Sharpe's Opinion
Monday, 16th Nov, 2009
So Why Was Paul Clarke Arrested?
Paul Walter on Liberal Burblings has dug up this gem from the Home Office guidance to police on Firearms law:
Anyone surrendering an illegally held firearm should be questioned discreetly with a view to establishing its history but, unless circumstances exist to give serious cause for concern as to its provenance (for example, if it appears to have been stolen), the person handing it in should not be pressed.
So we come back to the same point that’s been most perplexing from the beginning – why was Paul Clarke arrested in the first place? It now appears to have been a clear breach of Home Office guidelines, unless there’s some more to this somewhere.
See Also: Charlotte Gore.
On a totally unrelated note, does anyone know if Chief Superintendent Adrian Harper who Paul Clarke met with before being arrested is the same Chief Superintendent Adrian Harper who was suspended for alleged dishonest conduct in May 2009?
Comments
Rather looks like it. This case just seems to be unravelling rather nicely.
Still. Up for a visit to Guidlford on the 11th December?
It is absolutely shocking that the police should be given full discretionary powers to take circumstances into account, but the Courts should not be trusted to do the same.
I think he was, you know. It would be deeply ironic (especially since Radio 4 have now picked up the story, so lending a bit more gravitas to it) if Harper were brought down with a big bump, while Clarke is (hopefully, if the facts thus far exposed are true) simultaneously exonerated.
Dick Puddlecote
November 16, 2009 at 6:45 pm