Please help local man retrace his steps

James writes:

My friend Chris sustained a serious head injury on Arbuthnot Road on 20 November and the police are appealing for any witnesses to piece together what's happened. Chris is still in a critical condition.

If any Brockley Central readers saw or heard anything passing through New Cross on the way home that night, please can they tell the police. The is the Police press release:

Christopher Mapleston, 29, was found at approximately 03:00hrs on Sunday, 20 November lying on Arbuthnot Road, close to Pepys Road in New Cross. He had a laceration to his head.

He was taken by the London Ambulance Service to a south London hospital where doctors discovered that he had a fractured skull. He remains in a critical condition.

Due to his injury, Christopher has been unable to tell officers what happened that night.

Detectives from Lewisham CID are investigating and have established that Christopher had spent the night socialising with friends. 

His friends last saw him running for a Route N343 bus close to Peckham Rye Railway Station between 01:30 and 02:00hrs. It is not known what happened between this time, and when he was found in the road less than two miles away.

Officers are keen to hear from anyone who saw Christopher that night. If it assists, he is described as white, approximately 5ft 7ins tall, of slim build with brown hair. He was wearing a green camouflage jacket, black trousers and trainers.

Anyone with information is asked to contact officers at Lewisham via 101.

Please help find missing Brockley teenager

The News Shopper reports:

Stacey Baldwin, 15, disappeared from her home in Bartram Road. She has links to Croydon, Crawley and Brighton.

Anyone with information about Stacey’s whereabouts is asked to call Met Police on 101, quoting reference number 16MIS012760.

The thin blue line between love and hate

Alan: "Yeah. I think the Irish are going through a major image change. I mean, the old image of Leprechauns, shamrocks, Guinness, horses running through council estates, toothless simpletons, people with eyebrows on their cheeks, badly tarmacked drives in this country, men in platform shoes being arrested for bombings, lots of rocks, and Beamish."

- I'm Alan Partridge

Lewisham Police have provoked their very own Twitter storm with this celebration of Irish culture for St Patrick's Day. The Indy has a selection of the most irate responses. Lewisham Police have apologised and deleted the tweet.

Thanks to Joe for the spot.

Lewisham policeman fired for racist texts during London riots

A Lewisham police officer has been fired for sending racist texts during the London riots of 2011, which engulfed this area. The Guardian reports:

PC George Cooper, 41, who worked for the armed parliamentary and diplomatic protection unit (SO6), and Lewisham-based PC Stephen Newbury, 49, were found by a panel to have sent “racist and discriminatory” messages.

Both were dismissed from the Metropolitan police without notice following a public misconduct hearing on Wednesday. The misconduct hearing was told that at the height of the 2011 riots in London, Newbury was sick with tonsillitis when he was asked him if he was at work.

He texted: “Off mate, though had shit loads of missed calls. Papa Lima [Lewisham] can burn as far as I’m concerned, along with all the spades.”

Newbury was found to have sent 24 inappropriate text messages to another serving officer, while Cooper sent eight such messages. Most of the messages were not revealed in the hearing and Scotland Yard refused to release further details of their content.

Peace marchers and police seek solutions to Turnham Estate deaths

The mother of schoolboy Shaquan Fearon, who was killed in a knife fight on the Turnham Estate, led a peace march through the area today.

Click here to watch the BBC's report from today's march.

Meanwhile, police staged an appeal for witnesses to last week's fatal car crash outside the same estate, during which a mob threw missiles at a fleeing car.

DCI McHugh said: "Firstly I would like to hear from anyone who saw the mint green Vauxhall Corsa on the Turnham Estate prior to the collision.

"Several people rushed to help Nassem and there are some who have yet to speak with police. We know the incident was also witnessed by other passers-by and residents in the area and again, we would encourage anyone who saw anything or has any information to come forward. Please do not assume that we already have the important information that you hold.

"We are keeping an open mind about the motive for this incident. Please do the right thing and be assured we will treat all information in the strictest confidence."

