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Bazeye
08-Jan-10, 18:17
Dont want to steal Coppertop 1958's thunder but was browsing through the British Pathe news reel and came across this. Anybody know what the case was as theres no sound. Recognise anyone?

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=65177

Phill
08-Jan-10, 18:37
I did wonder about this one as well, didn't find much on 'tinterweb bar this snippet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Robertson_%28UK_politician%29#Police_brutali ty

Kodiak
08-Jan-10, 18:53
AT ABOUT 10.30pm on a December Saturday in Thurso on the north Scottish coast, two police officers called into the Bay Cafe in Swanson Street, a popular spot for local teenagers.


A group of boys greeted them with jeers and laughter. A 15-year-old, John Waters, was asked for his name and refused to give it, so the older officer took him by the arm and warned him to mind his manners. The boy replied: 'You s think you can do anything because you have a blue uniform.' The policemen left.


Moments later the boy ran after them and shouted: 'You tore my jacket.' The older officer said he didn't think so, but that if he had he was sorry. He again warned the boy about his behaviour and by his later account received the reply: 'You think you're a smart .'
As the boy continued to use abusive language, the officers led him to an alley, where he received a blow in the face. They then charged him with using obscene language and molesting the police. He called them 'Gestapo '.
Later that night, after the boy had been taken to the doctor with a bleeding nose, a cut lip and bruising, his father lodged a complaint, accusing the two officers of assault.


The police investigated the matter and took no action. The boy's family mounted a campaign which was taken up by the local Independent Conservative MP, Sir David Robertson.


A year later Sir David, with the backing of 170 MPs from all parties, caused a row during Scottish questions in the Commons. The Sunday Express backed his call for an inquiry, saying that the boy, who had been chatting with friends in a cafe, was 'marched to an alley where he was later found bleeding, bruised and unconscious'.


After a Cabinet discussion, the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, set up a tribunal of inquiry under Lord Sorn which heard evidence from more than 40 people before reporting in April 1959.


The boy, it concluded, was not a bad boy - 'he gets a good word from his teachers and from an officer in the Boys' Brigade' - but he was cheeky and on the night in question used shocking language.


A claim by the younger police officer, PC Gunn, that 'he thrust his right hand out to the wall and the boy's face came in contact with it' was rejected. The tribunal concluded that he 'became exasperated by the boy's behaviour, and perhaps by a struggle on the part of the boy to get away, and that he struck him an impulsive blow'.


In answer to public concern that the police had failed to deal with the matter properly, the tribunal insisted that the father's complaint had been properly investigated. The case had not come to court for the sound reason that, under Scottish laws relating to uncorroborated testimony, there would have been no chance of a conviction.


All this was greeted with sober satisfaction by the press. The Times noted that the young constable had been subjected to 'sore provocation', but it added: 'That does not excuse what happened in the alley . . . For a policeman so far to forget himself is doubly culpable; he is answerable not only to the courts for assault but to his superior officers for a breach of the discipline of the force.'

poppett
08-Jan-10, 18:56
If you "google" the name and date references from Hansard come up with some information. Before my time I am afraid.

Scunner
08-Jan-10, 22:09
The incident supposedly happened in the alleyway between the now Co-op chemists and the gift shop along side it. If you watch the news film you can see the alleyway quite clearly.

Whitewater
09-Jan-10, 00:51
I think you should leave this one well alone. The boy involved and the policemen are still all alive and well. I think the old saying goes "let sleeping dogs lie"

George Brims
09-Jan-10, 01:00
My late father, who knew both of them, was of the opinion that this case was the start of a sorry trend in British society. I know that if I had gone home and told him I had bad-mouthed the police and got a thick lip for it, it wouldn't have been PC Gunn that was in trouble. The "Everyone's oot o' step except oor Wullie" style of parenting seems to have taken hold.

peter macdonald
09-Jan-10, 01:56
The boat landing at Thurso Harbour in the film was the Primula and it looked like Alickie Thomson on the deck

scoobyc
09-Jan-10, 11:41
the houses that are shown, is it spring park somewhere, maybe park avenue?

gleeber
09-Jan-10, 12:24
I think you should leave this one well alone. The boy involved and the policemen are still all alive and well. I think the old saying goes "let sleeping dogs lie"
I wid agree but for anyone interested theres a transcript of the trial available in the reference section of Thurso library.

Bazeye
10-Jan-10, 04:49
Sign of the times i suppose but I cant help wondering that if the Police these days werent wrapped up in so much red tape and political correctness, the streets would maybe a safer place today.

joxville
10-Jan-10, 13:20
I think you should leave this one well alone. The boy involved and the policemen are still all alive and well. I think the old saying goes "let sleeping dogs lie"


My late father, who knew both of them, was of the opinion that this case was the start of a sorry trend in British society. I know that if I had gone home and told him I had bad-mouthed the police and got a thick lip for it, it wouldn't have been PC Gunn that was in trouble. The "Everyone's oot o' step except oor Wullie" style of parenting seems to have taken hold.

I wonder what the boy, now a man of 64-ish, thinks of the youth of today if, as George says, his case led to the Police no longer being allowed to give a cuff on the lugs scallywags?