Ceri Black update on invitation to interview v. arrest

[EmbarrassingHadrosaurus]

Ceri Black has ovaries of steel and my admiration grows for her and her indomitable spirit.

The following is all from her Twitter update thread.

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Update: there has been some back and forth between my solicitor, the police and myself.

They have invited me again to come voluntarily to the station to be interviewed under caution.

I politely declined their offer.

They made a series of other offers.

They offered to come to my house to interview me voluntarily here.

I politely declined.

They offered to interview me voluntarily at a location of my choice.

I politely declined.

They suggested that I be interviewed by female officers.

I politely declined.

y solicitor politely declined every offer they made to me.

The police then informed my solicitor that if I was to be arrested, they would be sure to let both me and my solicitor know beforehand, and arrange a time convenient to me.

They would not cuff or manhandle me.

They would have me spend as little time as possible at the station.

This is reassuring and emboldening to me; I know that I can walk through that experience with my head held high.

haven't (yet) been given either a date and time for my arrest, or a reassurance that I will not be arrested. Either way, I will keep you informed as soon as I have either.

In the mean time, please do keep up the pressure on
@PSNIABC
and the chief constable.

hey are arresting a survivor of childhood sexual abuse for the crime of saying that paedophiles and paedophile enablers are bad.

I don't want to be insulting, but shouldn't they be out arresting, I dunno, paedophiles and vexatious complainants?

For absolute shame.

twitter.com/FemmeLoves/status/1453020812135522314

I don't post much on here, but one of my oldest friends sent me the link to this thread, and...

I don't even quite know what to say.

Just, shoulder to shoulder with you all x

Bottom line, assembled mums/witches/powerful women...

It is unlikely that I will have to go to prison over this.

But if I do have to? If I have to go to prison for saying that paedophiles and their enablers are bad?

Ok.

I checked my own self and, that's ok with me.

Whatever.

Just let's have eyes on safeguarding. Let's keep children safe.

Shoulder to shoulder.

You bloody brilliant bunch of women. You can't even know how much you have emboldened me.

Shield wall.

Ceri.

We walk beside you.

Ceri I don't even know you but I have read your speech three times. What they are threatening you with is unbelievable. And you are so strong in response. ❤️ and

Ceri your published speech is so powerful. Attempts to silence Women Who Dare To Voice Opinions must stop. Thank you for standing up to these bullies, at considerable personal cost.

Just curious - have they said what the specific offence is they wish to interview you for?

Ceri

Thank you for all you're doing re child safeguarding! We should never be afraid to talk about it.

You're lovely, compassionate (the way you speak about your wife and your boys is ❤️). Your courage in the face of this is inspiring. Keep on. We're behind you all the way 💪💪

Ceri 💝💝💝❤️🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

Ceri I've followed you on Twitter for some time and your posts are inciteful and powerful, but never hateful. We're all behind you.

Ooo CallMe I hope you mean insightful

Do I infer correctly that the "complainant" is the same man who was offended by ribbons at a bus stop, or have I got that wrong?

Strength to you, Ceri.

@CeriBlack we’ve got your back x

@Mochudubh

Do I infer correctly that the "complainant" is the same man who was offended by ribbons at a bus stop, or have I got that wrong?

You would be correct.

It's wonderful to see you on here, Ceri. Glad that you're keeping strong.

I imagine the prosecutor will throw this ridiculous case out very quickly and, with any luck, will tell the police to find more important matters to get on with. But you never know.

Has there been any coverage of your case in the NI media at all?

Ceri, thank you for your strength.

Ceri

I've just read the original blog post. Brava, Ceri, brava!

I've no evidence, but I don't reckon the senior management of PSNI were aware, at least up until recently, about the harassment Ceri was getting from some officers.

Hence the recent announcement of a 'review' of the relationship with Stonewall.

I reckon Ceri has been harassed by a cabal of 'Stonewalled' PSNI officers. Conceivably that cabal could include Public Prosecution Service (the equivalent of the CPS) staff, but there's no evidence of it yet, and Ceri hasn't actually been subject to a charge, let alone an interview under caution.

It does rather sound like an effort to shut-her-up, which has patently failed, leaving the cabal with the choice of backing-down or trying a more threatening stance (the caution) which ratchets-up the risk to them even more of being exposed. They've chosen the latter, and it has failed.

I would recommend she and her solicitor consider a complaint to the PSNI's Professional Standards Department, which if accepted, might be willing to investigate and uncover that cabal. Certainly that would be a get-out for the PSNI; that some officers were engaged in unauthorised activity against a citizen. If not accepted, it would lumber the PSNI's senior management with an association with the harassment-to-date, which would be tough to wriggle out of later.

It might be possible for Ceri's solicitor and herself to come to an agreement whereby the cabal are addressed by Professional Standards, she signs an NDA and some recompence comes her way and/or to a favourite charity. I would recommend a channel-of-communication with PSNI beyond those she has been contacted by to date.

The PSNI and Ceri would be winners from such an arrangement, and the NDA would save any embarrassment. It should be noted that Paisley has canned his Twitter account, though that might simply be because he needs to secure employment, and it would be a struggle for any HR department responsible for female staff to be able to approve his recruitment.

The actions-to-date sound decidedly weird. Weird enough for a Chief Constable to wonder what the heck was going on in his own Force. For-the-moment I think it is reasonable to assume that if he knew, he wouldn't approve of the actions of some of his officers with respect to their harassing of Ceri.

I'll just add to this.

My DH used to be a police officer, many decades ago. A few years ago he had reason to make a complaint about a police officer. Rather than demand he be sacked/reduced-in-rank and that my DH be paid compensation - all the usual kinds of demands from aggrieved members-of-the-public, he suggested rather that if the complaint was upheld, he would be happy if the constable was simply spoken-to by a senior officer. He noted that he would not expect or demand an apology, nor would not publicise the incident and subsequent investigation.

And indeed that is precisely what happened. He received a phone call from the relevant Professional Services department to say that the officer had indeed been spoken-to.

In reality that meant the officers 'cards had been marked'. He might have just made it to Sergeant, but his chances of promotion beyond that would be blocked; he'd never be trusted with an important role.

I may have missed it, but what was the specific offence they wanted to interview her for?

And what was the harassment she received from PSNI?

I wonder if, eventually the SW infiltration of the Police both NI and teh rest of the UK, will become something like the Freemason scandals. Just one of the many reviews etc that happened from 1960's to end of 1990's publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199899/cmselect/cmhaff/467/46703.htm

I don’t understand what’s gone on here.

The police should only read you rights if they are arresting you or interviewing you under caution.

Coming to a woman’s house to read her rights before informing her that her file is being sent to the CPS, is very odd.

Normally they just pass to the CPS regardless and it’s them who make a charging decision. Was this about giving you a chance to say something?

If I'm getting this right, the police have tried to interview her about an alleged offence.

They can do this - if there is no necessity to arrest (so no immediate threat, harm, risk and they are satisfied of the identity of the person) they can do this as a voluntary interview.

This will allow the person an opportunity to put their side of the story across - we have the complaints side of the story - its only fair to get the 'accused' persons side of the story too - or at least to give them the opportunity to do this.

The interview is voluntary and as the persons is not under arrest, they can leave at any point - however if they do this, then we only have the complaints side of the story to go on.

Certain offences can be charge with police making the charging decision, whereas others need to go through CPS.