Warren Bradley leads Lib-Dem call for action

Sep 20 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

Council Leader Warren Bradley with Jason Harborow in the background _320

A SCANDALOUS lack of customs officers to stamp out gun smuggling from abroad was condemned by the Liberal Democrats at their Brighton conference.

An emergency motion tabled by Liverpool Lib Dems in the wake of Rhys Jones’ murder – also demanding anonymity for witnesses too scared to testify – was overwhelmingly passed in Brighton.

Both city council leader Warren Bradley and Colin Eldridge, its executive member for community safety, told delegates of the desperate need for urgent action to prevent further tragedies.

The government’s response – a taskforce to be headed by Merseyside’s deputy chief constable John Murphy – was inadequate, as it would have a budget of just £1m.

The motion’s call for a 24-hour border force follows warnings that many recent gun crime victims were probably killed by weapons easily smuggled in – in parts – from abroad.

Mr Eldridge told delegates that the shooting of 11-year-old Rhys, as he walked home from playing football in Croxteth four weeks ago, must be a “watershed moment”.

He added: “With a budget of just £1m, and no sign of where that money is going, there is an issue about whether the taskforce can make a difference.

“The police do raids to get the guns off the street, but they find more guns are coming in from outside the UK, often from Eastern Europe.” Mr Eldridge pointed out there were nine times more customs officers looking for smuggled cigarettes than for firearms.

Mr Bradley added: “Anonymity is so important when you see a crime committed such as in Croxteth, or in Manchester, in Birmingham or in London.

“For people to come forward from these communities they need the anonymity, they need to give the evidence but they need to have protection.”

A handful of delegates voted against the motion, after an attempt to strike out the call for anonymity for witnesses was defeated.

The motion also demanded extra police funding for areas blighted by gun crime, to be funded by scrapping “expensive and wasteful ID cards”.

The motion also called for extra manpower. Former Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick said ID cards were “absolutely useless” in tackling gun crime, adding: “We need people, not pieces of plastic.”