Anyone who can help should contact the incident room on 020 8785 8099 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Four arrested after fight leads to fatal car crash

The BBC reports:

Four men have been arrested in connection with the death of a teenager who was in a car which crashed after it was attacked. Officers were called to reports of a fight in St Norbert Road on Saturday afternoon.

The 17-year-old was in the car which had hit a lamp-post, but he died later in hospital. Police believe group of people threw missiles at the vehicle as it sped off. The four men, aged 19, 20, 21 and 23, remain in custody at various south London police stations.

The Evening Standard reports that the dead boy was Naseem Galleze, 17, of Grove Park.

The scene of the fatal crash:

#RTC in #Brockley, no loss of life (thank God) buses 343 & 484 routes & surrounding roads affected #trafficLondon pic.twitter.com/86un5RCS0W

— Yomi (@tekopikin) September 26, 2015

London Labour: Percentage of burglaries solved in Lewisham drops to 6%

Brockley Central's neighbour was recently burgled three times in quick succession and although the police response was thorough, to our knowledge, the culprit is still at large. So this release by the London Assembly Labour Party is timely:

Concern is growing about the Metropolitan Police’s ability to deal with £800m of further budget cuts without a significant impact on frontline services Local London Assembly Member Len Duvall has said. His comments come after the Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe was forced to deny suggestions that budget cuts could stop the force investigating low level crimes such as burglaries.

Despite the Commissioner’s assurance Mr Duvall warned that officers are already struggling to deal with some crimes as a result of budget cuts. Since 2010, when the Met’s budget was cut by £600m, the percentage of domestic burglaries in London which are solved by the police has halved from 12% in 2010/11 to only 6% in 2014/15. 121 uniformed officers have already been cut from Lewisham’s streets since 2010 with dedicated neighbourhood policing teams also cut from six to only two officers each. Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has accepted that the forthcoming cuts mean London will “end up with some less police, but I am not going to be precise.”

In Lewisham it is an equally concerning situation. 94% of the 2,068 domestic and non-domestic burglaries reported in Lewisham over the last 12 months have gone unsolved according to the latest annual figures from the Metropolitan Police. Whilst the Met has changed the way it records some crimes, the figures uncovered by Len Duvall AM still mean that over 1,946 burglaries went unsolved in Lewisham last year. Mr Duvall warned that the figures showed the police were already stretched too thinly, with crimes such as burglary not given the resources they previously were.

Since 2010 the Metropolitan police force has cut £600m from its budget and is expected to face a further £800m cut in the Government’s Autumn Spending Review. Whilst the Commissioner has pledged the Met will continue to investigate burglaries he has admitted that there would have to be “a compromise somewhere” saying “we are going to struggle to do everything we used to do.” Even the Mayor of London recently admitted that “you cannot have a city growing as fast as London, with the challenges London faces, without putting more money into the MPS.”

How many deaths can you fit on a phonebooth?

Interested guerrilla take on the met police ads as seen in Brockley this morning. @BrockleyCentral pic.twitter.com/BS30ghTour

— Julie Seal (@JulieTheSeal) August 4, 2015

Brockley Road - the new normal

Having 'normalised' Brockley Cross and Lewisham Way with persistent targeted raids and interventions, local police now have the junction of Brockley and Wickham Roads in their sights.

In recent weeks, the police have contacted local residents asking for witnesses to reported cases of anti-social behaviour and drug dealing in the area while last week, police were conducting a large scale stop and search operation in the same spot.

This kind of action eventually succeeded in reducing violent crime in Brockley Cross - which used to serve up gang-related incidents on a regular basis each summer - and the police must hope to pull off the same trick here.

Staff kills dog in Ladywell Fields

Last month, BC ran a guest article by a local dog-walker who wanted to start a debate about dogs on leads in Ladywell Fields.

BC is not familiar with the arcane canine community, so we assumed this issue was a fairly innocuous bit of discussion about protocol - akin to arguing the toss over whether one can serve red wine with fish - but it turned out to be incendiary stuff, causing one of the most heated arguments in recent BC history.

