Don’t keep your money in the house, police warn elderly residents

Published Date: 05 June 2008

By Karen Steel

KEEPING your money in a tin by the cooker might seem a good idea to a lot of elderly people – but it’s the first place burglars will look, police are warning.

Following a spate of distraction burglaries in the Haverhill area, police are urging elderly people not to let anyone in, however plausible their story.

The most common ruse being used by unscrupulous thieves is a claim they are from the ‘water board’ (which does not exist) and urgently need to gain entry to a property because of problems with water pressure or a leak.

While they are distracted, another person enters the home and goes to the most common places used to store pension or savings.

Pc Rupert Beynon is urging people to participate in the Nominated Neighbour scheme, where callers are shown a sign saying the caller should contact their neighbour, who will verify their authenticity.

The Police Direct scheme is another way people can stay vigilant, with members receiving texts warning if police have had reports of bogus callers.

Messages can be sent to an e-mail address, mobile phone by text or voice message, or to a landline number.

To register, visit www.suffolkpolice.uk and click on the link to Police Direct, or call 01473 613997.

More information is available from Haverhill Police Station, or from Diane Townsend, on 01284 774499, or diane.townsend@suffolk.pnn.police.uk.

The full article contains 244 words and appears in Haverhill Echo newspaper.

Reaction to knife crime proposals

BBC / 05/06/08

The prime minister has told prosecutors anyone aged over 16 who is found carrying a knife should be prosecuted. Leading figures give their reaction to the proposal.

 

PROFESSOR ROD MORGAN, FORMER CHAIRMAN YOUTH JUSTICE BOARD

I am afraid this is an example of gesture politics reflecting the weakness rather than the strength of both the prime minister and the government.

There is no real good sense in suggesting that the guideline be changed. Isn’t it odd that last week we had an announcement that four police forces are going in the future to do something called ‘commonsense’ policing … that the police were going to exercise their discretion more sensibly as to how events should be dealt with locally, and now we have a suggestion that we have a presumption.

The police have all the powers that they need to deal with what is a problem in some areas but they need to be given discretion to respond to events as they find them.

 

CINDY BUTTS, DEPUTY CHAIR OF THE METROPOLITAN POLICE AUTHORITY

It’s not enough, but it is a start and I think it is important we tighten the laws and we send out a very clear message not just to young people themselves, but also the wider community.

I do support this because the increases that we have seen are in the increases from the ages of 13 up until 17 years old. So I think it is important that we target those who are most likely to be carrying and therefore willing to use knives – and I do support it, but it’s not enough.

 

DETECTIVE CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT JOHN CARNOCHAN, HEAD OF VIOLENCE REDUCTION UNIT IN GLASGOW

The notion that criminal justice is the first resort, fill up the prisons, get people to jail, doesn’t work on its own.

We need to do other things – if we want to change attitudes, if we want to change culture, that’s not a role simply for the police that involves everyone. And that’s what we’ve been doing for the past two or three years, so in Scotland it’s now a public health issue.

 

KIT MALTHOUSE, LONDON’S DEPUTY MAYOR FOR POLICING

We recognise it forms part of treating the symptom not the cause and hope the prime minister and home secretary will support us as we seek to generate the cultural shift required to eradicate the problem long term.

Eritrean pirates on Yemeni boats

HODEIDA, June 03 (Saba) 

About 29 Yemeni fishermen have come back to the country after being held in an international sea passage by Eritrean pirates, the GPC-run almotamar.net reported.

Local sources in the province of Hodeida said the Eritrean pirates had held the fishermen along with four boats.

They took away three boats and put the fishermen on the fourth to come back home. 
In May, Eritrean pirates seized five Yemeni fishing boats in the Red Sea. The governor of Hodeida Salim al-Jabali then ordered the competent authorities to recover the boats as soon as possible.

Furthermore, Yemeni fishermen suffer from baseless confiscation of their boats in international waters by Eritrean coastguards.

Arsema mother accuses police

TeleText, UK

05/06/08

The  mother of murdered teenager Arsema Dawit has accused the Metropolitan Police of failing to protect her daughter after she was threatened.Arsema, 15, was stabbed up to 10 times in Waterloo, south London. Tsehainesh Medhani said: “I feel as though a light has gone out of my life.”Thomas Nugusse, 21, from Ilford, will appear at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court charged with her murder.

Mother of Arsema Dawit says police

failed to protect stabbed girl

Rajeev Syal

05/06/08

The devastated mother of Arsema Dawit today expressed her grief on the steps of the flats where the 15-year-old was stabbed to death, saying that police had not protected her daughter.

Tsehainesh Medhani, Arsema’s mother, looked pale and exhausted and leaned heavily on a female relative as the statement was read out by the family’s solicitor.

She wore a black scarf covering her hair and shook her head from side to side in grief.

