The case has been withdrawn against a BNP candidate for the Welsh assembly election who had been accused of being filmed burning a copy of the Koran, according to the BBC.
Sion Owens, aged 41, was charged with a public order offence on Saturday. But when he appeared at Swansea Magistrates Court today - after having been kept in custody since he was arrested, and chained like a dog to be led into court - the Crown Prosecution Service said it was withdrawing the case against him.
This is a classic example of Police bullying and harassment. It is no accident that they picked him up on Friday evening (one of their busiest times) and then charged him on the Saturday. That gives the Filth a chance to keep their "suspect" in the nick for three nights rather than the one - the courts aren't open until Monday. Effectively, they are imposing their own non-judicial sentence, as even a guilty finding would not have attracted a custodial sentence.
And still there is the hint of menace – or is it corporate back-covering? The CPS says investigations will continue and that "almost certainly other proceedings will ensue". What other proceedings? And what does "almost certainly" mean?
But you can see the game here. Keeping the case "under investigation" puts it in a judicial limbo and prevents Owens making a complaint until the hullabaloo has died down. The last thing they want is the IPPC crawling over this one. Give it a bit of time and the case can be quietly wrapped up with a "NFA" stamped on the file. By then the media will have gone back to sleep, and the publicity will be more manageable.
This is no longer policing, and we have to draw our own conclusions. I do draw the line at book burning, but there is no cultural symbolism attached to police stations.
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