Friday 11 June 2010

CCTV saves the "crossbow cannibal"

Prison guard's casual glance at CCTV screen stopped the 'crossbow cannibal' from killing himself

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1285751/Guard-saw-crossbow-cannibal-Stephen-Griffiths-suicide-bid-CCTV.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0qXCIZR5W

That's the headline in the Daily Mail website today.

Stephen Griffiths, 40, who is on remand for murder at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire was seconds from death when a prison guard saw on CCTV that he had tied a plastic bag over his head.

Ironic, then, that Griffiths - who was arrested after a caretaker of a block of flats witnessed a man attacking a woman while he was reviewing CCTV footage - was saved by CCTV.

Or another way of looking at it: officers investigating this case have had two incredibly lucky breaks as a result of CCTV. According to the Daily Mail report, detectives rushed to the prison when they heard the news and were "incandescent with rage", having devoted enormous resources to the investigation.

All I can add is, thank goodness for CCTV. It has provided two vital breaks in this horrific investigation.

This incident highlights the need for regulation of CCTV. We were incredibly lucky that the caretaker of the block of flats reviewed the tapes. There is no law that requires the owner of a CCTV system to review recorded footage, so thank goodness those procedures were in place at these flats. Perhaps this is an area that the government could look at when they are reviewing regulation?

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