I hope you are getting a feel of how West Mercia Police regard the mental health and welfare of their junior officers as well as how they deal with whistle blowing.
They are extremely good at portraying to everyone how they care and spend lots of money on impressive posters. Sadly, this is nothing more than lip service to impress important visitors who step through the front doors of the Dream Factory! Well, Chief Constable Bangham, actions speak louder that corporate words and pretty pictures!
The Misconduct and Gross Misconduct forms came from our Professional Standards Department. They, of all people across the force should know what our code of ethics says and means!
It was nearly a year since this crime of animal cruelty had been reported to me and, already, it seemed that more time had been spent on investigating me than the criminals! Why was this? On 22nd May 2017 I sent my response to the allegation of Gross Misconduct……..
You see, what the police and the CPS had decided to ignore, was the law!!
And, not only had they decided to ignore the law, they decided they would break it!!
You see, by breaching their respective codes of conduct/ ethics, Stephen Davies’s and Beth Wells’ behaviour could easily have led to a miscarriage of justice and the case being dropped. When I tried to raise this both internally and then directly with the CPS it was quite clearly a public interest concern. I had nothing personally to gain. It was a protected disclosure. And at (f) above, ‘that information tending to show any matter falling within any one of the preceding paragraphs has been, is being or is likely to be deliberately concealed’.
Isn’t that exactly what the CPS and West Mercia Police we’re trying to do? Deliberately concealing information I had given them in the public interest?…………And then punishing and intimidating me by serving me notices for Gross Misconduct!!
Is there nothing they would stop at in an attempt to bring me to my knees?
Fox Cub Cruelty. Exposing corruption by Police and the CPS. 
I’ve read every single blog / letter at a leisurely pace, and I still can’t get my head around it!
How on earth you managed to keep calm and on top of the events / corresponding etc. is beyond me. It’s testament to your character and professional integrity, especially considering how they were essentially trying to stitch you up!
Keep em coming!
James 🙂
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this is striking so many chords with me – as our local force colluded with people I was in dispute with and they lied, twisted, distorted things, anything they could do and it was clearly an attempt to finish me, and for the police to justfy their OTT actions and/or improve their figures. It killed any respect I had for the police. Your blog is compulsive reading. I’ve often felt I should put my experiences into a book and you are inspiring me! Thank you so much for exposing all this. Despite all the crap I went through at the hands of North Yorkshire Police I still feel that everything happens for a reason. At the time you might not be able to see that but in retrospect you can see everything fitting together like a jigsaw. I am so sorry for what you have had to go through – but you are doing an immense amount of good now, based on those experiences
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Big big question. WHO is pulling the strings? Must be someone with clout. Someone who will keep giving the orders in order to cripple you. Someone who thinks they are above the law! Someone who is a BULLY!
As I said earlier, every dog will have their day. Which may be getting closer and closer with every blog.
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If I was the victim of a crime, I would hope for a policing professonal like Richard Barradale Smith fighting my corner.
His harrowing account of events following the start of the investigation into what most people would have thought was a straightforward animal cruelty case, reveals not only an honest and principled individual at work, but also someone with the tenacity and attention to detail to keep going, in spite of the wall of resistance and dirty tricks coming from colleagues with obvious conflicts of interests relating to the case.
I wish I could say the same about West Mercia Police itself, or about certain CPS prosecutors. Sadly, from what I have read so far, the only people I imagine would be grateful to have Stephen Davies as their prosecutor – with the power to terminate proceedings at will – would be those accused of appalling animal cruelty offences, especially if they were hunting and shooting related. Would be interesting to see Mr Davies track record for the umbrella category of ‘wildlife crime.’
I am so sorry for what you, Richard, and your family have been put through because of people in positions of power protecting their shabby personal interests.
Not knowing you personally, I am hoping for a satisfactory or even a happy ending, but I fear it won’t be – not at this stage anyway, because there are just too many unpleasant, self-serving people in high-level positions in cahoots with one another.
Thank you also for maintaining your belief in the truth, public interest and for shining a light on what many people over the years have suspected or learnt from bitter experience: that equality before the law, although a lovely, abstract idea at the heart of our legal system, is a bit of a myth in reality. Not necessarily because there are people less deserving of justice, but because the people responsible for serving it are not always equal, especially when it comes to putting aside their own prejudices. Stephen Davies’ reference to the individuals who reported this horrible crime as ‘those people’ says more about him than it did about the individuals he was attempting to describe, as you correctly observed. Hopefully your colleagues have come to realise this now.
Last but not least, I imagine that it is also thanks to you that in future, hunters may look over their shoulder before throwing live fox cubs to hounds at hunt kennels as part of dogs’ training for the deceptively titled practice of ‘trail’ hunting.
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Fancy, a little upstart like Richard trying to tell THE POWERS THAT BE, THE MIGHTY, what’s right and what’s wrong. We have pips, crowns and laurel leaves on our shoulders, and qualifications and must be always right. He is merely cannon fodder and must be made to obey!
It’s getting a bit like Soviet Russia isn’t it!!!
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