AN “innocent” man revisiting his childhood haunts in Warrington claims he was dragged from his car by police, handcuffed and thrown to the side of a road.
He was then taken into custody, stripped and questioned before being “turfed out” late at night and forced to pay £86 for a taxi home to Bury.
John Devlin, 45, a self-employed builder, had been to Leigh Infirmary on September 24 where he was having physiotherapy for an injury.
He was driving to Lymm to see his family before a holiday in Lanzarote a few days later. He decided to detour through Bewsey, where he grew up, to see childhood haunts.
Mr Devlin was in a silver 2005 Vauxhall Vectra. As he drove through Bewsey he saw police officers gathering in Delves Avenue and after turning into Lovely Lane noticed a police car following him. He turned onto Sankey Way, and the officer put on blue flashing lights to stop him.
“The officer was aggressive and asked me to turn the engine off. He then pulled at me to keep me away from the car, handcuffed me and threw me to the side of the road,” he said.
“It was public humiliation because I know lots of people in the area and could have been seen.”
Mr Devlin claims he was then put in the back of a police car for 20 minutes while his car was searched. His breath was tested for alcohol, but he was clear.
He was told a serious assault had taken place at Delves Avenue and police were looking for someone in a silver car. He was arrested on suspicion of assault and taken to the Runcorn Custody Centre where he was stripped, ordered to wear a paper suit and his car was taken to a compound – where he later had to pay £150 to get it back.
“After several hours I was interviewed – and a few minutes later I was bailed to appear back at Runcorn on November 6.
He received a letter on October 12 from police saying no further action was being taken.
A police spokeswoman said: “Cheshire Constabulary has received a complaint following an incident that took place on Thursday September 24 in the Warrington area. This matter is currently being investigated by Cheshire Constabulary’s Professional Standards Department and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
AN "innocent" man revisiting his childhood haunts in Warrington
claims he was dragged from his car by police, handcuffed and thrown to
the side of a road.
Innocent man dragged from car – claim
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About Author
Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
4 Comments
Might not be appropriate for a magazine editor to comment but we can and it doesn’t don’t take a rocket scientist to work out what seems to have happened here.
Being innocent doesn’t give anyone the automatic right to be obstructive or abusive to the police. If the guy had co operated, it’s doubtful he would have needed to been dragged from the car, cuffed and taken down at the side of the road.
Bill
Where does it say that he was abusive, obstructive or not cooperating?
Your right, it didn’t say that but then again neither did I. The report is probably factually correct but with only one persons view being presented, people will have to draw their own conclusions as to how events could turn out this way.
Having just re read the report, a couple of points do seem a bit odd. If you’re driving from Leigh to Lymm then Bewsey’s a bit more than a minor diversion. Also why turn onto Sankey Way from Lovely Lane if you’re driving to Lymm? Surely that’s going in completely the opposite direction.
Bill,
As you know I am from Bewsey and I have known John Devlin from when I was a kid. He was always a nice mild mannered lad.
Most coppers aren’t these days prefering instead to take the agressive approach themselves as I found out a few weeks ago when one of my vans was impounded by some smart arsed traffic copper who insisted it had been cloned!! Of course it hadn’t and I am still biding my time to put in a complaint against the arrogant sod who would not listen or get advice from anyone because he thought he knew better. The Police are not the nice Dixon of Dock Green characters they used to be you know!
so there is another view!!