A Waste Of Money?

[Unsureme]

Wayne Couzens, 49, has been charged by police after detectives investigated a series of alleged sexual offences.

Police have charged the former police officer with four offences, which were alleged to have taken place in the Swanley area in Greater London.

The alleged offences are:

Indecent exposure between the 22 January 2021 and 1 February 2021
Indecent exposure between 30 January 2021 and 6 February 2021
Indecent exposure on 14 February 2021
Indecent exposure on 27 February 2021
Couzens was charged on Wednesday, 23 March.

The first court appearance is Wednesday, 13 April at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

[Unsureme]

Thought he was doing a Whole Life Sentence.

[dannyk13]

Why do you think that it is a waste of money?

[ToraToraTora]

...and your point is?

[ladybirder]

I don't expect the women he did it to think it is a waste of money.

[dannyk13]

Exactly LB.

[Gromit]

Crimes should be prosecuted, and the law seen to be done.
End of.

[Kardashev]

I see what you are saying if the guy is already in jail for life what's the point in jailing him some more? On the other hand I suppose the current status of an accused is not relevant to our system of prosecution.

[barry1010]

Hopefully it will help his victims if his crimes are formally acknowledged but I don't see how any possible sentence he receives will affect him.

[Gromit]

The crimes were reported to the police in the days immediately prior to him committing rape and murder.
He flashed at staff and customers at a McDonalds restaurant. There was CCTV evidence. The police were alerted, and seemingly nothing happened. Which unfortunately meant he was free to escalate his deviant sexual activity, and an innocent young woman’s life was ended at his doing.
Perhaps the Met have belatedly felt culpable now their useless commissioner has gone?

[dannyk13]

Gromit //and seemingly nothing happened.//
Could have been the fault of the police or of the prosecution service.

[davebro]

bolting the stable door etc.... Damn savage.

[youngmafbog]

Yes he has a whole of life order so no parole(unless things change).

I can see where you are coming from on the waste of money comment.

I can also see where LB is coming from, but these are just 'flashing' crimes from what I can see so it would be a relatively low level crime (2 years max I believe). Maybe if he didnt have a whole life order then maybe it would be different.

[dannyk13]

ymb they are reported and recorded crimes which have to be dealt with.The fact that the accused is serving a long prison sentence does not affect this.

[Peter Pedant]

// Crimes should be prosecuted, and the law seen to be done.
End of.//

end of bollix

of course not every crime is prosecuted. Jesus. Crim 101, lecture 1
not enough minutes in the day

yeah I wondered why they bothered to screw someone who will never get out. And I thought it must be....
to give the flashed-at, closure - "we ( the police) believe you at long last".

which I think is modern cant

[Peter Pedant]

// Could have been the fault of the police or of the prosecution service.//

no the last one, they just said 'oh' and put the phone down

[dannyk13]

PP why do you insist on posting gobbledegook when you are quite capable of posting in good English grammar?

[New Judge]

//On the other hand I suppose the current status of an accused is not relevant to our system of prosecution.//

That's not quite correct. When considering a prosecution the CPS has to undertake a two-part test. The first part is to establish whether there is sufficient evidence to support a reasonable chance of a successful prosecution. The second stage is whether it is "in the public interest" to prosecute. Part of that test involves the likely outcome in the event of a conviction. Clearly nothing will add to the sentence Couzens is already serving. Even if a consecutive sentence was ordered it would make no difference to somebody already serving a whole life sentence. But there is also the interests of the alleged victims to consider and I imagine on balance the CPS decided it was right to proceed.

[davebro]

//PP why do you insist on posting gobbledegook when you are quite capable of posting in good English grammar?//

It's his way of talking down to the (supposedly) ignorant masses.

[Deskdiary]

I'm sure the women concerned would want to see justice, so not, not a waste of money.

But the police are certainly not scared of wasting money.

They spent hundreds of thousands investigating Ted Heath after his death, and at the end decided they would have interviewed him for alleged offences against children.............were he not dead.

[choux]

Surely one reason these offences should be brought to book is to see if there was any negligence by other police officers not taking action at the time of the offence or shortly afterwards?