No, Crimestoppers is still 0800 555 111. Someone thinks it has changed though.
I’m not quite sure what it is about this, but something doesn’t quite sit right with me.
Is it the way this cabbie chaps’ pal rang the Sun with his tip off about an absconded (can you escape from an open prison?) murderer rather than going straight to the police? Or is it the way the Sun seems to have weaselled itself into a position where it can claim credit for getting an escaped convict knicked?
There’s nothing wrong with someone ringing a paper with a story. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make a bob or two out of it either, although it would be hard to argue that with a kiss-n-tell story. But who thinks of ringing a paper before the police?
A CABBIE told last night how he helped to capture fugitive killer Jane Andrews after she climbed into the back of his taxi.
Darren Auckland, 40, told police he picked up Fergie’s mud-caked former aide in the early hours yesterday near the Kent prison she fled.
He had been hired by her parents to drive them from the family’s Grimsby home, but refused to take them back once he recognised Andrews, 42.
Police seized her at a hotel after The Sun passed on a tip-off over her whereabouts from a friend of the cabbie.
From the wording of the Suns’ story, this cabbies’ pal rang the Sun first before the police…
Meanwhile a pal of the cabbie called The Sun to tell us Andrews had met up with her dad in Maidstone.
Our night news editor Brandon Malinsky passed on the tip to police.
Why would Malinsky pass on the info to the police if Buddy (that’s what I’m gonna call this pal) has already done so? Malinsky is not going to be able to add anything new to the hunt for Jane Andrews. Unless of course this is to ‘big up’ the Suns’ role in this story, to make them an active part of it, rather than just passively reporting it.
Note that Buddy has kept his name out of the paper.
The story then goes carries on with how Andrews was apprehended and then, again…
Just after midnight, the cabbie’s friend tipped off our man Malinsky that the Andrews family were on the move. Malinsky asked to be kept informed and passed the information to police
Surely Malinsky should’ve told Buddy to go to the police directly and then asked to be kept informed. In a situation like this time is of the essence and by going through a third party (Malinsky) could’ve been the difference between evasion and capture, especially if further information was needed by the police that Malinsky would not know, being sat in his office.
Kents’ Assistant Chief Constable was quite impressed…
Kent’s Assistant Chief Constable Andy Adams last night thanked The Sun “for their assistance and public spirit in alerting us to the information they received”.
Andy Adams is easier impressed than me.
What ever happened, once looked at a little clearer, this story doesn’t make the Sun or the cabbies’ pal look very good. Either Buddy has his priorities in er, a slightly different order to most people by calling a paper first with information that he should’ve gone straight to the police with or the Sun, not being entirely truthful, is trying to make itself look good by pretending to be a conduit for vital information to capture an escaped prisoner when Buddy did go to the police and just kept the paper up to date on events or both the cabbies’ friend is a numpty by not going to the police and the Sun are not as civic minded as Assistant Chief Constable Andy Adams reckons they are by being, and staying, an extra step in the flow of information.
There was nothing ‘civic minded’ about what the Sun did. It was all about the exclusive and to re-inforce the perception that the Sun is an altruistic organisation with only the good of the country at heart.
*the phone number in the title, if you hadn’t guessed, is the number for the Suns’ newsdesk
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Gareth Winchester and Sim-O, The Sun-Tabloid Lies. The Sun-Tabloid Lies said: 020 7782 4100 – The new Crimestoppers’ number? http://is.gd/54wpe […]
I like your header Sim-O, all done now and went jolly well indeed.
Thanks for all your support mate.
.-= Daniel Hoffmann-Gll´s last blog ..Poles Apart: Rehearsals Commencing Soon =-.
Your welcome, buddy. Glad it went well.