UFO Info Week-End

Its title was Listening to Children

Its title was Listening to Children.
Elsewhere in the little Shropshire town there were those who were preoccupied with bleaker matters. The McGowan family was trying to come to terms with the deaths of two of its members, Harold and his nephew Jason, both found hanged in mysterious circumstances within a six-month period. In the local police station, officers of West Mercia police were struggling with the accusation that they had not been, as one local resident quaintly put it, “colour-blind” in their investigations into the two men’s deaths.Farther off, in the pages of national newspapers and on the TV news, the McGowan deaths have fuelled anxiety in the debate about the relationship between the British police and the black community. The social care subcommittee was addressing the subject of children’s homes. The local councillors had just been asked to watch a 15-minute video made by the Department of Health in London Its title was Listening to Children.

They were not talking about race at the council meeting on Wednesday night in Telford. The social care subcommittee was addressing the subject of children’s homes. The local councillors had just been asked to watch a 15-minute video made by the Department of Health in London. He has asked to see further documentation, including toxicology reports, which could show if Jason had been drugged.West Mercia police, which is under no obligation to accept Scotland Yard’s advice, said it did not wish to comment on how it would respond to the matters discussed on Wednesday..

They were not talking about race at the council meeting on Wednesday night in Telford. Harold had been subjected to a series of death threats and Jason had been trying to investigate his uncle’s death, leading to anonymous warnings to the family.Harold kept a log of the racist incidents, which has been seen by The Independent.A week before he died, he reported to a local police station that a man with a Scottish accent had called him to say he was “going to get what’s coming to him”.Nat Carey, a forensic pathologist at Guy’s Hospital in London, is conducting an independent post-mortem examination of Jason’s death and is said to be “very unhappy” about the circumstances. His wife, Sinead, said he had been arrested after a row with a doorman who, it is alleged, racially abused him.The McGowan family, which had been subjected to a sustained campaign of racial harassment, believes both men were the victims of racial killings. Recommendations include:* Calling on West Mercia to make a formal request for assistance from the Yard team and for help from other specialists such as Special Branch.* A meeting should take place between the Chief Constable of West Mercia and the McGowan family and that a press conference should be held to appeal for further information, alongside a broadcast on BBC’s Crimewatch programme.* The reopening of all lines of investigation and a postponement of next month’s inquest into Harold McGowan’s death so that both inquests can be held together.* A fresh investigation into the campaign of racial harassment against the McGowan family and the activities of racist groups in the neighbouring area.* Full disclosure to the family of all relevant police logs and statements made in relation to the inquiry so far, and for toxicology reports and other documentation to be released to the family solicitor and independent pathologist* That West Mercia police work closely with community groups, even those critical of the force in the past, and that the constabulary follows to the letter the recommendations of Sir William Macpherson of Cluny’s report last year into the death of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence.Yesterday more details emerged on the final weeks in the lives of the two men – Harold McGowan who was found hanged on 2 July, andJason, a newspaper worker, whose body was discovered on New Year’s Day.Jason had filed an official complaint against the police after an incident outside a Telford nightclub last month that led to him being charged with assaulting a police officer. “When I was waiting for news with his sister I even said to her ‘I have got this awful feeling that Errol is lying slumped somewhere dead’.”. Scotland Yard has urged West Mercia police to implement a 12-point plan – including reopening all lines of inquiry – to ensure a thorough review of its investigation of the mysterious hangings of two black men in Telford. Scotland Yard has urged West Mercia police to implement a 12-point plan – including reopening all lines of inquiry – to ensure a thorough review of its investigation of the mysterious hangings of two black men in Telford.
The unprecedented action from Britain’s biggest police force comes in response to fears that Harold McGowan, 34, and his nephew Jason, aged 20, may have been killed by racists in the Shropshire town.During a three-hour meeting at the National Police Training College at Bramshill, Hampshire, on Wednesday evening, the Yard officers are said to have stressed in “no uncertain terms” to a senior West Mercia officer who is reviewing the McGowan investigations of the need radically to overhaul its inquiries into the two deaths.The plan has been drawn up by three senior officers from Scotland Yard’s racial andviolent crime task force, Britain’s foremost specialist unit for investigating suspected race crimes.