and CCTV everywhere”.

She added: “**** passing the history exam, last night was worth it.” Another added: “I’ve never seen so many police and riot vans. Well, that’s a riot ticked off my bucket list.”

Inspector Grove added: “This incident demonstrates the dangers which police officers face on a daily basis.

“A full investigation will now follow to find those responsible for the disturbance in a bid to bring them to justice.

“Surrey Police will not tolerate such violent behaviour against officers and members of the public and thankfully no one was seriously injured.”

The injured policewoman was taken to East Surrey Hospital in nearby Redhill for treatment to swollen and bruised hands.

It is understood she had been struck by a bottle.

Surrey Police battle thugs as 200 riot at party listed online

A crowd of more than 100,000 people will be on Epsom Downs to see some of the finest racehorses in the world round Tattenham Corner in this year’s Derby.

A supporter dressed in Votes for Women colours was at the unveiling of the plaque in April

The horses will thunder past a plaque commemorating the moment 100 years ago when suffragette Emily Wilding Davison ran on to the course and was knocked to the ground by King George V’s colt Anmer.

Davison died from her injuries four days later in Epsom Cottage Hospital, and the suffragettes quickly established her as a martyr for votes for women.

A stage-managed funeral procession in London attracted large numbers of spectators.

But what drove this middle-class woman to such a desperate act and how should she be remembered today?

Dr Alex Windscheffel, a historian at Royal Holloway, University of London in Egham, Surrey, believes she was heavily influenced by her time as a student there.

Davison was one of the first to join the college, then for women only, at the age of 19 in 1892.

She studied French, German and English Literature but had to pull out a year later after the death of her retired merchant father.

He left too little money to pay the £20 a term fees and Emily became a governess to fund her continuing studies, eventually completing her degree in 1908.
Emily Davison was one of the first students at Royal Holloway, joining in 1892

“It is pretty clear this is a very formative experience – she is very happy at Royal Holloway and very involved in student life,” said Dr Windscheffel.

“It shows that women need to be independent of men – that she needs to have a profession of her own.”

Although records from the time are sparse, Dr Windscheffel said it was believed Davison belonged to Royal Holloway’s active suffrage society and debating society.

Among her contemporaries at the college was Louisa Martindale whose mother, also Louisa, was a leading figure in the suffrage movement in Sussex.
The younger Louisa became a pioneering gynaecologist who helped to found a hospital for women in Brighton.

“Louisa Martindale is a very significant figure in female health issues in the 20th Century and her mother was a very senior figure in the female suffrage movement,” said Dr Windscheffel.

“It suggests that Emily Davison is moving in these circles and open to these influences.”

Later, as a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), Davison became a militant advocate of votes for women.

Her activities, including torching letterboxes, throwing stones and disrupting political meetings, led to her being jailed nine times and she was among suffragettes who were brutally force-fed in prison.

Davison’s intentions on 4 June, Derby Day 1913, remain unclear. No one knows whether she intended to kill herself for the cause or whether running on to the course was a publicity stunt.

Either way, the suffragettes wanted to establish her as a martyr, according to Dr Windscheffel.

“They are very keen on promoting Emily Wilding Davison as a highly educated, independent woman who has taken this action.

“It shows how desperate women have become for the vote and how cruel the State is in denying them.”

But Davison’s death confirmed many prejudices against granting women the vote and may have been counter-productive.

“There is not a lot of sympathy for her in the London press,” said Dr Windscheffel.

“It tends to confirm suspicions that women are emotional, hysterical and don’t think rationally.

“The Queen, for instance – her first thought was for the jockey and she refers to her (Davison) as a ‘horrid woman’.

“There’s not much sense of sisterhood there.”

With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the campaign for votes for women became less militant.

The Pankhursts, the leaders of the WSPU, supported the British government during the war, promoting war work done by women as a sign that they were patriotic and capable of active citizenship.

It was not until 1928 that women were eventually granted the vote on an equal basis with men.

But Emily Davison, the martyr for women’s suffrage, was not forgotten.

Dr Windscheffel said US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr mentioned her name as an example of those who had fought for equality.

Emily Davison was knocked to the ground at Tattenham Corner by the King’s horse

“Her name gets picked up again in the 1970s, in the second wave of feminism,” he said.

“People like Davison can be repackaged as those who lived life free from men and who put their cause before their personal safety.

“I think what we need to remember is the lengths which women 100 years ago were prepared to go to.

“I don’t think she intended to kill herself, but she was clearly aware of the dangers so her personal safety was secondary to the cause.

“Her legacy to women today is as a reminder of the strength of feeling – of the acts these Edwardian women were prepared to carry out so women could be treated as full citizens economically and politically.”

