Chief Constable quizzed on Clydach Murders and Mayhill Riots on Live Facebook event

The Chief Constable of South Wales Police Jeremy Vaughan has been quizzed on a number of subjects including the Clydach Murders and the Mayhil Riots today, Wednesday (Feb 9) on a live Facebook event. 

During the event the Chief Constable was asked a number of questions relating to some of the most high profile criminal cases to date on his patch.

He began by acknowledging the work of his police officers and staff and  ‘the great work that goes on out there’.

Asked how he would respond to complaints and comments on ‘poor standards’ he said:

“Every day officers are going out there doing a fantastic job. They are responding to some difficult and tricky things at 3 o’clock in the morning. They are going through someones else’s door to save somebody’s life. Those incidents vastly outnumber and outweigh any incidents of poor conduct.

“We do see poor conduct. We have a real emphasis on standards in the organisation. We have a well resourced professional standards department.

“Not all the resolutions are to everyones satisfaction, we understand that but it is a pretty heavily scrutinised function and system.

“Where the conduct is so bad that the only outcome is dismissal. Gross misconduct you will go not only will you go from South Wales but be barred from being part of policing ever again.

“We occupy a special place in society. For that reason it is important we have a robust standards set in process.

Asked if the negative comments has an  impact on staff he said:

We Police by consent. I will explain what it means to me. We are there at the behest of and by the permission of the public generally. To keep people safe, to keep the peace. If one or more individuals who occupy that office of constable let people down, breach standards and those that breach them abhorrently it can have a damaging effect on how people perceive the service.

“What I say often to people in the organisation is. Don’t let commentators define your relationship with members of the public. You define it.”

Asked about whether the force takes complaints of domestic abuse against males seriously he said:

“We do take it seriously. We Treat every victim of crime the same regardless of agenda. We get 91 domestic abuse incidents reported to South Wales Police every day. The Vast majority are reported by women reporting violence perpetrated by a man. Those are the realities of the reports we receive. The vast majority of offenders are men, The vast majority of victims are women. If you are a male victim of domestic abuse violence out there and you’re wondering whether the police will take your report seriously. You’re wondering whether you should report your concerns then I want you to.”

Asked about publicity around the Clydach Murders the Chief Constable said:

“It has attracted a lot of public interest. We contributed to that programme. You will see towards the end of that series Assistant Chief Constable Dave Thorne has been interviewed. He’s given an account on behalf of South Wales Police on behalf of me. He’s been leading the investigation that we conducted to relook at some of the forensics because people had expressed some concerns about the forensics needing a modern lens through them. We have given public statements on that previously and they are there and available on our website. We will always go towards where the evidence takes us. We will always take that information into consideration. The criminal cases review commission have had a look at this previously. If we were to find more information, more evidence and we’d go looking for it if we were told to go looking that would cause us to refer back to them then we would. And we have done fairly recently had another relook at it. There comes a point with every investigation when I need my people to be focusing on the crimes and the harms of today because some of them are coming in thick and fast. There comes a point where we turn round and say we consider that our work is concluded here in the absence of any new evidence or information.”

Asked about the Mayhill Riot and the fact that only 27 people had been charged he said:

“I was really clear after the incident in Mayhill took place in the aftermath that we would stop at nothing to pursue the offenders involved. I know that we have arrested 42 people as a result of the Mayhill incident. I know that as a consequence of our investigations hours and hours of digital footage, hours and hours of witness statements we’ve managed to secure the charge of 27 people. Of course as the Chief I am going to want everybody who were perpetrators of that night to be brought to justice. We can gather what evidence we can and it wasn’t for the want of trying and significant effort of a team who have been on it full time to take forward the charges. 27 people have been charged with riot. That is a very significant offence in fact it is the most people who have been charged with riot ever in our history in the history of Wales. It’s a really significant issue. Subsequently as we focus on the criminal investigation we very publicly apologised for our policing response on the night. There were periods of time when we didn’t respond quickly enough and I gave a very clear and public and unqualified public apology for that to members of the public.”

Comments on the Live Chat included:

Jaylo Miles asking:

Would you look at how you deal with mental health & suicide We’ve survived a pandemic but the reality is that suicide is a very up to date pandemic and I’d like to know how you intend to tackle it??

Debra Brooks commented: Swp will NEVER recover from their reputation! No matter what you tell yourselves!!!!

Emma Baker said: I have nothing but respect for swp . They put there lives at risk for others and see the most horrendous crimes . I personally wouldn’t want to be in there shoes .

Margaret Sheridan Voyzey said: I respect and thank the SWP for keeping Wales a safer place xxx you are doing a fantastic job xx.