New way to nab Sidley villains

The Ninfield Road board room of Tres Bon catering was crammed to the doors when sector commander Inspector Max Mosley accepted Stuart Cowley-Wenham's offer for him to meet worried residents and fellow traders for a question-and-answer session.

The Inspector used the occasion to launch the Sidley initiative he has planned with the Crime and Disorder Partnership.

Despite repeated police appeals, no witnesses have come forward to an attack in which a man was mugged in front of shoppers in Ninfield Road last month.

Greengrocer Jimmy Carroll, who chaired the meeting, said fear of reprisal was the reason local people will no longer give police the evidence of identification they need in order to bring offenders before the courts.

The initiative is aimed at offering the public an easier way to put the finger on offenders.

Local shops are being asked to display statement forms that will enable the public to pass evidence to police who plan to curb the activities of a handful of known trouble-makers by seeking Anti-Social Behaviour Orders.

Though held in magistrates' courts, these are civil actions. In a criminal court a case must be proved "beyond all reasonable doubt." Civil actions hinge on balance of probability.

The Inspector is calling on the community to nominate articulate key figures who would be willing to present residents' concerns to the court on their behalf.

Stuart Cowley-Wenham immediately offered his own services and said that together with Jimmy Carroll he was confident of obtaining enough volunteers.

Sidley Community Beat Officer PC Keith Baldwin will supply witnesses with photographs of offenders for identification purposes which in a civil action are, again, a simpler process. Inspector Mosley also outlined another new weapon - the Acceptable Behaviour Contract.

PC Baldwin would also be confronting trouble-makers with these.

In effect, the offender signs a contract agreeing not to indulge in a catalogue of anti-social behaviour, ranging from threats and abuse, theft and throwing to climbing on the roofs of properties - exactly the problems from which Sidley suffers.