The Bedford Heist

by Frederick Linden-Wyatt

  Chapter 2. Prison officers Association (POA)

  As I had a free run across all the wings in the prison, I soon got to know most of the staff and built up a rapport with them. After being in my prison of choice for just over two years I was asked by a few staff members if I would take the vacant role of becoming the prisons shop steward for the Prison Officers Association which is the largest union in the United Kingdom representing Uniformed Prison Grades and staff. This is an unpaid role and can take up a lot of your time, but I could see their reason in asking me to take on the role, so I spoke to Jack Smithers the governor, to hear his point of view. Obviously, he couldn’t forbid me to accept but I had always been honest and helpful to him and thought it only right to ask. Jack said that as I was a likeable chap but also level-headed, it shouldn’t be a problem and with the Governors blessing, so I accepted the stewardship.

  Much of my work as shop steward was mundane and the demands of members were nearly always the same from year to year. Members wanted better financial rewards, better protection from violent prisoners and towards the end of my time as shop steward the government was planning to increase the retirement age to 68 for all officers. Protest were made along with a rally and lobbying of Parliament. So large were the numbers that the police closed off Whitehall so that POA members could proudly march behind a piper past Downing Street and Parliament.

  If you were working class, then that meant that you were second class and you had to follow their rules or end up breaking the law. Like all public service providers, we were told that we had to take part in the government’s austerity measures and faced a pay cap of 1% a year. This meant that with the rate of inflation being more than 1% everyone would be paid less in real terms than they were the year before. The bankers and financial leeches of London who caused the crash in 2007/8, faced no such cap and carried on paying themselves massive bonuses, even though their bank continued to make a loss. A lot was said by the government of the day about the austerity measures that it needed to put in place but all that happened was that the poor continued to get poorer and the government continued to borrow more money to balance the books.

  Prison officers wanted the same retirement age granted to policemen who can retire at 60. I pointed out that under Section 8 of the Prison Act 1952, prison officers while acting as such have all the powers, authority, protection and privileges of a police constable. Prison officers can intervene in “999” situations in prisons as well as take proactive steps to prevent a crime, such as arresting members of the public who attempt to smuggle illicit items into prisons such as drugs and mobile phones. Police officers under new pension arrangements will have the right to retire at 60 years of age and we wanted the same option.

  One of the biggest gripes from members was to do with assaults on staff after many years of promises from both Labour and Conservative governments the level of assaults remains unacceptably high. There were 34,112 assault incidents in the 12 months to June 2019, up 5% from the previous year. The use of weapons during assaults is on the increase with almost 200 a year being reported. There needs to be more lockdowns and searches made but to do that there needs to be more prison officers to control the aftermath violence, which always came after a lock-down.

  As a body the POA constantly call on the Government, Ministry of Justice and National Offender Management Service to produce detailed evidence-based reports to support their stance on reducing the levels of violence in prisons. As of now their demands have been ignored. For many years there have been large volumes written about the virtues or otherwise of private sector companies being called upon by the British government to operate our prisons (and many other leading services such as the NHS). The problem I can see with this is that these private companies are run for the profit of their shareholders and not the wellbeing of prisoners. The POA have been consistent in its approach to this issue; the removal of a person’s liberty is a matter for the state; it is then the role of the state and not private enterprise to oversee that loss of liberty.

  Pay was one of the biggest concerns that was mentioned at every meeting. In 2001 the pay and remuneration of POA members working in public sector prisons in England, Wales and Northern Ireland had their levels of pay considered by the Prison Service Pay Review Body. The PSPRB was set up under Section 128 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, as a compensatory mechanism for the removal of the Right to take industrial action under Section 127 of that Act. This process has continued an annual basis despite the POA seeking legal redress, alternative methods and an application to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) because the process is neither fair nor just. One of the questions I have to try and answer to members is this “With the government introducing the 1% pay cap on public service staff it has done away with the Prison Service Pay Review Body as they can no longer set a fair wage level. Members IMO rightly state that if the Government can legally stop the PSPRB from doing its job then the benefit of the removal of the Right to take industrial action under Section 127 of that Act should also be classed as null and void. The government can’t have its cake as well as eat it.

  Chapter 3. Haylee the love of my life

  During one of my home leaves whilst in the army I met Haylee and there was an instant liking between us however Haylee didn’t want a serious relationship with someone who had such a dangerous job as I had. We decided to be good friends and she would write to me during my time overseas but we both knew that the candle had been lit and only God could blow it out. Within months of leaving the army we were always together and decided to get married in 1991. Haylee was a couple of years younger than me and we met by chance just over 24 odd years ago when we were introduced by a friend at a local fund-raising function to do with the village school where Haylee worked. Apparently, the infant school needed urgent repairs that the county couldn’t afford, so it was left up to teachers and parents to do what they could. We all pay our council tax and country taxes but that apparently isn’t enough to provide the future generation with a decent school. I never really went for teachers having been put off by them when I was at school. It took them two years to realise that I was dyslexic, and it took a lot of hard work to get back those lost years.

