Latest in post office robberies trial
End of the line at station for hunted suspect
A JURY heard today how police set a trap for two men, suspected of being responsible for a post office break-in on the west coast of Scotland...and the pair walked right into it.
Police constables Glenn Bigham and Sean McNeil waited in hiding at Loch Eil railway station, in Inverness-shire.
They had been advised by colleagues that the men had fled into the hills after being disturbed at the post office at Glenuig. The officers played a hunch, reckoning that the suspects might, in unfamiliar territory, make for the railway line. They waited.. crouched down at the end of the platform in the early hours of October 12, 2007 and their hunch paid off.
Through the darkness, using an infra red nightscope, Constable McNeil observed the suspects approaching, and identified them as John Hind and Matthew Peters as they were making their way, cautiously, down the line to the station.
Constable McNeil told the trial at Wick Sheriff Court: “I let them come as close as possible and they were about 40-50 metres away when I shone my powerful torch on them and shouted-‘Police and dog...stop or I will send the dog in’. They stopped and for a split second, were taken a bit by surprise, like rabbits in a headlight.”
Constable McNeil said that the men split up, “like clever professionals”, one towards one embankment, the other to the opposite one.
The constables too split up and P.C McNeil said he pursued Hind over two fences and a ditch and was able, with the beam of his torch, to follow his path into woods where he was apprehended.
Constable McNeil was joined by his colleague and Hind was handcuffed and handed over to fellow officers who took him to Ft William police station.
Hind (54) from Colne in Lancashire and Peters 40 from Bournemouth deny breaking into series of property, mainly post offices, in the Highlands and north-east of Scotland and stealing cash totalling £34, 497 and stock amounting to £10,508.
They also deny stealing a car and using it to assault police officer Andrew Cooper to the danger of his life while he was signalling them to stop on the A830 Fort William to Mallaig road. The offences are alleged to have occurred between July 27 and October 11, 2007.
To be updated.
