|
Serious Crime Squad
The West Midlands Serious Crime Squad was a police unit in the English West Midlands which operated from 1974 to 1989. It was disbanded after an investigation into allegations of incompetence and abuse of power on the part of some of the squad's members. Some of this misconduct resulted in wrongful convictions, including the high-profile case of the Birmingham Six. The sister Regional Crime Squad based at Bilston was responsible for the investigation of the Bridgewater Four. At least 40 convictions failed in the 1980s as a result of likely malpractice. Beginning with the case of Paul Dandy in 1987 and also Andrew Molloy from Marston Green Solihull was thought to be involved but was later acquitted of all charges, but new evidence later found by police revealed that he could have been a ringleader of gang operating in Birmingham but there wasn't enough evidence to convict him of any crime. Molloy, formerly of Bordesley Green, was found not guilty due to insufficient evidence, e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Midlands Police
West Midlands Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. The force covers an area of with 2.93million inhabitants, which includes the cities of Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and also the Black Country. In 2020, there were 6,846 officers, 484 police community support officers (PCSO), and 219 volunteer special constables. The force is currently led by Chief Constable Dave Thompson. The force area is divided into ten Local Policing Units (LPUs), each being served by four core policing teams – Response, Neighbourhood, Investigation and Community Action & Priority (CAPT) – with the support of a number of specialist crime teams. These specialist teams include CID, traffic and a firearms unit. West Midlands Police is a partner, alongside Staffordshire Police, in the Central Motorway Police Group. The force is party to a number of other resource sharing agreements including the National Polic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electrostatic Detection Device
An electrostatic detection device, or EDD, is a specialized piece of equipment commonly used in questioned document examination to reveal indentations or impressions in paper that may otherwise go unnoticed. It is a non-destructive technique (will not damage the evidence in question), allowing further tests to be carried out. It is a sensitive technique capable of detecting indentations on pages several layers below the top sheet and many years after the indentations were created. EDD equipment and investigative techniques were central to overturning a number of convictions in the United Kingdom, as it was possible to demonstrate that witness statements had been altered or signed as blank pages in reverse order to the main notes. This was central in a number of cases investigated at the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad that were appealed. The allegations of tampering with evidence and witness statements led to the unit being disbanded, and over 60 convictions being quashed, many of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birmingham Pub Bombings
The Birmingham pub bombings were carried out on 21 November 1974, when bombs exploded in two Pub, public houses in Birmingham, England, killing 21 people and injuring 182 others. The Provisional Irish Republican Army never officially admitted responsibility for the Birmingham pub bombings, although a former senior officer of the organisation confessed to their involvement in 2014. In 2017, one of the allegation, alleged perpetrators, Michael Hayes, also claimed that the intention of the bombings had not been to harm civilians, and that their deaths had been caused by an unintentional delay in delivering an advance telephone warning to security services. Six Irishmen were arrested within hours of the blasts, and in 1975 sentenced to life imprisonment for the bombings. The men—who became known as the Birmingham Six—maintained their innocence and insisted police had coerced them into signing false confessions through severe Physical abuse, physical and psychological abuse. Aft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Life Imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for which, in some countries, a person could receive this sentence include murder, torture, terrorism, child abuse resulting in death, rape, espionage, treason, drug trafficking, drug possession, human trafficking, severe fraud and financial crimes, aggravated criminal damage, arson, kidnapping, burglary, and robbery, piracy, aircraft hijacking, and genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or any three felony, felonies in case of three-strikes law. Life imprisonment (as a maximum term) can also be imposed, in certain countries, for traffic offences causing death. Life imprisonment is not used in all countries; Portugal was the first country to abolish life imprisonment, in 1884. Where life imprisonment is a possible sentenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
False Confession
A false confession is an admission of guilt for a crime which the individual did not commit. Although such confessions seem counterintuitive, they can be made voluntarily, perhaps to protect a third party, or induced through coercive interrogation techniques. When some degree of coercion is involved, studies have found that subjects with highly sophisticated intelligence or manipulated by their so called "friends" are more likely to make such confessions. Young people are particularly vulnerable to confessing, especially when stressed, tired, or traumatized, and have a significantly higher rate of false confessions than adults. Hundreds of innocent people have been convicted, imprisoned, and sometimes sentenced to death after confessing to crimes they did not commit—but years later, have been exonerated. It was not until several shocking false confession cases were publicized in the late 1980s, combined with the introduction of DNA evidence, that the extent of wrongful convict ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microfiche
Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. For special purposes, greater optical reductions may be used. Three formats are common: microfilm (reels), microfiche (flat sheets), and aperture cards. Microcards, also known as "micro-opaques", a format no longer produced, were similar to microfiche, but printed on cardboard rather than photographic film. History Using the daguerreotype process, John Benjamin Dancer was one of the first to produce microphotographs, in 1839. He achieved a reduction ratio of 160:1. Dancer refined his reduction procedures with Frederick Scott Archer's wet collodion process, developed in 1850–51, but he dismissed his decades-long work on microphotographs as a personal hobby and did not document his procedures. The idea that microphotography could be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lostwithiel
Lostwithiel (; kw, Lostwydhyel) is a civil parish and small town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom at the head of the estuary of the River Fowey. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,739, increasing to 2,899 at the 2011 census. The Lostwithiel electoral ward had a population of 4,639 at the 2011 census. The name Lostwithiel comes from the Cornish "lostwydhyel" which means "tail of a wooded area". Origin of the name The origin of the name Lostwithiel is a subject much debated. In the 16th century it was thought that the name came from the Roman name ''Uzella'', translated as ''Les Uchel'' in Cornish. In the 17th century popular opinion was that the name came from a translation of ''Lost'' (a tail) and ''Withiel'' (a lion), the lion in question being the lord who lived in the castle. Current thinking is that the name comes from the Old Cornish ''Lost Gwydhyel'' meaning "tail-end of the woodland". The view from Restormel Castle looking towards the town ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solihull
Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe in the Forest of Arden area. Solihull's wider borough had a population of 216,240 at the 2021 Census. Solihull itself is mostly urban; however, the larger borough is rural in character, with many outlying villages, and three quarters of the borough is designated as green belt. The town and its borough, which has been part of Warwickshire for most of its history, has roots dating back to the 1st century BC, and was further formally established during the medieval era. Today the town is famed as, amongst other things, the birthplace of the Land Rover car marque, the home of the British equestrian eventing team and is considered to be one of the most prosperous areas in the UK. History Toponymy Solihull's name is commonly thought to have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Mills
Dame Barbara Jean Lyon Mills DBE, QC (''née'' Warnock; 10 August 1940 – 28 May 2011) was a British barrister. She held various senior public appointments including Director of Public Prosecutions, and was widely seen as a pioneer for women gaining such appointments in the higher echelons of the legal profession.Dame Barbara Mills obituary in ''The Independent'' (London), 7 June 2011 At the time of her death she was chair of the Professional Oversight Board. Early life and education She was born in[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Santer
Mark Santer (born 29 December 1936) is a retired Anglican bishop. He is the father of television producer Diederick Santer. Early life and education Santer was educated at Marlborough College and Queens' College, Cambridge, before his ordination in 1964. Ordained ministry After being a curate at Church of All Saints, Cuddesdon, he was a tutor at Ripon College Cuddesdon; Dean and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge; assistant lecturer in divinity at the University of Cambridge and finally Principal of Westcott House, Cambridge before his ordination to the episcopate as area Bishop of Kensington in 1981. After six years at Kensington, he was translated to be the Bishop of Birmingham.'' Debrett's People of Today'', Ellis, P. (1992), London, Debrett's. During this time he took part in the second phase of the ecumenical discussions of the Anglican—Roman Catholic International Commission and was embroiled in controversy over the use of the term " Winterval", which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liberty (advocacy Group)
Liberty, formerly, and still formally, called the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes human rights. It does this through the courts, in Parliament and in the wider community. Liberty also aims to engender a "rights culture" within British society. The NCCL was founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith (later Scaffardi),Liberty , Entry in the Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organisations motivated by their |
Ronald Hadfield
Sir Ronald Hadfield (15 July 1939 – 31 January 2013) was the Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police from June 1990 until July 1996. He had previously served with Lancashire Constabulary, Greater Manchester Police and Derbyshire Constabulary and was, from 1987 to 1990, Nottinghamshire Police's chief constable. His nickname was "Biffo". Career During his time with the West Midlands Police, he oversaw the Hadfield Report into the Birmingham pub bombings. He was International Vice-President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Following his retirement from the police, he was appointed as a consultant in training and people management by the firm of Edge & Ellison. In the 1995 Queen's Birthday Honours, Hadfield was appointed a Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British hono ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
