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14 tweets,
3 min read
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What is actually going on in our CJS. 11 year old child in cells at a London police station right now. Been there at least an hour before solicitor called. Now told I cannot speak to him until hand over done & officer still has enquiries....no child should be in a cell. Period.
Why do we keep allowing this to happen? Reps fall on deaf ears. Children in cells has become the "norm" in London. What can we do to start properly challenging this? His mother is there. It's not crime of the century either. No need for it.
How do we go about getting a change in the law on this. It should be no child should be put in a police cell unless [insert extreme exceptions] rather than for us to have to persuade the police why they should let a child out of cell. It is all backwards.
Of course, nearly an hour later, Custody now not answering the phone...the other bane of our lives. So, recap: 11 yr old in cells for at least 2 hrs. Prevented from speaking to a solicitor by a "handover". Now prevented from making further reps by lack of police staffing....
This is an 11 yr old child, likely never been arrested before, vulnerable with who knows what MH/needs who is in a cell unnecessarily, delayed from speaking to a solicitor by an administrative police process & an apparent lack of police training. I'm going to be vocal about this
I'm not sure if the wider public know that this kind of thing is going on right under our noses on our own door step. Time people took an interest so that we can collectively try and do something about this. I for one am tired of having to argue for what should be common sense
8pm - still no answer from custody. Longest handover ever? Promised they would call me back straight after so I could speak with child and his mother. So no idea how this child is coping or what is happening at present.
Now at said station. No-one on reception and still no answer from custody number.
Another casualty of cuts. Unmanned front desks at purported to be 24 hr police stations. Been here 15 mins waiting for a human.
Just out! 11 yr old now released under investigation after interview. Allowed to wait with his mother pending decision in a consult room following my reps. Mum shocked when informed her child should not have been in a cell.
Will give a further update tomorrow. It's been a long night! Great to see so much Twitter support on this issue. Will be taking this further with formal complaints to police.
Great to see so much interest & engagement on Twitter re the ongoing problem of children in police cells. Please DM me if you would like to be involved in taking this further. Let's see if we can influence some real change in this area.
Lots of people implying I have not stated offence arrested for. It is Malicious Communications. It is in the tweets somewhere. As it is an ongoing investigation, I cannot tweet further details of the allegation at this time.
Good to hear feedback from police officers' perspective too. Thank you for taking the time to get involved. This needs to be looked at further from all angles.
