Police issue jewellery thief suspect sketch

Police have issued this sketch of a man wanted in connection with a jellewery heist on February 3rd. Jewels worth nearly £1million were stolen at knifepoint from Haynes Jewellers, Castle Court, St Michael’s Alley, near Cornhill in the raid.

DI Edelle Michaels from City of London Police who is leading the investigation said: “Witnesses have provided a clear description of one of the robbers and someone will recognise the man in the picture we’ve released today. He is suspected of involvement in a violent and frightening robbery and it’s important that anyone with information on his identity contact us.”

Police now know three men were involved in the robbery. All 3 were dressed like workmen with their faces partially covered, one in fluorescent jacket and trousers. The men took a taxi from close to the scene of the robbery to Tower Hill, where two of the gang left the cab. The third suspect stayed in the taxi and was dropped on Hackney Road at Bethnal Green.

Anyone with information about the robbery or the suspects, or who has information about the whereabouts of the jewellery stolen should contact City of London Police on 020 7601 2222, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111

So I worked with a murderer – part 2

You may want to read part 1 before reading this

I looked up the phone number for the local police station in the area where the murder had taken place and cautiously called it, convinced in my own mind that I was just going to give them a couple of names and then ring off. Eventually I got through to the team who were doing the investigating and and blurted out the information before trying to make my excuses and hang up.
“We’d like to come and see you” said the voice on the other end,
“Really?” I said, surprised that they were that interested,
“There are some things you’ve mentioned that nobody else has been able to tell us”,
“Oh crap” I thought, but didn’t say.

After a quick battle of conscience I agreed to their request and so it was on a Saturday morning that two friendly policemen turned up on my doorstep having driven over 100 miles to get to my house. They stayed for about an hour, probably only fifteen minutes of which was talking about the case and the rest writing up my statement and talking “Police stories”, and also discovering that one of them had gone for an interview in a building that I was working in at the time. They left seemingly quite happy and it was a few weeks after that I heard that Simon had denied murder and that it was going to go to trial. That meant a long drive, a day off work and potentially ending up with my name in the papers, which was not really what I’d had in mind when I’d volunteered the information, but when I though of how much the murdered girl’s family had already lost it seemed trivial in comparison.

As the weeks went by the court date loomed closer and closer and I got more nervous and more nervous, then I received a phone call.
“It’s all over” said a friendly policeman,
“What?” I replied,
“He’s confessed”

I was so relieved I wanted to dance and skip and shout but instead felt the stress of the months of waiting roll off me as I settled down to a glass of very nice white wine, which seemed to get lost on the way down so I had to send at least two or three more after it to find out what had happened.

It turned out he’d held out until his very last court appearance before the full trial and then confessed, which was only a half-decent thing to do as he should have owned up earlier and saved the stress and expense all round. It was across the national papers for a couple of days as the details came out, but thankfully not my name, though some of the evidence quoted in the paper seemed awfully familiar. It was odd seeing his face on the London papers having been so used to seeing it across a desk.

At sentencing he got 16 years for the murder and I got a letter offering me counselling, which I thought was more appropriate for the family than me but I appreciated the offer. Would I do it again? I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

So I worked with a murderer

A few years ago we used to have someone in our team who I will call Simon and he was, shall we say, a bit of a lad. Not a cheeky and cheerful Artful Dodger kind of lad, though there was a certain amount of that about him, but more of a Essex-boy-with-an-XR3-and-an-attiude sort of lad. He was in fact a genuine Essex lad, rather than just a metaphorical one, and his neighbours described him as “a lovely lad”…. much later… to the Police…

Simon worked in my team for a couple of years but had the habit of going AWOL and it was mostly to his girlfriend’s place in Bristol which meant that he’d have to get up at 4am to get back to London for work and then be useless all day long. I never got to speak to his girlfriend, who I’ll call Lucy, though she seemed quite normal and pleasant from the photos and what he said about her, though quite what a lovely 19-year old could see in a rotund 33-year old who was in the throes of a messy divorce I never did figure. He, however, had worked out that he was onto a good thing but was also given over to a jealous nature so if he was speaking to her on the phone and heard a man’s voice in the background that she couldn’t adequately account for without drawing breathe his response was “I’m coming down” at which point he used to go AWOL and drive down to Bristol.

Obviously this was affecting his performance at work and he was eventually persuaded to seek other opportunities and he was later replaced by someone equally useless but for different reasons.

It was a surprise therefore, some eighteen months later, for someone in our department to receive a phone call from a supplier to say “Didn’t Simon work for you? You need to check the news”. I went to the website of the local newspaper in the area where he’d lived and there was his face splashed all over the front page with the headline being that he’d murdered his girlfriend. Not the girl he’d been going out with when he’d worked with us but another 18-year old that he must have hooked up with later. It transpired that she’d moved in with him but then found him too jealous and possessive and when she said that she was going to move out it turned into an argument, he stabbed her to death and then fled but gave himself up a few days later after being persuaded by his brother. The Police were keen to speak to anyone who knew Simon to build their case so I was torn between wanting to put them in contact with his previous girlfriend, who I knew had had a similar experience, but not wanting to draw attention to where I worked as it wouldn’t be fair on them to get drawn into it.

To be continued…

City Thief Sentenced

A thief who targetted the City of London has been given an 18 month suspended sentence by Southwark Crown Court.

The 37 year old man from Hackney targetted people in Bishopsgate, Old Broad Street and Broadgate and would purport to show them bargain items for sale in a carrier bag, but the bag itself was the cover he used to swipe wallets and mobile phones.

He was also issued with an 18 month supervision order and required to visit drug rehabilitation programme for 12 months.

Related Link: City of London Police