Behind the Crime

by Colin Ferguson

  I was able to assess the effects of this by getting permission to study for a master’s degree at Reading University in Criminal Justice and this joint agency work was the subject of my final dissertation. Working academically with seven police officers was quite a challenge as well. Ultimately, the work was so successful that Social Services were able to take on all the juvenile work and my team took on all the Family Court work in the county.

  Before we began to specialise, there were some cases with which I was involved, here are a few of them.

  The Brick

  The brick is one case that we were not able to deal with in this fashion as Sue insisted on pleading not guilty. Cautions could only be given if the offender confessed. Sue was a lively young girl (16) who had been charged with criminal damage, having thrown a brick through a school window. I was on court duty that day and she was insisting on pleading not guilty so the case was put back and I was asked to have a word with her.

  She had been to a party at the school and as she was leaving a pupil at the school (which was a boarding school), leaned out of the window and shouted abuse at her.

  She found half a brick and threw it at him. She said she didn’t intend to break the window. She accepted my advice that a broken window was better than attempted murder. The court then put her on probation.

  During the time on probation, she married at seventeen and had two children before the two years were up. Like so many other lively clients, I found her both challenging and likeable.

  A classic example of her life was when her husband to be was attacked by a gang, she went to his defence and drove them away. She was only five-foot tall but she had a six-foot temper. I just hope her husband never upset her! She did calm down when her first baby was born and motherhood seemed to suit her well in spite of her young age.

  Broken Jaw

  When I saw ‘John’ for the first time, he had his jaw wired up as the result of being attacked in a pub car park, during which he had been robbed of what little money he had. Homeless, alcoholic, unwanted by his family and heavily in debt with a long list of fines for drink related offences, John did not know how to cope except to drink more.

  Prison came as a blessing to him as it was a way of clearing his court debts and it gave him time to sober up and heal from his injuries.

  ‘John’ was a Sikh and going to prison was deeply shameful. He found it hard to accept my help, which as he was a prisoner was voluntary and not part of any order. When he realised that I was really trying to help him and not wash my hands of him, it made him make a real effort. I found a bed and breakfast place for him on his release. He joined alcoholics anonymous and got himself a job as a cleaner in a local hotel. He wanted to help and to build up his own self-respect again and so his landlord took a chance and let him become the site manager.

  It was like an apprenticeship for John who determined to buy a house and to let the rooms out. This idea became an obsession with him and he saved every penny that he could.

  The result was that, in little more than a year he had enough to buy a terraced house. He lived in one room and controlled the kitchen.

  The other four rooms were let out to other homeless people that we had contact with. His official contact with me was by now over but he kept in contact and often invited me over to see what he had done to the house and then to the second house that he bought. He only took referrals from the Probation Service as a way of saying thanks.

  He re-established contact with his sons now that he had recovered his pride and been able to achieve something with his life. He did have a brief breakdown but it actually made him realise his fragility and that he was still an alcoholic and could not drink any alcohol at all.

  After two years, he bought a car. Fortunately, he had never had a car in his drinking years. He was a rather ferocious landlord and would accompany his residents to the social security to make sure he had the rent before they got to the pub. The car got bigger and a third house was bought.

  When I last saw him, he stopped his car in the road to greet me and thank me for believing in him. As he drove off he leaned out of the car and said, “It’s a long way from broken jaw!”

  Prison broke his cycle of dependence and set him free to change his life around with just one person believing in him and his own desire to be respectable again.

  Ginger

  He may have only been fourteen but he was very tall for his age and had a mop of ginger hair. Stealing cars was therefore not a good idea as he was always readily identified. Like many young boys, TWOC (taking without consent) was almost addictive as it made them feel in control of their lives which otherwise were chaotic.

  Changing to bicycles was certainly safer for the community but still very noticeable except now he only rode when it was dark. He became one of a group of young cycle thieves who were responsible for a mini crime wave with their stealing of bikes. Their downfall was when Ginger was seen riding a touring bike which had been stolen from a professional cyclist.

  It was not long before the whole gang were in court. One of them came from a house with a large garden and a shed at the bottom of the garden which was not used. Here the bikes were kept and stripped of saleable items. Some of the bikes which could not readily be identified were being used by members of the gang. Gingers love of speed was their undoing.

  They were quite professional in their disposal of the stolen parts with an advert in the local paper giving a mobile number belonging to one of the older boys. His bedroom was like a small junk shop. The parents were all astounded by what their children had been doing, especially as they too had to be in court.