This week, the importance of getting this issue right has been highlighted by the sad case of a dog killed on Ladywell Fields, reported on the Facebook group "Pets of Telegraph Hill." Michelle writes:

My friend's dog has just been killed by a staff off its lead in Hilly Fields. My friend's dog was an 11year old super friendly and placid Jack Russell and her boyfriend has seriously injured hands from trying to save him - he's currently in Lewisham hospital. The young lad of about 20 with the staff ran off: the police are involved but please be careful.

UPDATE: Following some dispute of the facts in the original report, we have double-checked with the group and confirmed that the incident took place in Ladywell Fields, rather than Hilly Fields and that the attack was by a staff, rather than a pit bull, as was originally reported. These details have now been updated.

However, two members of the Pets of Telegraph Hill group have now confirmed the other elements of the story are true - and the issue just as important. Odile writes:

On hearing about this I contacted Rio's owner last week. They just live up the road from me. She confirmed that the attack and the death of Rio is saddly correct and that they are devasted as well as traumatised. However, she said it happened in Ladywell Fields, not Hilly Fields.

Brockley war memorial clean-up earns six police officers Citizenship honour

Lewisham Council writes:

Six police officers were given citizenship awards on Wednesday night at the Council meeting by the Mayor. The officers are (L to R): Police Constable Terry Powell, Police Constable Danny Gobin, Police Constable Keith Galyer, Police Sergeant Ian Fearn, Police Constable Adam Elwood, Police Constable Andrew Collins.

In the small hours of 30 July last year Police officers were alerted to an arson attack on the Lewisham Way war memorial. The Fire Brigade attended and extinguished the fire but the residue left scaring and stains on the memorial.

Instead of leaving the site, the Police officers took it upon themselves to obtain cleaning fluid and worked for many hours to remove the charring and burnt stains on the cenotaph to ensure that the war memorial was restored to its former condition.

The officers were fully aware of the emotion a desecration would have on the local community especially so close to the 100 year anniversary of the outbreak of WW1.

These officers are to be commended for their dedication and instant action. Each officer has received the Mayor’s Citizenship certificate award.

Homophobic crime rises, reported rape not recorded as crime

Two troubling sets of crime figures have been released in recent weeks.

Firstly, recorded homophobic crime has risen dramatically across London, with Lewisham producing a 115% rise in the last year, from 32 cases in 2013 to 69 cases in 2014. The figures come courtesy of ITV News.

Secondly, the News Shopper reports that one-fifth of reported rapes in Lewisham borough were not recorded by the police as crimes as part of a city-wide pattern. The article says:

Figures given to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) by the CPS have shown police categorised a significant number of rape allegations across London as ‘crime-related incidents’ or ‘no crimes’ – this means they were not investigated unless new evidence emerged. A spokesman for the Met Police said: "We voluntarily referred the matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission who took the decision to return it to the Met to be looked at locally."

Bad Boys for the day

Lest we forget. Lewisham's not all night markets and pop-art. The Met writes:

Lewisham Police Station will be opening its doors to the public on Sunday 29 June as it holds an open day. This is the third time Lewisham Police Station has held an open day it will be a family event encouraging visitors to take a look behind the scenes of the largest police station in Europe.

The event will start at 10:00am and finish at 3pm.

Visitors will be able to cast their eyes over vintage police vehicles and original police artefacts that include old-fashioned handcuffs and historic police uniforms from the 1900s.

Catford Bridge Tavern squatters evicted

Nearly a year after the Catford Bridge Tavern was bought by Camden Bars, police have finally evicted the squatters who'd made it their home and deprived Catford of a decent pub. Lewisham MPS says:

"Today at 07:30am after a possession order was obtained by the owners of the Copperfield PH, (Catford Bridge Tavern). Rushey Green SNT assisted with the eviction of twenty squatters from the pub."

Hopefully, this means another pub will be re-opened soon. The Honor Oak, which was also squatted, remains a sorry sight. With thanks to Chris for the heads-up.