“I’m absolutely devastated and cannot believe what has happened to my daughter,” said Mrs Medhani’s statement.

“I came to this country from Eritrea to live in safety. When my daughter was threatened I went to the police seeking protection. Sadly, that did not happen.

“I have lost a precious, beautiful and much-loved daughter who was kind, generous and loving.

“I hope no other family has to go through the anguish we have gone through. I feel as though a light has gone out of my life.”

Arsema was stabbed to death on Monday afternoon, in the lift of the Matheson Lang Gardens block of flats where the family live in a three-bedroomed flat, about 200 yards from Waterloo station in south London.

The attack left her with ten stab wounds and was so violent that the knife handle broke off leaving the blade in her body.

In the weeks before her death Arsema and her mother, who regularly attended an Eritrean Orthodox church in Camberwell, had complained to police that she was being stalked by another churchgoer, who they said had assaulted her and made death threats to her while declaring his love.

The Metropolitan Police and the Independent Police Complaints Commission are both investigating how well officers responded to the family’s fears, after the Met acknowledged that officers had taken 12 days to get back in touch.

Mrs Medhani came to Britain in 2003, seeking political asylum from Eritrea. Members of the family said that she had been persecuted because of her ethnicity.

Today Mrs Medhani was flanked by her surviving daughter, Feruz Dawit, and her brother, Beyene Tsegani. Almaz Mehdani, Arsema’s aunt, who was also present, collapsed at the end of the press conference and had to be helped away.

Dozens of members of the Eritrean exile community in London have gathered at the family’s home since the tragedy.

A man was last night charged with Arsema’s murder. Thomas Nugusse, 21, of Ilford in Essex, was remanded in custody until August 21 when he appeared before magistrates in Camberwell Green this morning accused of the killing. His next court appearance will be at the Old Bailey.

 

‘If I can’t have you no one can’: Chilling texts sent to stabbed schoolgirl weeks before her death

By This is London.co.UK 

05/06/08

A murdered girl was sent threatening text messages in the weeks before her death, family friends claim.

Arsema Dawit, 15, allegedly received one chilling message warning: ‘If I can’t have you any more no one can have you.’

Within five minutes of her murder, a sinister message was also alleged to have been sent to a male friend of the former choirgirl, saying: ‘You have taken my love, the love of my heart, I hope you are happy now that she is dead.’

It also emerged that Arsema claimed she had been harassed by a man for months with relatives accusing police of inventing claims that she had refused to cooperate with an investigation.

Friends claim that her frenzied attacker mistakenly believed she had spurned him for another man.

Her family told police she had complained she was the target of an obsessed stalker who had hit her and threatened to kill her.

They claimed officers said they were powerless to help and have accused the Met of failing to protect the teenager. The independent police watchdog has begun an investigation into their complaints.

Arsema’s body was found slumped in a lift in the block of flats where she lived with her family near London’s Waterloo station at 3.45pm on Monday.

She was stabbed up to ten times in a frenzied attack, five weeks after her mother contacted police about her fears for her daughter.

Farah Carver, a family friend, said relatives had told officers about text messages sent to the teenager, allegedly from a man she had met at an Eritrean church in Camberwell, South London.

Miss Carver, 43, a catering manager, said that after the murder a message had been sent to a friend of Arsema, saying ‘now they should be happy’.

Another family friend, Simon Tesfaghiorgish, said Arsema was so terrified by the campaign of harassment that her relatives had begun to escort her almost everywhere.

Police have confirmed the family reported the incident but said Arsema later denied it had happened. Sources said they were not aware of a wider campaign of harassment against the schoolgirl.

Yesterday her mother, Tsehay Medhani, broke down as she glimpsed the spot where Arsema’s body was found.

Mrs Dawit cried out in pain as she was taken past the sealed-off lift on her way to say a final farewell to her daughter. Speaking in her native Eritrean, she called out: ‘How could they do this? Is it here they killed my daughter?’

She was supported by her younger daughter Feruz, 11.

Relatives refused to comment on claims Arsema might have been as old as 19, but had lied about her age to enter the school system when her family arrived in London four years ago.

The family arrived in Britain four years ago from war-torn Eritrea, and successfully applied for asylum. London has a large Eritrean community and a stream of mourners has visited the family’s flat, including many women wearing traditional white headscarves.

Religious leaders at the church Arsema attended, St Michael’s in Camberwell, said they planned a memorial service on Sunday.

Father Yohanees Sibhatu said: ‘The whole thing has been very shocking and upsetting for the Eritrean community.

‘If it turns out this was between the Eritreans it makes it worse for the community. It’s very, very sad. This sort of thing is very rare among Eritreans.’

Arsema was the 16th teenager to be killed in the capital this year and the first female victim.

Thomas Nugusse, a 21-year-old student from Ilford in Essex, has been charged with her murder. He will appear at Greenwich Magistrates’ Court today.