Emily Wilding Davison (1872 – 1913)

• 1895: Achieved a first-class honours in English at Oxford University, but could not graduate as degrees were closed to women
• 1906: Joined the WSPU
• 1909: Sentenced to a month’s hard labour for throwing rocks at the chancellor’s carriage
• 1911: Was found “hiding in the crypt in the Houses of Parliament” on the night of the census, so she could put House of Commons as her official residence
• 1912: Sentenced to six months in Holloway Prison for setting fire to a pillar box. While in prison she was force-fed after going on hunger strike

From the BBC

See also Epsom Derby death of a suffragette in pictures

Police force calls crooks ‘numpties’ and ‘Billy Burglar’ on Facebook when telling people about crimes they’ve tackled

• Surrey Police’s Tandridge Beat team jokes about villains on their webpageLight-hearted posts about local crooks have won huge Facebook followingThe
• TaxPayers’ Alliance says people want bobbies on the beat, not jokes
• The force has to make huge cuts to reduce its budget by £30m by 2016

A police force which calls crooks ‘numpties’ on its Facebook page and writes in a jokey manner about crime and criminals on its patch has won a huge following from local residents.

Despite criticism that the police force, which is having to cut its budget by £30m by 2016, could spend its time better by catching criminals rather than writing jokes about them, Surrey Police’s Tandridge Beat has nearly 1,500 ‘likes’ on its webpage.

The police have won a huge following thanks to their casual style and light-hearted posts about their force and its work in Surrey just south of the M25 near Godstone.

Surrey Police officers have gained a reputation for joking about criminals as ‘numpties’ on their Facebook page

Another day, another ‘numpty’: A post from Tandridge Beat earlier this month mentioned a hapless burglar

Police said this ‘numpty’ had only cleared a small patch of snow on his car’s windscreen in March this year

One post, put up yesterday, reads: ‘One of our more well-known numpties thought it would be a good idea to come to Lingfield and not pay for his fuel he needed for the stolen car he was in.

‘Thanks to Metropolitan police, him and his friend were stopped and both arrested.’

Another post said: ‘A numpty has left a calling card at a burglary in Tandridge… he will be enjoying our hospitality soon. We will keep you updated.’
Local residents regularly check the page as much as for the jokes as the crime news.

One recent post read: ‘They came, they stole, they got caught (all within 12 minutes). If you can’t afford meat, go vegetarian. Don’t nick it!!’

Delighted residents replied to the post positively, with one saying ‘I saw them being carted off’.

There is a strong sense of community on the page, with one popular post recently reading: ‘If the fella being a bit gobby at the Village on Caterham on the Hill on Sunday spoilt your day, don’t worry, we spoilt his.

Community policing: One popular recent post gave an update on a lout who had urinated on a police van

Light-hearted banter: The jokes about local crooks keep coming on Tandridge Beat’s Facebook page

‘Charged him with being gobby and also damaging our van (what is it with blokes peeing where they aren’t supposed to this week?)’

Fans of the Facebook page regularly joke with officers on the page, with one writing: ‘Love the word numpties’, and other replying to the post about the man stealing petrol with:

‘Moral of the story: If you’re stupid enough to steal a car, be smart enough to afford the petrol! Hope I haven’t put any ideas in our local numpties heads!’

Tandridge police posted about their use of the word ‘numpty, saying that they had checked that the word ‘wasn’t offensive’, and that they liked it.

They added: ‘Especially after we checked it out properly and it doesn’t cross any “offensive” boundaries we have to be careful of.’

More than 1,400 people ‘like’ the Tandridge Beat Facebook page, and say they love the light-hearted tone

Popular community forum: Fans of the site have left messages on it saying the banter is good for police PR

According to the Urban Dictionary, a numpty is someone who ‘demonstrates a lack of knowledge of a particular subject or situation to the amusement of others’.

Police also use the Facebook page to post pictures of those breaking the law or not behaving responsibly.

In March, officers working for the force posted a photo of a snow-covered car driving along the road with just a tiny hole in the windscreen for the driver to look out of.

Their comment below said: ‘With the snow falling, be safe and make sure you clear your car properly. Not like this numpty…it is dangerous for both you and for other road users.’

Other light-hearted postings include on April 26: ‘Team Tandridge 4, Billy Burglar 0. This week 4 burglars have been arrested for 3 separate offences.’

And on April 26 one officer stated: ‘Just putting the kettle on for another Billy Burglar nicked by Tandridge officers’.

The police Facebook page makes fun of local criminals and even those who report crime, as in this page

The officers who administer the police Facebook page even turn their hand to make up poems to deter crooks

It prompted comments from Gaynor Chapman, who wrote ‘Tea? No way. Water and maybe bread’, and Jane Clay who wrote ‘Make sure the water goes cold!’.

On May 3, the team posted a ditty after catching a string of men urinating in public, reading: ‘If you need a pee, then take it from me, if you do it in the street, an officer on the beat, will say ‘Hey matey’, you will be fined eighty”.’