Lewisham police numbers down by 68 since 2010

The London Assembly Labour group have released figures showing the fall in local police numbers since 2010. They say:

Latest figures released by the Mayor of London show that 68 police officers have been cut in Lewisham, a drop of 10% since May 2010. The latest figures show that despite the Mayor’s pledge to increase police numbers, the opposite is happening on his watch.  The cut in police officers comes after criticism of the Mayor’s new Local Policing Model which Len Duvall AM argues is eroding neighbourhood policing in the borough.

The number of borough-based police officers in Lewisham has dropped from 680 in May 2010 to 613 in January 2014.  Across London, the number of police officers has declined by 3,111 (9%).

Self Evident app to cut crime

BC Senior assuages his early-retirement-baby-boomer guilt by doing voluntary work for various good causes, the latest of which is a charity called Witness Confident, which aims to make reporting crime easier.

This week, the charity launched an app called Self Evident (full disclosure: BC provided a very small amount of help with the launch), which allows people to report crime quickly and reliably via their smartphone - including tagging the report with the date, time, location and even photos of the incident.

Similar in principle to the Love Lewisham app (developed by Lewisham Council to make reporting graffiti and flytipping easier and improve clean-up response rates) it's an initiative which should address two big problems:

Firstly, 1,000 crimes go unreported every day because the public think the process of reporting crime is too much hassle.

Secondly, it delivers the report to the police in a format that’s quick and easy for the police to deal with: the police are overwhelmed with the volume of reported crime with 500,000 calls to the police on the 101 service going unanswered each year.

It's a simple, free, smart way to reduce crime and police paperwork - hopefully everyone will support it.

You can download the app for IOS and Android here.

Armed robbery on St Asaph Road

Police are calling for witnesses after a four-year-old girl was held at gunpoint by a gang of armed robbers who threatened to pull the trigger in front of her grandmother at a house in St Asaph Road. The Standard reports: 

Rosemary Campbell, 47, was looking after her granddaughter at her Lewisham home when up to five balaclava-clad men stormed in with guns and knives in a “terrifying” broad daylight break-in. The raid, in which the home was ransacked while the gang searched the first-floor flat and demanded cash, happened just after 3pm on Monday. 

Detective Inspector Ian Cameron described the raid as a “terrifying attack”, adding: “I’m convinced that someone in the local area has seen or heard something that could assist us with our investigation.”

Witnesses should call the incident room on 020 8284 8337 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Brockley police station stripped

Brockley police station has been closed and stripped, ready for sale. Its closure has been well-signposted and makes sense. What happens next to this building is the key question. It would be nice if it wasn't simply turned into flats.

Brockley has relatively few buildings capable of doing something other than putting a roof over people's heads and a multi-use building incorporating homes, but also offices, a restaurant, or something else entirely could work at this location.

Thanks to Jon for the picture, who also suggested it would make a great base for the Brockley Brewing Company.

Lewisham Way witness sought

Police at Lewisham are appealing for witnesses to a robbery that occurred on 18 June 2013 at approximately 22:00 hours outside the Albertines Public House in Lewisham Way, SE4.

A woman in her 40s was assaulted by two women who took a number of items from her including cash before making off.  Two women both 21 years have been arrested in connection with the incident and have been bailed pending further enquiries

Officers are particularly keen to speak with a customer who was inside the pub at the time and is believed to have witnessed the assault but is yet to make contact with police.

If you have any information on this incident please contact Brockley Safer Neighbourhoods Team on 0208 284 8558 or if you want to provide information anonymously you can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Stabbing incident under investigation

BC had reports that a man was stabbed near the Brockley Barge on Friday night. Lewisham police confirm:

We can confirm police were called to Brockley Road on 1 June 2013 by the LAS at approximately 00:47 hours following a report that a man had been assaulted at that location. 

The man was taken to a South London hospital and his injuries were not life threatening. He was later discharged from hospital. Lewisham CID are investigating.