  A Kiss at Waitrose

  Sometimes, it is later that you discover how effective your work has been and this was certainly the case with Mary

  I am not often surprised by what happens but when a young woman at the other end of the aisle suddenly squealed my name and rushed up to me, grabbed me in an affectionate hug and kissed me, I was a bit nonplussed and the staff seemed quite amused.

  Fortunately, I soon recognised her. Mary didn’t stay long but thanked me for saving her life by giving her so much support and encouragement some fifteen years ago when she had been at the point of killing herself because her life had become so awful.

  I did remember her and indeed she was a much-changed person. When she had been taken to court by Social Security for making a false claim, she was pregnant, with two small children, her husband had just gone to prison for a lengthy sentence leaving her with massive debts.

  His abuse of her had led to her being cut off from all her friends and family. She was truly alone and in desperate circumstances. Just before the court case, she lost her baby.

  It was soon clear to me that her husband had been making the false claims and that she was now being underpaid by the Social Security.

  The court gave her a year’s probation order and asked me to try and sort out the confusion with Social Security.

  Although I helped by getting some early financial support and some new furniture to replace what the bailiffs had taken, most of what I did was to enable her to go to the right places and take control over her own life.

  With my support she soon showed her ability to manage. It was a long and slow process but eventually Social Security accepted they were wrong and gave her the support to which she had always been due. It was not long after that housing found her more suitable accommodation.

  She told me briefly that she was now at work in a refuge centre helping people who were like her.

  As her order finished, we kept in touch for a while just to help with advice. Then she was away until that kiss in Waitrose.

  The Long Shadow

  I saw Lorna for over twenty years as she needed a long-term relationship she could believe in. Initially, she came to us by being sent to the Elizabeth Fry Hostel in Reading. They were reluctant to take her initially as she came from Nottingham area with a record of truculence and drug abuse. For some reason, I thought she w
as just the sort of girl that they should be helping. I was right for she desperately needed a period of stability.

  It took time to get her story from her but she had suffered physical abuse from her father until her mother left for a new partner. Then as she got older, her stepfather began to sexually abuse her and so did her brother. When she ran away, she stole food and hid in the bus station. When she was arrested, she refused to go home but was scared to say why because her mother would not believe her.

  She was just settling at the hostel when she was attacked and raped in Reading. The attacker was arrested and jailed but the psychological effect on her was to make her withdraw into herself to such an extent that she could not bear anyone to touch her.

  She took to carrying a large knife with her and when her then probation officer tried to take it off her, she attacked him. I heard the row and went into the office to find them rolling on the floor. My colleague held the knife out to me and I took it from him. Immediately, she let him go but I left the room with the knife while my colleague tried to calm her down.

  She came to my office about quarter of an hour later. We talked for a while and she told me that she always had the knife with her as it was the only way she felt safe.

  Much against my better judgement, I gave the knife back to her telling her to keep it out of view.

  I also took charge of her order myself as my colleague was badly shaken by the experience. The fact I had returned her knife, gave her a sense of trust in me. She knew I would keep my word.

  The storms were never far away from Lorna. She overdosed on antidepressant tablets several times and although she always reported as required it was only towards the end of her order that she began to talk about her history of being abused.

  About this time, NACRO set up a project for long term unemployed people and Lorna was well suited to this job. Perhaps, because my wife was working with the scheme, Lorna agreed to give it a try. It was perfect for her. She was safe and showed that she could be trusted by becoming the wages clerk for three years until the scheme was closed down due to funding being transferred. She immediately applied for and got a new job but left this as soon as she felt threatened but still found another job. She was there for three months when she was sacked and accused of stealing.

  She was devastated and not guilty of the charge. Her anger vented itself on the shop window. The court was sympathetic and back on our books she came. Six months later, the supervisor who had accused her was arrested and charged for the thefts.

  Sadly, Lorna was never able to work again as she returned to her drug abuse, and her distrust of everyone.

  The day that Lorna gave me a hug was such a surprise because of her fear of being touched. It was the high point of her trust in me. During that last order, she often ran short of money and we had a five-pound note that went back and forward because she always paid it back. On one occasion when she seemed very down, my secretary was worried that she might do herself harm. Lorna waved the money at her – “Don’t worry I have to pay my debts.”

  She still depended on antidepressant drugs but also went into an anorexic state wanting to deny her female sexuality. Part of this was the abuse of Exlax chocolate. When at the age of forty she caught flu, her system was unable to cope any longer and it developed into pneumonia and she died.

  We went to the funeral and watched as her cardboard coffin passed through the curtains. As she had shown in her time at NACRO, she was an intelligent and able young woman but her life was so dominated by the long shadow of her abuse that only her death would have given her peace.