Other postings joke of thieves being ‘slippery customers’ after stealing four barrels of cooking oil and saying that a female shoplifter who stole legs of lamb ‘maybe had a roast dinner every day’.

But Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said paying someone to administer the page was a waste of public money.

He said: ‘When savings have to be found, staff time spent manning social media websites should be cut back.

‘It’s important that the force is open and accountable to local residents but funny stories on Facebook are not a priority right now.

‘Taxpayers want their cash spent on bobbies out on the beat in their communities, not on staff stuck behind computer screens back at HQ.’

A source at Surrey Police said the Facebook page was ‘very popular’ – it has around 1,500 ‘likes’ – adding: ‘The team in Tandridge are known for their quirky sense of humour, but maybe this will come back to haunt them.

Police say they checked the word ‘numpty’ did not cross any ‘offensive’ boundaries that govern their web use

‘You can just see some lawyer referring to the page and getting someone off with a charge because they were called a numpty or a Billy Burglar before it comes to court.’

Earlier this year Tandridge police were ordered to remove a photo they put on the Facebook page featuring an officer in a wendy house with a caption joking that the toy house was ‘the new extension to Lingfield police station’.

Chiefs at Surrey Police, which has to cut its budget by £30m by 2016, told the team to remove the photo and apologised for ‘causing any offence’.

A spokesman said at the time: ‘Our Neighbourhood Policing Teams use their Facebook pages as a different way to engage with our local communities and will occasionally post pictures that are intended to be light-hearted.’

‘The picture was not intended to cause any offence and has now been removed from the site.’

Earlier this year Surrey Police had to apologise after posting this picture and joking it was a new police station

The Yehudi Menuhin School – Stoke d’Abernon

The violinist Nigel Kennedy has said he is “appalled” by allegations of sexual abuse involving children as young as 10 at one of Britain’s most prestigious music schools.

Surrey police are investigating claims that one of the late founding musical directors of the Yehudi Menuhin school had abused pupils over four decades.

The claims came in wake of a Channel 4 News investigation that alleged that the school’s co-founder Marcel Gazelle sexually abused young girls in bedrooms at the school. It cited one former student, Irita Kutchmy, who studied with Gazelle from the age of nine until 12. She said that his behaviour had a “very detrimental” effect on her childhood. “I just remember feeling like I was sort of like his property, his pupil and therefore what he said went,” she said.

“It didn’t appear to me to be weird that he came up to wake us up in the morning. It was just the way it was at the school… He would tickle me under the sheets… His hands were on my bare skin where they shouldn’t be.”

Those claims were validated by Nigel Kennedy, who attended the school from 1964 to 1974. A decade ago Mr Kennedy spoke out on what he had witnessed during his time there, telling a BBC programme that “there were some strange things going on with some of the girls…that would have been illegal, definitely”.

Mr Kennedy, whose claims were not investigated further at the time, yesterday reiterated his experiences telling Channel 4 News: “I just know that Marcel Gazelle was a repeat offender and it wasn’t a one off thing.

”It’s a disgrace really that people’s trust has been abused in such a way… The children themselves, their trust, the parents’ trust, people’s belief in music as being a pure form of art, [that] this whole ethos can be abused by one sick selfish person is very, very disturbing.“

Marcel Gazelle died in 1969. His family have said they are ”surprised“ by the allegations, which they dispute entirely.

The allegations come less than two months after the choirmaster Michael Brewer was jailed for six years for sexually abusing a pupil while a musical director at the Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, a £31,000 a year boarding school in the city centre. The judge claimed he had abused his ”powerful position“.

His victim, who gave evidence at his trial, committed suicide six days later.

Separately, it emerged that 39 teachers past and present are currently being investigated by Greater Manchester Police as part of Operation Kiso.

Officers are taking statements and preparing reports for the Crown Prosecution Service.

So far the only suspect named by police is violin teacher Wen Zhou Li, who was arrested on suspicion of rape in February. Li denies the allegations but has been suspended from Chetham’s pending the police investigation.

A spokeswoman for Chetham’s said child protection policies were reviewed annually and the last review was in October. She added that discussions had taken place with the governing body over abuse cases. ”The Independent Schools Inspectorate concludes that ‘pupils report that they are happy and feel safe and secure in the school’.“

Surrey Police said: ”We can confirm we have been contacted by the Yehudi Menuhin School following allegations of historic sexual abuse against a member of staff who is now deceased. “The Force is liaising with the school and would encourage anyone with concerns to contact us. Surrey Police treats any allegation of this nature seriously and have officers who are specially trained to support victims of sexual assault.”

The Yehudin Menuhin School could not be reached for comment. However in response to the programme it said: “We have checked the records which survive from 50 years ago and can find nothing about any concerns expressed at the time. ”In accordance with our policies we have reported these serious allegations to Surrey police.“

Violinist Nigel Kennedy ‘appalled’ by allegations of child sex abuse at prestigious Yehudi Menuhin music school