  My dad always joked that he had wanted to be a schoolteacher but thought he should get a full-time job instead of a part-time one. He always said that the teachers had far too many holidays especially during the summer. He loved telling the story of when he was a child, he went to Kent every summer with his family to pick fruit and hops. Those years were some of the happiest he could remember. He always liked to point out to any teacher that he met that the long holidays were introduced so the kids could help bring in the harvest. Now it’s all done by massive combines and kids would become lost if they went anywhere near a field. Once I had met Haylee I was hooked. They say that you only get one chance in life to find your true soulmate and this had been my chance. We mostly liked the same things apart from my previous job as a soldier in the British army.

  Haylee hated anything to do with war which was probably due to her losing her favourite uncle who was in the British navy during the Falkland conflict in 1982, when a right old argy bargee was going on thousands of miles away from the UK. He was a sailor on the HMS Sheffield which was hit by an Exocet air-launched anti-ship missile from a Super Etendard aircraft belonging to the Argentine Navy on 4 May 1982 and foundered on 10 May 1982. Her uncle was killed by the direct hit, so he didn’t know a lot about it. According to her aunt it was a further 6 days before the ship finally sank but not before a further 19 brave sailors had died. She said it was on the news every day but in them days you couldn’t click on the record button to save things and she wished that she had. She went on to learn a lot about the HMS Sheffield and had a completed folder with photos and love letters from her uncle. She once told us that she had found out that the ship was built at the Vickers in Barrow-in-Furness in 1970. During its construction, an explosion killed two dockyard workers and
damaged a section of the hull which was replaced with a section from an identical ship, Hercules, being built for the Argentine Navy. She joked that Argentina were only trying to get back what they felt was theirs by right. Having heard about Haylee’s reasons, you could see why she hated anything to do with war, so we never raised that subject ever again.

  As Haylee was a schoolteacher, she said that she had enough of kids during the day and that she never really wanted a family of her own. At first, we never discussed the matter but after five years relatives kept asking the same question. When are you going to have a baby together? For the next few years, we kept coming back with the same old answer that we would, when the time was right but that never stopped them popping the question every time we met up. In the end we decided to change our story and say that we couldn’t have children and no we were not going to try IVF or adopt. In the end they stopped asking. Haylee loved teaching and according to parent’s she was good at her job and the kids thought she was the bee’s knees. She was offered promotion several times but she didn’t want it nor did she need the extra salary as I was working full time as a prison counsellor and with both of us earning a reasonable amount, we didn’t want the extra paperwork that comes with promotion. As we both loved walking, we decided to get a dog to add an extra extension to our family. We had been speaking about the idea for several years and discussed whether we should by a pedigree puppy or go for a rescue dog. We both liked the rescue idea and went along to our local pet rescue centre to talk about rehoming. They asked about our line of work and when we told them that we both worked full time their interest level hit rock bottom. Haylee explained that her workplace was a few minutes’ walk from her school, so she could come home at lunchtime and let the dog out in the garden for an empty. My wife also mentioned that she was home at around 4pm every school day so it shouldn’t be that bad. The rescue centre said that they would have to do a home check just to see if the garden was secure and we arranged for them to come and visit on a date that we knew we would both be able to attend. The lady who did the home check was pleased with what she saw, and she said that the centre would write to us in a weeks’ time with their decision. We spoke about what type of dog we should get. Haylee like small compact dogs like the Norwich terrier but I have always wanted to own a large dog and loved the look of Rottweilers and German Shepherds. We were accepted by the rescue centre and was invited to come along for a chat and talk about suitability of certain breeds. We decided to wait a few months so that we could take a holiday at the beginning of the summer school holidays and then hopefully we could have a few weeks at home, so that the new dog could settle in.

  Well that’s what we planned to do but there are always dogs around the prison including sniffer dogs who can detect drugs and larger dogs for security. One of the dog handlers named Jake had become a close friend of mine over the years and obviously he was delighted to hear that we were going to rescue. I met Jake one day at the prison and he had this beautiful German shepherd dog with him that looked stunning. I went up to say hello and the dog jumped up and wanted to kiss me. I said that was nice and my friend said no it isn’t. He said that he had been trying to get the dog to look more threatening, but he was losing the battle. I asked my friend what would happen to the dog if he didn’t make the grade. He said that it would be put down as they never liked offering trained dogs to rescue centres as you never know where they will end up. I told him that I would buy him and I’m sure the dog could understand as he jumped up and licked my face. I said that I would have to speak with Haylee about it but I couldn’t see a problem.

  When I got home, Haylee had dinner ready and she opened a bottle of red wine which went well with the rib-eye steaks. I told Haylee about the wonderful GSD I had seen at work but as it wasn’t aggressive looking it was going to be put to sleep in few days’ time as the dog didn’t make the grade. She said that that was awful and asked why the dog couldn’t be put up for re-homing at a rescue centre. I explained that the prison service never did that as they could never be sure how the dog would cope with children and other animals. Haylee looked sad and said that that was wrong and couldn’t we give the dog a home. I smiled at her and said that I would speak with Jake in the morning and ask the question.

