Richard Dawkins calls for arrest of Pope Benedict XVI

Marc Horne

RICHARD DAWKINS, the atheist campaigner, is planning a legal ambush to have the Pope arrested during his state visit to Britain “for crimes against humanity”.
Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.
The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998.
The Pope was embroiled in new controversy this weekend over a letter he signed arguing that the “good of the universal church” should be considered against the defrocking of an American priest who committed sex offences against two boys. It was dated 1985, when he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with sex abuse cases.

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Benedict will be in Britain between September 16 and 19, visiting London, Glasgow and Coventry, where he will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, the 19th-century theologian.
Dawkins and Hitchens believe the Pope would be unable to claim diplomatic immunity from arrest because, although his tour is categorised as a state visit, he is not the head of a state recognised by the United Nations.
They have commissioned the barrister Geoffrey Robertson and Mark Stephens, a solicitor, to present a justification for legal action.
The lawyers believe they can ask the Crown Prosecution Service to initiate criminal proceedings against the Pope, launch their own civil action against him or refer his case to the International Criminal Court.
Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, said: “This is a man whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence.”
Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great, said: “This man is not above or outside the law. The institutionalised concealment of child rape is a crime under any law and demands not private ceremonies of repentance or church-funded payoffs, but justice and punishment."
Last year pro-Palestinian activists persuaded a British judge to issue an arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, the Israeli politician, for offences allegedly committed during the 2008-09 conflict in Gaza. The warrant was withdrawn after Livni cancelled her planned trip to the UK.
“There is every possibility of legal action against the Pope occurring,” said Stephens. “Geoffrey and I have both come to the view that the Vatican is not actually a state in international law. It is not recognised by the UN, it does not have borders that are policed and its relations are not of a full diplomatic nature

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ACPO Criminal Records Office

Policing

NOT MANY DESK jobs come with the prospect of helping bring international drug smugglers to justice. But when three defendants accused of importing cocaine from Bazil and Ghana into Britain refused to enter pleas before their trial, despite much evidence, it was staff at the Acpo (Association of Chief Police Officers) Criminal Records Office who filled the breach.
From their base near Fareham in Hampshire, employees in the exchange of criminal records department were able to access foreign criminal registers and link the accused smugglers to previous drugs cases in five other European countries. Faced with this evidence all three pleaded guilty, saving the enormous expense of a trial expected to last 10 to 12 weeks. This case is just one of many the office has helped with. In the past two years it has contributed to 570 murder investigations, 88 attempted murders, 564 rape cases, 227 sexual offences against young people and 362 other sexual offences. Quite an achievement for an organisation only founded in 2006 by four people in a portable office. Its other tasks include supplying data on UK offenders to officers within Britain and in the rest of the world and fingerprints are being added to the records held. The bureau department, meanwhile — where most people work — supplies police certificates for people applying for residency visas to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and America. These vouch for the applicant's good character or disclose any UK criminal history they have. The office charges a fee for the service and uses the revenue to help fund its other departments.
A youthful, entrepreneurial atmosphere permeates the bright, modern offices. Staff say they love working here, giving the highest score of any small organisation at 80% positive. The boss, Detective Superintendent Gary Linton, comes in for plenty of praise. Employees have a great deal of faith in him (85%, another top score) and find him inspirational (77%). At 74%, no other organisation scored higher for having senior managers who listen rather than just tell people what to do, winning it our special award for leadership.
Susan Ashburn, a manager, says: "It's always changing because we're such a young unit. People are growing, getting promotions. We have a say in what we do and how we do things. You're never going to be bored."
Staff give sparkling scores across all eight factors in the employee survey; not only are they the least stressed in the public sector (86%), they are the most excited about where the organisation is going (78%) and the best led both by those at the top (whose leadership scored 79% overall) and line managers (75%).
www.acpo.police.uk/acro

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