Cops cuff London Apple Store 'scooter raiders' The Met has attempted to smash a network of suspected young burglars who are accused of hitting 48 retail premises in London over a seven-month period - including last month's raid on the Apple Store in Covent Garden. As revealed by El Reg, seven moped riders and motorcyclists, most carrying pillion passengers, smashed their …
Just wondering where this bad habit of giving offenders personal adress comes from ?
Is it an habit in the UK as it is in the US, an new fad in "closer" journalism Id didn't know about or is it just something new you are trying ?
They are not sex offenders, and some of them still minor (no adresses for minors, I see)....
Once you're charged and appear in court, your name, age, address, occupation (if given) and allegations are a matter of public record - pop along to your nearest magistrates' court if you like and see it in action. And all the named suspects are over 18.
A good reason for publishing addresses is to avoid any cases of mistaken identity. Publishing something like 'John Smith, 18, of London' could link any number of people to an alleged crime - and cause all sorts of headaches for our lawyers.
C.
It has always concerned me that other people might live at the addresses given, but knowing the mentality of the average brit those people will get tarred with the same brush. It's even more worrying that names and addresses are given before court procedings have been completed. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
El Reg has reported on many many many court cases before but has never (at least that I can remember) quoted such detailed home addresses and post -codes of the defendants. Why all of a sudden just in this one story?
Also, I doubt your claim that publishing "John Smith, 18, of London" could be claimed to link any particular person to the crime, for the exact reason that there are so many John Smiths in London; the description /fails/ to identify /anybody/, because it is too vague. I don't see newspapers when they report court cases publishing that level of detail to cover themselves; their lawyers must not think it's a realistic threat.
When I first heard this story (I think it was the BBC) it was reported that the met had arrested a number of young people who had carried out raids on "stolen high powered motorcycles". The reports I'd read of the crimes had said that most of the raids were carried out on scooters and mopeds, hardly my idea of high powered.
When I think of high powered I tend to think of about 100bhp being the threshold. There aren't many scooters around putting out that sort of power.
Listing addresses of defendants by the police and published by the press have always been public, since for decades (maybe centuries) so The Register (or anyone else) isn't doing anything new here. It's a matter of public record, so has always been available for others to publish freely.
Seems to me that this goes against the principle of "Innocent until proven Guilty" and moves into the "If the Police have arrested you, you must have done something wrong".
that attitude worked for the police in the old days but since we no longer automatically expect our police to be infailable and leave it to the courts to determine guilt or innocence, shouldn't the details be supressed until the court case?
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