Surrey - search is on after kid seen being 'taken' by a van

[s3fella]

Some sort of "Walt".

WTF is wrong with these people?

[turbobloke]

Iva Barchetta said:

Perverting the course of justice or wasting police time ?....

PCoJ according to news reports.

[FlyingMeeces]

What in this context does PcoJ mean - falsely reporting an incident would normally be wasting police time, right?

[dandarez]

So... the witness is the one arrested?

The same one of which Det Supt in charge insisted he had 'complete faith' in the account of what they had seen, despite the fact that nobody else has come forward to say they also saw the incident.
He was 'completely satisfied' with the credibility of the witness.

Not any more!

Be interesting to see the background of the witness.

[R8Steve]

So wait a minute, if you report a crime you suspect of happening you get arrested for PTCoJ now if you are mistaken?

I'm sure there must be more to the story/history of the witness as that seems rather odd.

[FlyingMeeces]

R8Steve said:

So wait a minute, if you report a crime you suspect of happening you get arrested for PTCoJ now if you are mistaken?

I'm sure there must be more to the story/history of the witness as that seems rather odd.

I'm pretty certain that the police now think he reported something that didn't actually happen at all, from the sound of it - so not that he reported it because he saw a kid being picked up, but he invented the whole thing.

Although PtCoJ is a weird charge for that, it does sound like that's what the fuzz think.

[Rich_W]

Purely hypothetical

If you want to commit a crime, the best way is to get the police to focus all their attention on something else at the same time. And nothing focuses a Police force mind like a Child abduction.

[FlyingMeeces]

Rich_W said:

Purely hypothetical

If you want to commit a crime, the best way is to get the police to focus all their attention on something else at the same time. And nothing focuses a Police force mind like a Child abduction.

Oh. Ohhhh. Excellent point, yes. Everyone crapping themselves, helicopter out all desperately searching for a fictional black van would be a very good time to be up to no good in the other end of the borough/county.

[Laurel Green]

Or, perhaps the chap had a grudge against the owner of the van that he described?

[R8Steve]

Laurel Green said:

Or, perhaps the chap had a grudge against the owner of the van that he described?

That sounds most likely.

Strange he was hailed as such a 'credible' witness at the start though, they must have had some basis to make that initial statement.