Cornwall Homophobic Hate Crime Incident Statement

Malcolm Lidbury
Rivendell
Wheal Vor
Breage
TR13 9NQ

Tel:- retracted

10th Jan 2009

OPEN LETTER

To:- PC Steven Cannon, Diversity Officer Devon & Cornwall Constabulary


Dear PC Cannon

I have been informed by a gay friend of mine that you have asked him to obtain a written witness statement from me regarding the homophobic abuse & intimidation against him, which I witnessed last year.

I wish to ‘publicly’ make it quite clear I am willing to make a written statement regarding this matter; however, I feel you are being less than honest with the gay victim & deceitful regarding Devon & Cornwall police negative & prejudicial attitudes towards written statements given by the public regarding gay hate crime & homophobic incidents.

I am fully aware, as are you, that written statements given by the public & not taken down by police officers have NO VALIDITY with Devon & Cornwall Constabulary.

I know this in reference to the Forty-Eight witness statements given by members of the public in defence of a gay man in Cornwall falsely accused of serious offences, these statements disregarded by Cornwall police in order to corruptly suppress knowledge of the violations & abuses of gay people being carried out in Cornwall by police.

ALL of which Forty Eight public written statements were disregarded & excluded by the dishonesty & corruption, a common place feature of Devon & Cornwall Constabulary dealings with gay people in Cornwall, along with the suppression of other physical evidence.

I am painfully aware that this sort of Cornwall police corruption & homophobic attitudes & practises by Cornwall police officers is commonplace within and throughout the Cornwall police force when dealing with gay persons.

I can & have of course given previously numerous examples and did so in writing as a witness in the governments Human Right Commission enquiry last year. I am aware there were over 1,200 complaints made against Devon & Cornwall police last year, many of the complaints from gay, lesbian, bisexual & transgender persons completely disregarded & ignored entirely without investigation…as is the way with this corrupt & deeply homophobic Cornwall police force.

I am fully aware that even if a member of the public gives a voluntary statement it will be disregarded by Cornwall police if it contains witness evidence of abusive police practises against gay persons…as happened following the violent assault upon a Mr Lealand in May 2006.

I am also aware (Stonewall 2008) that only 1% of homophobic crime reported to the police results in a prosecution, primarily due to the homophobic attitudes & practises of police…in a similar manor to the police homophobia, which obstructed investigation as exposed by the enquiry into the Stephen Lawrence murder.

Therefore: Knowing as I do the level of corrupt practise, dishonesty, abuse, & violation of gay peoples lives that is accepted & protected normal conduct & behaviour of numerous police officers within the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary I believe the ONLY way in which I can safeguard my written evidence and my willingness to give evidence is by doing so transparently, openly & publicly to ensure Cornwall police do not withhold or suppress evidence as is their known habit with gay related incidents in Cornwall.

To summarise:

• I am willing to give a written statement regarding the homophobic incident I witnessed
• I will do so in writing, but insist that a police officer also takes a written statement from me and my own statement is also submitted as evidence and noted within the police statement
• I will require a witness present to ensure Cornwall police do not falsify or write anything other than the statement I shall give.
• I strongly suggest that none of the still serving homophobically abusive Cornwall police officers I have previously encountered, named & identified for their homophobic practises & attitudes are involved in taking of the statement (a list of which can be provided or simply read my blog)

Yours sincerely

Malcolm Lidbury
http://www.pinkpasty.blogspot.com

This open letter also posted to my blogspot

The above letter sent vis email to Devon & Cornwall Constabulary today 10th January 2008