It’s a tale of two Britains. On the one hand, two law-abiding, hard-working, much-loved and selfless members of their community, of the kind that make up the backbone of our society. On the other, a bunch of feral, arrogant, reckless thugs, a menace to themselves and others who spread terror and chaos and destroy everything in their path.
The death of two serving police officers, PC Tom Clough, 38, and PC Matt Blades, 37, after their patrol car collided with a stolen VW Passat driving the wrong way on the A66 places these two very different worlds into stark contrast.
Despite their tender ages, the five occupants of the stolen car – 17-year-old Cole Worthy, Theo Rae, also 17, Makai Saddington, 18, Jakub Matusiak, 23, and Michael Cahill, 23 – who also died in the crash, had a string of previous convictions between them.
They ranged from driving without a licence or insurance and driving while using a mobile phone to shoplifting, assaulting a police officer, possession of cannabis, possession of a knife in a public place and vehicle theft.
By contrast, their victims had led exemplary lives. PC Clough, described by his friends and family as a ‘superhero’ with a cheeky wit, spent his entire adult life in public service, starting with a stint in the Army, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, before joining the police and excelling in a variety of specialist roles.
PC Blades was a much-loved English teacher in Darlington before joining the police, where he was part of Cleveland Police’s elite armed response unit. He also volunteered as a football coach at the club where his two young sons played.
Flares were set off at a ‘vigil’ for the five youths, where they roared around on motorbikes and quad bikes in a field in Middlesbrough, close to the scene of the crash
PC Tom Clough, 38, died after his patrol car collided with a stolen VW Passat driving the wrong way on the A66
PC Matt Blades, 37, was also killed. He was part of Cleveland Police’s elite armed response unit and also volunteered as a football coach at the club where his two young sons played
Seventeen people have so far been arrested in connection with the fatal crash, including a 16-year-old boy, a 55-year-old on suspicion of assisting an offender and a 23-year-old accused of making threats to kill. There are now also suspicions that the whole thing was gang-related, with the stolen car chasing a rival gang as part of a violent feud between criminal networks in Teesside.
I’ll probably get into trouble for saying this, but I don’t care, I’m going to say it anyway. When I read the horrific details of this story, I have to admit the shocking thought that crossed my mind: I’m not sad those thugs are dead. I only wish that in destroying their own lives they hadn’t also destroyed those of two officers: two kind, brave men whose names scarcely deserve to be spoken in the same sentence.
As to the obnoxious throngs of balaclava-clad youths, many too cowardly to show their faces, who set off flares and fireworks at a ‘vigil’ (it was more like a riot) for the five on Monday, roaring around on motorbikes and quad bikes in a field in Middlesbrough close to the scene of the crash, they’re just as bad.
What a revolting display of misplaced solidarity. But the very fact that these people feel they can so brazenly idolise known criminals and potential gang members goes to the heart of the problem.
You would have thought they would want to keep their heads down, what with a police investigation in full swing.
But they’re not scared. They know they have nothing really to fear from the police or, for that matter, any other authority. They know that their actions won’t have any real consequences. Because they don’t.
There are many reasons for this. A police force hamstrung by decades of incompetence and political correctness, in which a few exemplary individuals such as PCs Clough and Blades strive to do their jobs under huge pressure and against the odds.
A political class more worried about diversity than law and order, and far too willing to dance to the tune of the liberal intelligentsia, who have no concept of what front-line policing actually entails. A justice system that has no real teeth when it comes to dealing with systemic criminality of this kind – and nowhere to put the knuckleheads anyway, if they do by some miracle manage to secure a conviction.
And a culture – fuelled by social media and embedded generation after generation via TV, film and popular music – that encourages, rewards and lionises moral degradation and casual violence.
Is it any wonder these kids think they are above the law?
The killing of 28-year-old PC Andrew Harper, the newlywed young officer who responded to a report of a burglary involving a stolen quad bike one fatal night in August 2019, is a case in point. As he tried to apprehend the suspects – Henry Long, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole – his foot became entangled in their getaway vehicle’s tow-rope. He died from catastrophic injuries after they dragged him down a country road.
PC Andrew Harper was days away from heading off on honeymoon with his wife Lissie when he died from catastrophic injuries after a getaway vehicle dragged him down a country road
PC Harper was just days away from heading off on honeymoon with his wife Lissie. Characteristically, he had just come off duty when the 999 call came through and stayed behind to help. It cost him his life, and his widow their future together.
At their trial, Bowers and Cole were pictured smirking for the cameras, clearly unrepentant. Convicted of manslaughter (not murder, as many felt was warranted) in 2020, the pair are now slated for early release in January of next year, meaning that they will have served six and a half years.
That’s right: six and a half years. For dragging a man to his death behind their car. That’s less than the maximum sentence for shoplifting (seven years, since you ask).
Despite a petition demanding they remain in jail for their full terms having over one million signatories, there is no clear indication from the Government of any concrete plans to stop them. Like many other violent criminals who stand to benefit from the drive to ease prison overcrowding, they could soon be living life to the full again while PC Harper’s family endure a life sentence of pain and sadness with no chance of parole.
PC Harper’s case had other parallels with the A66 deaths. It brought into sharp relief not only the lads’ complete lack of contrition or empathy with the victim or his family, but also their own community’s disgraceful attitude.
Friends and family of the three convicted were deliberately obstructive to the police investigation, erecting what investigators described as a ‘wall of silence’.
In other words, far from being ostracised, PC Harper’s killers were protected by their kith and kin and their barbaric crime treated as though it were almost a badge of honour. When the lesser verdict of manslaughter was handed down, they celebrated in court, hugging each other while PC Harper’s heartbroken widow sobbed in the courtroom.
This is not the Britain most people want or deserve. And yet it is the Britain we have become, through a combination of weakness and wokeness. Unless the police, the courts, the justice system and the Government show that they are deadly serious about handing down extreme punishment for extreme crimes, nothing will change.
Good men (and women) will continue to lose their lives; the public will be left at risk – and the massed ranks of the morally reprehensible will continue to swell, fuelled by inertia, incompetence and a culture that rewards heroes by letting their killers off the hook.
