Etape Caledonia vandalised

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Beakyboy
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Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by Beakyboy »

I wonder if they will print the name and address of the person(s) responsible as I wish to send them a bill for 1no. Conti GP4000S tyre, 2no. inner tubes along with 2no. bottles of CO2.
May the wind always be at your rear!
kwilkinson
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Joined: 22 May 2009, 7:27pm

Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by kwilkinson »

Hi all,

New to the forum - tried posting on Friday but either it's been deleted or I did something wrong.

I'm trying to find out if anyone out there cycled over any of the affected route on the Saturday at all? I'm just trying to help establish a timeline for the sabotage.

If anyone did you could you please let me know either via the forum or PM please?

Cheers

Keith.
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Si
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Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by Si »

kwilkinson wrote:Hi all,

New to the forum - tried posting on Friday but either it's been deleted or I did something wrong.

I'm trying to find out if anyone out there cycled over any of the affected route on the Saturday at all? I'm just trying to help establish a timeline for the sabotage.

If anyone did you could you please let me know either via the forum or PM please?

Cheers

Keith.


Hi Keith, I would be interested to know why you are asking about this - are you part of the investigation?
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Beakyboy
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Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by Beakyboy »

Si wrote:
kwilkinson wrote:Hi all,

New to the forum - tried posting on Friday but either it's been deleted or I did something wrong.

I'm trying to find out if anyone out there cycled over any of the affected route on the Saturday at all? I'm just trying to help establish a timeline for the sabotage.

If anyone did you could you please let me know either via the forum or PM please?

Cheers

Keith.


Hi Keith, I would be interested to know why you are asking about this - are you part of the investigation?



+1
May the wind always be at your rear!
kwilkinson
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Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by kwilkinson »

Hi Si,

I'm not directly involved in the investigation. The gentleman who has been charged with the sabotage is however a personal friend of mine and I believe him to be innocent.

The basis of the police case is that he single handedly put the tacks down on Saturday morning as this is the only time he doesn't have an aliby for. Quite how he would have done this I don't know. While the organisers checked the route they only did this in vehicles and I doubt they would have spotted the tacks. What I'm trying to help establish is if anyone cycled the route on the Saturday as this would at least go some way to clearing his name.

My biggest concern is that if, as I believe, they have the wrong man, those responsible may well get off scot free (no pun intended) and indeed may even do something more drastic next year if the event goes ahead again on the same basis as it did this year. Clearly those responsible have no regard for the injury that they could well have caused by this crazy act.

I hope someone out there can help prove this mans innocence.

Cheers

K.
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Mick F
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Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by Mick F »

Why was the suspect suspected enough for an arrest. There's no smoke without fire. The police just don't go arresting people without a reason. Even if he didn't personally spread the tacks, it doesn't mean he wasn't involved in some way.

If he is completely innocent, why was he arrested?

You say know the suspect and are a friend, but we have no way of knowing the truth about you or the suspect. That doesn't mean I'm not sympathetic. Far from it. I understand your question entirely, and I hope you get a helpful answer. We all want the truth and the perpetrators brought to book asap.

BTW, it was me that removed your post, taking the advice from one of our number. Your first post on here was about a contentious subject asking for possibly sensitive information. I'm not saying you're not genuine, it's just that it looks suspicious.
Mick F. Cornwall
kwilkinson
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Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by kwilkinson »

Hi Mick,

I understand entirely where you are coming from and if someone else had posted what I have I to would be asking the same questions.

The accused (sorry I don't want to use names as I don't want to tread on any toes) has been quite outspoken about the road closures and he feels passionately about it however not, I believe, to the extent of doing something malicious. This I think has made him something of a target for investigation but does not by any means make him guilty. I have yet to hear of any acutal evidence against him other than I think what would be termed circumstantial in that he doesn't have an aliby for Saturday morning.

Just for reference - I'm a triathlete rather than an out and out cyclist which is why I haven't posted on here before - most of my forum ramblings take place over on Tritalk or the Tri Scotland forum. The main reason for posting here is simply to try and get the request out to more people to see if anyone can help. If a timeline could be established it might help move the investigation back to finding those that are actually responsible.

Cheers

K.
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Si
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Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by Si »

thanks for the reply Keith.

