Thursday 12 November 2009

Private I and Tai Chi

I spend most of my life in conflict and fear. On any day I can be working alone, tracing people who do not want to be found, then serving them with Court Orders they do not want. Negotiating the release of abducted children. Carrying out close protection work and investigations for prominent people and companies, mediating in disputes and living in dangerous surrounding gathering evidence against organised crime.

My respite has always been martial arts. I'm in my mid-fifties, my mind is in my early twenties!! To keep myself healthy I practice Tai Chi everyday. Today I will spend the morning with one of my Tai Chi Masters and then later I will teach my Tai Chi Class.

As a former soldier and undercover operator I am sure that I have suffered from post traumatic stress and can honestly say that I believe that I would not have been as content and happy as I am without Tai Chi.

In essence, I realised a long time ago that life is difficult; will always be difficult. Believing that things will be 'better' when the kids leave home, when I leave home etc. etc. does not bring total harmony. There will always be difficulties so I just accept that and carry on enjoying the difficult times as much as the 'good' times. I just live, and I love it.

Thursday 5 November 2009

Anti Social Behaviour

I was one of the first private investigators in the UK to go undercover recording Anti Social Behaviour from kids breaking windows to drug dealing and organised crime.

Last week I was invited to take part in the BBC's coverage of ASBO's (Anti-social Behaviour Orders). Peter Wilson, BBC Midlands Today Home Affairs Correspondent arranged a live interview from a boxing club in Stafford. Typically, the programme ran out of time and my contribution lasted all of 20 seconds. I said nothing! What I wanted to say was that in all the years I have been involved in this type of work both as a PI and social worker I never found any teenager who became ASBO material overnight. There was always a long history. Most cam from dysfunctional families, often from single parents who were struggling themselves, or had been subjected to years of domestic violence. It was obvious virtually from birth that these young people were going to be ASBO fodder. So what exactly does an ASBO do. Well, it gets votes for Government. They put the ASBO up as their demonstration that they are 'dealing' with the problem. They definitely are not! If they were they would have put in appropriate resources at the very first signs of family dysfunction. That is where Anti-Social Behaviour should be tackled. Giving a kid an 'ASBO badge of honour' and expecting that this will have a beneficial effect on behaviour is absolute nonsense. These families have been known to the authorities and professionals for years. They deserved better, These kids were not born with ASBO in their make up they were schooled in it. Many should have been removed from the families. I've spoken to dozens of social workers who have told me that they wanted to removed children who easily met the criteria but were told by their 'masters' not to. Either to keep up the pretence of keeping the numbers of accommodated children low, or saving money. I honestly believe that some of the young people subject to ASBO should sue the government for failing them by not providing them with decent 'pro-active' services for goodness knows how many years.

Wednesday 4 November 2009

5 killed

My day started early, I'd been told that an abducted child I'm trying to locate was going to turn up at the maternal grandparent's home, a cottage in a remote moorland area. I lay in wait, snuggled close to a dry stone wall high above the property to my front and on the edge of a farm field to the rear. KJ and myself took up the FOP (forward observation position) with two of our colleagues some distance away in the LUP (lying up position). It was cold, barely above freezing. It was wet, ground water and drizzling rain. It was grey, slate grey with a pigeon grey sky.

I'd heard on the early news about the soldiers killed by a rogue element in Afghanistan.

My current undercover position and the news merged and forced my thoughts back to the early seventies. I was a soldier then, in a similar position. I was on duty, undercover, watching and gathering evidence on the movements of the IRA. It was a dark wet day as well. I was working with elements of the 2nd Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and UDR (Ulster Defence Regiment). My FOP was within an electric sub-station. scattered around were my colleagues, some covering other FOP's and others in LUP's. As I lay there I was suddenly overwhelmed by silence, it was as though the world had stopped, there really was no sound that I could distinguish. My senses were telling me from within that something was about to happen. Moments later I responded as my ears took in the sound of several high velocity shots. As the echo died the sound of a man in pain flooded into me. More shots rang out. I scanned the area but saw nothing. I moved my position, glanced around a huge piece of electric machinery and viewed the site's entry gate. Unusually it was swinging open in the breeze. It should have been locked. The breeze was blowing as if to keep it shut but it was halted, hitting something, then bouncing back only to be driven again by the breeze. I was in the prone firing position and needed to stretch my neck to view the obstruction. In the opening lay the body of one of the UDR guys, writhing in pain. There was no cover between the two of us. I thought about staying where I was but couldn't. I held my breath with fear, stood up and ran to his side. A shot rang out. I threw myself against the casualty. Looking out of the gate I could see the figure of one of the Fusiliers disappearing into the cover of a housing estate. I was confused, where the hell was he going? The shooting stopped, my colleagues joined me. Within minutes I could see a helicopter making it's way to our position. When it landed medics spilled out ready to care for the casualty. No need, to late!

The drone of the helicopter carrying the dead still fills my head. Today, as I recalled my past,the sound seemed even more deafening, then I realised that the farm tractor was on its way down the field towing a trailer spreading manure. In the shit again, I thought.

The fusilier? He had been recruited by the IRA, trained at great expense by the British tax payer and was every bit as much of a rogue element as today's Afghan killer.