  The Latter Days

  The move to being the County Court Welfare Officer brought a new range of challenges as I had to build my team up from scratch and find an office suitable for children.

  I now had a team of six officers in three offices across the county. It was my last job in probation and the one which gave enormous satisfaction as we were able to be involved in a positive way. My team was first class.

  Although I had always written reports for the County Court in divorce cases when the care of the child was in dispute, I was now charged with managing the county team and it was in some ways more fraught than criminal work and often more criminal.

  I recall a few examples out of the many sad cases we had to deal with where a murder resulted. The father, in both cases, was obsessed with his ‘ownership’ of the family and killed them rather than lose them. There is often a fine line in such cases about the best interests of the children. Normally, it is always in the best interests of children to have good contact with both parents and they have a right to that. The parents though have a right to be parents but not to have access to the children if they are a risk to the child. Determining that is always a very fine line.

  The stories of the Divorce Court are not for telling in this book as they might refer to people who could be identified but these two incidents show how close it is sometimes to say what is criminal.

  Excuses

  Mr H. was trying to get contact with his children but this was being wilfully refused by their mother. I was tasked with trying to find out what the children felt. They two older children both wanted to see their father but the three-year old was too young to be asked. I arranged for them to meet father in a neutral setting, but again mother refused to let the children go.

  Court hearings were similarly not attended and when mother was actually summonsed to attend, she claimed that she could not come because she was breastfeeding the baby. As the baby was nearly four, her excuse was barely credible.

  The only recourse the court were left with was to commit her for contempt but father was not able to offer the children a home as he had moved out of the family home when the marriage broke down and now lived in a one bedroom flat and as such he was not willing to risk the children’s welfare and so withdrew his application.

  No crime as such was committed but Mother’s behaviour was close to being abuse, though she cared for them perfectly well on a physical level.

  The second excuse matter related to a couple who had been separated for two years and Father was getting very concerned at Mother’s negative influence on their son

  I saw the child when he was with his father and the relationship was very good with both Father and his new partner. He wanted the child to come and live with them because he thought the mother was planning to leave the country. I arranged to visit Mother but twice my appointment was cancelled at the last minute. Eventually, I visited without an appointment. The house was empty.

  I was able to contact the grandmother and discovered from her that Mother had in fact left to live in Germany with her new partner. In this case, the court issued a summons for her arrest.

  The third case was again a question of the mother refusing the children’s access to their father purely out of spite because he had a new partner.

  I called to see her and the children. I was told that they didn’t want to see me and that they were scared of me. I insisted that I should see them. Sure enough, they were hiding when I called but I saw the girl behind the settee. I said, “Boo,” and she began to laugh. They had been told to hide from me.

  Mother came back into the room and they sat close to her while I explained that I was not here to take them away but just to find out if they wanted to see their father. Mother quickly said, “No, they don’t want to see him.”

  As she did so the girl, who was about eight, looked her straight in the eye and said, “That’s not true, Mummy. You know we want to see Daddy.”

  I like eight-year olds, they seem to have no fear. But that was to Mother’s credit for with all her animosity the children were quite able to be different, and yes, they did get to see Dad.

  Yvonne had been ‘forced’ by her husband into prostitution, not an uncommon problem for prostitutes, and had escaped with her daughter when she feared that the child might become involved as well. She was in hiding and did not even let me know where she was living. Her husband applie
d for the custody of their child, citing her prostitution as a reason for him to have the child.

  I had to contact her through her mother’s Church minister and she did call in to see me and bring her daughter once she had realised that I would not tell her husband where she was. He tried to get the judge to make me reveal her address and did get a court hearing at which I was summonsed to attend. He was there with a girlfriend. I was able to assure the court that the child was being well cared for and was happy with her mother and that it would not be in the interests of either of them to have contact. The court accepted what I said but insisted that the mother should come in person.

  Yvonne was terrified but when she was given an assurance that she would be protected if need be. She bravely went and told the judge what sort of life she had been subjected to. The application of the husband was refused in the best interests of the child.

  The End and a New Beginning

  Sadly, I became the architect of my own early retirement when we had an inspection and I just let him see how we were. The result was that we got an extra officer but my job was downgraded to half time as the extra post was to stop me from having to do some reports myself. I had always felt it important to be hands on and to show and not just tell my team what to do.

  I was immensely proud of the standard of work and their dedication, and I still am. When I retired in 1994, most of them continued the work until their own retirements.

  This was also a time when we developed new ideas. Mediation was sponsored by probation and based at the County Court, so I became the liaison officer on their management committee. When I retired from probation, I retrained as a mediator and worked there until at seventy, I decided to retire. I remained on the committee for a few years but age was catching up on me.