As you say, innocent until proven guilty and we shouldn't be stringing the chap up until it is proven that he did it (should turn out to be so).

However, I'd ask that everyone just stays to the facts in their posts as much as possible and that we don't have anyone looking to vent their spleens (concerning the damages that they've sustained) at the easiest target (understandable that it is that we all want the culprit brought to book and that many people lost out financially or had their day ruined). I'd also hope that if anyone did have any info to add to the investigation then they would have given it to the police. And, as has been suggested, it has not been unknown for pretrial publicity to influence a trial thus let's try not to get carried away - again, I'd say it's better to pass info to the police rather than to the forum - hopefully it'll be sorted and we'll know the result long before we are all considering whether or not to enter next year's event.

thanks.
voujan
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Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by voujan »

Kieth,
You say you know the accused and believe he is innocent. Why? I believe in innocent until proven guilty and I do not think anyone should be making personal attacks on anyone without conclusive proof, but the facts are that he has been charged with this crime and there must be strong evidence to support that. What makes things much worse is that when he appeared in court he made NO plea. Normally, if someone is accused of something they did not do and played no part in it, they would want to plead NOT GUILTY right from the outset. What can be the reason for remaining silent? Perhaps to plea bargain on a reduced charge, perhaps to see how strong the case is? certainly not to tell everyone he is innocent.

Kieth, the police are currently involved in a criminal investigation and you have no part in that. The accused is your friend and you wish to gather information from potential witnesses. Why? We must await the trial to hear the facts in the case.

Anyone who can shed light on the questions that Mike has should not discuss it with anyone except the police. I am sure the police will welcome any information however small and would not appreciate it being discussed with a friend of the accused (who remains silent when judge asks did you do it?).
rogerzilla
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Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by rogerzilla »

Maybe this discussion should be taken offline (or to private messages) to avoid prejudicing any court case? "Oh but your Honour, my name has been smeared across the CTC forum".
kwilkinson
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Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by kwilkinson »

bike it wrote:Kieth,
You say you know the accused and believe he is innocent. Why? I believe in innocent until proven guilty and I do not think anyone should be making personal attacks on anyone without conclusive proof, but the facts are that he has been charged with this crime and there must be strong evidence to support that. What makes things much worse is that when he appeared in court he made NO plea. Normally, if someone is accused of something they did not do and played no part in it, they would want to plead NOT GUILTY right from the outset. What can be the reason for remaining silent? Perhaps to plea bargain on a reduced charge, perhaps to see how strong the case is? certainly not to tell everyone he is innocent.

Kieth, the police are currently involved in a criminal investigation and you have no part in that. The accused is your friend and you wish to gather information from potential witnesses. Why? We must await the trial to hear the facts in the case.

Anyone who can shed light on the questions that Mike has should not discuss it with anyone except the police. I am sure the police will welcome any information however small and would not appreciate it being discussed with a friend of the accused (who remains silent when judge asks did you do it?).


I'm not here to argue the rights or wrongs of this - you are free to make up your own mind based on the limited information you have at this time from what has been published in the press - at the end of the day it will be down to the courts to decide whether or not he is guilty not us if indeed it even goes that far.

My question is simply to know if anyone cycled the route on the Saturday nothing more - if anyone has I'd be more than happy for them to contact the police directly rather than me.

Cheers

K.
Romeo Whisky
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Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by Romeo Whisky »

It is perfectly normal, in fact almost uniform, to make no plea or decalration at this stage in solemn proceedings in Scotland.

If anyone has any information they feel might help the police in their investigation, they should give it to the police, ASAP. I beleive that is what Keith should be encouraging others to do, rather than turning all Hercule Poirot.
kwilkinson
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Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by kwilkinson »

bike it wrote:Kieth, thank you for the response, I am pleased that you are now asking people to give their evidence to the police and not to you.


I don't want to make any statements on here that I don't have the full facts (I wasn't present at the hearing) and legal understanding (I'm not a lawyer) about but I think Romeo whisky has put it across as well as I understand it.
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Si
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Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by Si »

I think that we should steer clear of speculating on how the accused is conducting his defence, thus I've removed a couple of snippets.

As I said - the guilt or not of the person in question is for the court to decide not us.
drjones

Re: Etape Caledonia vandalised

Post by drjones »

Yes, a little more tact wouldn't go a miss.
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