  No sooner had we finished dinner she switched on her laptop and started to read about the breed. She asked what colour the dog was and told her that it had a lovely tan/gold colour on parts of his head and neck, but the rest was black apart from some tan colouring on his back legs. She picked up the laptop and we both moved to the table so we could both see some pictures on Google images. Haylee asked me to show here the colouring and I pointed to one picture and said that he could be the dog but his hindquarters didn’t slope like that. Haylee said that the dog was a black and tan and the picture was of a champion dog that had won more championship shows than any other GSD last year. She said that she didn’t like the sloping rear end as it didn’t look as if the dog could last an hour herding sheep let alone days in the field. Haylee also said that sooner or later it would cause health problems in the breed and wondered when the kennel club would do something about it. She also said that she never understood why a breeder would want to produce puppies that would end up with a health problem. They’re supposed to love their animals, but many were only interested in winning a small trophy and a rosette, then the wellbeing of the animal. She kept reading and she said that the new sloping rear was the latest fashion, but she said that there were a lot of people stating that the dog wasn’t fit for purpose and therefore shouldn’t have become a champion.

  She showed me a picture of Ramacon Swashbuckler a GSD who had become Crufts best in show winner in 1971 and another picture of the best in show winner in 1965 named Fenton of Kentwood. Both dogs had a non-sloping rear and did look like they would run and run all day long. Haylee did read that a lot of puppies were prone to hip dysplasia, so they would have to check that out. I saw Jake at work the next day and asked if we could come over on Saturday to meet the dog. We set a time and I phoned Haylee with the good news. Well Haylee was so excited she reminded me of a child waiting for Santa to arrive on Christmas Eve. When she met the dog, it was love at first sight and we said that we would love to offer him a loving forever home. We arranged to collect our new family member on the following Saturday as this would give us time to get everything it would need. We did ask about his hip score and he showed us that it was fine. He had been neutered and his vaccinations were up to date. We asked about his diet and were given a sheet explaining what and when he was fed but was told that we would have to change to tinned meat as he cooked his own tripe as he need a lot of it. We called in Pets at Home on the way back and Haylee was like a little girl let loose in a toy shop. We decided to call him Robin as Haylee’s dad had been a great lover of Robin Hood. We had some great holidays with Robin, and he went everywhere with us. We visited every corner of the UK and met some wonderful people and fellow dog lovers along the way.

  Move forward a few years and everything was going along nicely but Robin kept jumping up and sniffing at Haylee’s breast. He had never done this before, and we thought it strange and promised to ask Jake if this was a common trait with GSD’s. Before I had the chance to ask Jake, Haylee noticed that she had a small lump in her right breast. Her GP sent her for a mammogram and the nurse could feel the tiniest lump on her inner right breast. After ultrasound and biopsy, we were told that it was cancer. We were both shell shocked but we both carried on convincing each other that everything would be fine as treatment was much better these days and new drugs were being developed on a regular basis. After a short discussion we chose the bilateral mastectomy with immediate reconstruction route first. Surgery determined no node involvement, early stage but triple positive. As my wife’s original diagnostics which showed that she had a form of breast cancer known as HER2 positive and after talking with two oncologists, we decided to do the dreaded chemo for extra insurance. As an extra protection she would be given t
he drug called Trastuzumab which was available on the NHS. Haylee finished her last Taxol 6 months after diagnosis, and she had Herceptin for a further year. It was a very bad time for both of us as the chemo was very tough. She obviously took sick leave and I also took time off work to become her full-time career.

  Robin stayed by her side and wouldn’t leave her. We realised that Robin had warned her that something was wrong and Haylee had said that she had read that many dogs could smell cancer on a person and a lot of work was being done to test more types of cancer and other life threatening problems. Haylee spent a lot of her time on her laptop finding out more about dogs detecting cancer and she found lots of charities working with various owners who’s dogs were detecting various illnesses and making their owner aware of any problems such has knowing when the owner was about to have a fit. She did say that the vast majorities were charities and relied on donations to continue their research and she found it difficult to understand why the government sent millions of pounds overseas every year instead of investing the money in these charities research programs.

  About six-months after the chemo ended Robin looked ill so we took him to our local vet who took blood test and gave Robin an injection of steroids to see if that would help. A few days later we were called back and was told that Robin’s kidneys were packing up and there was little else he could do. We asked him if he was in pain and he said that he was, but we could give him pain killers to help but there was nothing we could do to fix the kidney problem. He was honest with us and said the only thing we could do was to put him to sleep so that he was no longer in pain. The vet said to go away and think about it and let him know our decision. We went home and both cried in each other’s arms and Robin came up to give us both a big cuddle. We decided that the best thing would be to put him to sleep so that he was no longer in pain and I decided to call the vet the next morning and make the appointment. He said that it was the right choice and showed him just how much we loved Robin. I stayed with him while he passed over the rainbow bridge and we had asked for him to be cremated and for his ashes to be returned. We decided to plant a rose bush in the garden and sprinkled his ashes around it. The rose bush grew, and its flowers were of a bright golden tan colour, just like Robin.