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O/T: Petition to Protect Our Prison Officers



F

Fungus

Well-known member
NSC Patron
May 21, 2004
7,045
Truro
Sorry it's another petition, but this one feels a bit closer to home.

You may have heard about the murder of a prison officer at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, on Christmas Day.

Well, it was the brother-in-law of a guy I play walking football with each week. The family is devastated, and a petition has been started to make it a specific criminal offence to assault an HM Prison Officer. Please would you sign - https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/177899

Thanks. Please just ignore if you disagree. If it makes a difference, he was also a referee, though there are no petitions to protect referees.
 






Foul Play Rocks

Foul Play Rocks

Well-known member
Feb 23, 2013
5,180
I hadn't heard about the incident at the time but sorry to hear about their loss. All signed.
 


F

Freddie Goodwin.

Well-known member
Mar 31, 2007
7,186
Brighton
Must be an awful job, always seems the threat of danger inside & even when you go home from possible threats from contacts of inmates. Need all the help they can get.
 






F

Fungus

Well-known member
NSC Patron
May 21, 2004
7,045
Truro


glasfryn

glasfryn

cleaning up cat sick
Nov 29, 2005
20,261
somewhere in Eastbourne
as an ex prison officer it been a long time coming
and signed
 


T

TheJasperCo

Well-known member
Jan 20, 2012
4,590
Exeter
Tragic and brutal set of circumstances, but I should caution OP against misleading the reader into thinking that the victim was murdered in the line of his duty as a prison officer.

According to the newspaper reports (below), he was killed whilst off-duty, by a member of public who was not an inmate.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...cked-night-early-hours-Christmas-morning.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-38447504

I don't know if others on here jumped to the same conclusions that I did when reading the OP, but it's worth posting some of the reports on here for posterity.
 




F

Fungus

Well-known member
NSC Patron
May 21, 2004
7,045
Truro
TheJasperCo said:
Tragic and brutal set of circumstances, but I should caution OP against misleading the reader into thinking that the victim was murdered in the line of his duty as a prison officer.

According to the newspaper reports (below), he was killed whilst off-duty, by a member of public who was not an inmate.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...cked-night-early-hours-Christmas-morning.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-38447504

I don't know if others on here jumped to the same conclusions that I did when reading the OP, but it's worth posting some of the reports on here for posterity.
Click to expand...

Having discussed it with my friend, I'm well aware of the circumstances. Neither my post nor the petition suggest that he was "at work" at the time. I'm simply passing on a request from the family.

However, I suspect it's a job where you're never actually "off duty".
 


L

luppers

New member
Aug 10, 2008
798
Didim, Turkey
Oxy McFloppie-Tish said:
Having discussed it with my friend, I'm well aware of the circumstances. Neither my post nor the petition suggest that he was "at work" at the time. I'm simply passing on a request from the family.

However, I suspect it's a job where you're never actually "off duty".
Click to expand...
In some towns the prison officers are not allowed to wear their uniform on the way home from doing a shift for fear of being attacked. The prison I worked in was classed as being in a uniform friendly town.
 


F

Fungus

Well-known member
NSC Patron
May 21, 2004
7,045
Truro
luppers said:
In some towns the prison officers are not allowed to wear their uniform on the way home from doing a shift for fear of being attacked. The prison I worked in was classed as being in a uniform friendly town.
Click to expand...

In a small town on a small island, I imagine doing that job would easily become common knowledge?
 




happypig

happypig

Staring at the rude boys
May 23, 2009
7,955
Eastbourne
I don't get it. The current assault offences (common assault, ABH, GBH) mean the sentencers must consider the circumstances and relationship; a prison officer (whilst on duty) would be a "vulnerable victim" so that would automatically aggravate the offence.
If we start making it a specific offence to assault a Prison Officer then there will be (or have been) calls for specific offences for NHS, Teachers, Traffic Wardens, Social Workers, Postmen and every other profession that interacts with other sections of society.
 


drew

drew

Drew
Oct 3, 2006
23,042
Burgess Hill
First and foremost thoughts go to the family of Nick Medlin, not only a very tragic incident but it will be at the forefront of their minds every Christmas from now on.

With regard to the petition, at the risk of being slated, I wonder how necessary this is. In other words, should prison officers be afforded special attention over other services, for example, the ambulance service, fire service etc (I believe the Police already have special attention). The other point is whether there has been a massive increase in the number of deaths of Prison officers. If you take out the special situation of the Northern Ireland prison service during the 'troubles', how many prison officers in the rest of the UK have lost their lives during the course of their duty?

Finally, I would respectfully suggest to the OP that most people reading his post who were not already aware of the circumstances (and I accept that included me), would link Mr Medlin's death with his position as a prison officer. It could turn out to be the case that he was punched because the assailant knew of his job or it could just have been a stupid altercation that, from one punch, resulted in such a tragic outcome.
 


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