The most pointless job in Wales
A lovely old job for Labour politicians who should have been put out to pasture
This man is named Dimitris Legakis.
He is a freelance press photographer based in Swansea.
In October last year he was wrestled to the ground and arrested while trying to do his job.
He was attending the scene of car fire in Swansea where it would later emerge that a man named David Clarke had murdered his wife Helen Clarke by hitting her with a hammer, dousing her in petrol and setting her alight.
The police had set up a cordon and Dimitris, as he is perfectly entitled to do, was standing outside the cordon taking pictures while stood on public land. Members of the public were walking past and, as can often happen at scenes of high tension, some of them became angry at him. They began shouting at him and pushing him when a police officer approached.
Mr Legakis was then arrested, thrown in a police van, held for 15 hours and charged with assaulting a police officer. His camera, lenses, drone and memory cards were all seized.
Seven months later he was due to appear in Cardiff Crown Court on that charge. But the day before he was due to appear, exactly a week ago, something strange happened. The CPS dropped the charges. They told the judge that there was no evidence of assault on the police body camera recording and the prosecution barrister admitted that the original statement taken from the police officer "does not coincide" with what he later said in his victim's personal statement.
Judge Geraint Walters said the prosecution was "disturbing" and raised serious questions. He said that his reading of the prosecution papers was that a police officer took offence to a photographer taking pictures.
Even stranger was that Mr Legakis’ barrister said the defendant was first arrested for a public order offence - "a charge which never survived the earliest stages of this case" - and only arrested for assault because that it was "suggested" to the arresting officer by his own sergeant. The arresting officer having first responded to such a suggestion by saying "it's not worth it" before "in a heartbeat" changing his mind.
Dimitris’ cameras, lenses and drones were confiscated and sent to the serious crimes unit apparently because they contained “evidence” from the crime that he was taking pictures of. But rather than simply keep the memory cards, all of his gear was kept for two months despite him asking repeatedly for it back. Given he was unable to work without his equipment he had to shell out over £4,000 on new gear so he could keep working in the meantime.
Something has clearly gone wrong
South Wales Police now say they are investigating Mr Legakis’ treatment after being referred to the IOPC. But let’s break this down:
South Wales Police arrested a press photographer who appears to have been doing nothing wrong except being verbally abused by the public.
They then decided to charge him for assault.
They took his equipment and held it so he couldn't work for months.
The case was allowed to go until the day before the trial before it seemingly became apparent there was no evidence of the assault.
The fact that this was allowed to drag on for over half a year when it must have been obvious to everyone involved that there was no justification is a waste of police time and public money as well as awful for the innocent man in question and a worrying overreach by the police.
We need a hero!
What we really need in this situation is a man whose whole job is to be in the public’s corner. A person whose stated aim is "to serve the people of south Wales by holding the police accountable and setting priorities for preventing and fighting crime". Well, as luck would have it, there is a man whose own website says that this is his job. And he is paid £86,700 to do it.
Alun Michael became the first police and crime commissioner for South Wales in 2012, and was re-elected for a third term in May 2021. Front and centre of his website is the fact that he aims to hold Wales' largest force to account. He is the voice of the public to the force. But more than that, he is the eyes and ears of the public. He is voted in by them, he is paid for by their taxes and he answers to them.
This was one of the main points of the PCCs when they were introduced a decade ago: placing someone who was not part of the force as an objective scrutiniser of their performance.
The most pointless job in Wales
But here we hit a problem. Because Mr Michael has clearly not read his own website. He does not behave as the voice of the public to the force, but rather the voice of the force to the public. When I approached him about Mr Legakis’ case his office would only say:
“We are aware that this matter is currently under investigation after a complaint was made to the professional standards department at South Wales Police. Until that investigation is complete, and we are aware of the findings, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.”
What a mealy mouthed, pathetically weak response. The key facts of the case have come out in court. Would it really be inappropriate for Mr Michael to say he is “concerned”? What about saying that he would be in contact with Mr Legakis to hear what he has to say? At the very least could he not throw out a “there are very clearly serious questions to answer in this case and I will be monitoring it closely”.
But no. Instead we get a response from someone who seems to think his job is to defend the force to the public rather than a man taking his responsibility to make the force accountable to the public very seriously.
This isn’t the first time Mr Michael, who incidentally has probably had more political jobs than he’s got satisfied constituents, has fallen in behind the people he is supposed to be holding to account.
In 2021, after the Mayhill riot in Swansea I interviewed him and he defended the actions of the police saying he was "satisfied" with how the force responded. A subsequent report found that there were "significant failings", criticised the response of South Wales Police, which refused two requests for a public order unit to be deployed and left cowering residents "unprotected".
After the Ely riots in May last year there were rumours circulating that the police had been chasing the two lads who died. Mr Michael went on the radio and said this was not the case. He blamed the "rumours" of a police chase for leading to the rioting. But then later the same day CCTV emerged appearing to show an electric bike being followed by a police van.
A lovely old jobs for Labour politicians who should have been put out to pasture
It isn’t just Mr Michael who is guilty of forgetting what his job is. Gwent Police PCC Jeff Cuthbert failed to hold his force to account over the near decade of issues including failure to protect people from domestic violence and abuse from within the force's own ranks.
The family of retired cop Ricky Jones' bravely revealed messages found on his phone after he died that demonstrated a sickening culture within the force. This added to a string of other scandals such as senior officers groping fellow staff and one serial abuser being able to stay in post for over decade despite concerns been raised about him.
And what was the response of Jeff Cuthbert, the voice of the public in Gwent? He said that despite the overwhelming evidence of a wider cultural issue in the force, that it was simply the result of a few bad apples. I interviewed the family of Ricky Jones after Mr Cuthbert said in an interview that the family were “refusing” to talk to the force. They actively disputed his account and accused him of prioritising protecting the force over holding them accountable.
The principle of a PCC is sound. No one who spends any time reporting on issues with the police can deny that many forces need more oversight and absolutely should not be marking their own homework. But it has become a retirement home for career politicians who are so scared of rocking the boat they forgot who they actually work for.
The real question is, if we were to get rid of them, would anyone notice?
Thanks for reading this week. As always, comments are always welcome. Would be interested to hear other peoples views on the PCCs.
Take care
Will