Falklands: News Direct (Friday, 23 May 2003)

PRISON SENTENCE FOR AFFRAY MAN WHO LIED ON HIS WORK PERMIT:

Michael Morley was sentenced to 70 days in prison in Court this morning after he pleaded guilty to two offences. Lee Hazell (LH) was there.

LH: One charge was of affray and the other of providing false information on his work permit. The Court heard how, on the 4^th of May, the Police had been approached by Mark Wakefield from the Seabulk Condor, who said that he had been verbally abused by a man in the Globe Tavern. Whilst walking back down with the Police towards the Globe, they saw two men outside having a heated discussion. One was identified as the defendant. He was spoken to and the Police carried on with their patrol but about an hour later, they came to the junction of Philomel Street and John Street and could hear raised voices and upon closer inspection saw that it was Mark Wakefield and the defendant.

The following incident resulted in Mr. Wakefield making an insulting comment and the defendant retaliating with a head-butt. He was arrested and taken to the Police Station where he continued to be uncooperative, banging on his cell door and writing unsavoury comments in the incident book. In interview he stated that he was out to get Mr. Waitfield and that once he’s got him, that would be the end of it. It was while these investigations were going on that the work permit came to light, with only one conviction for assault declared. The National Criminal Service was contacted and the full list of offences was sent. He’s had not one but fifteen offences, and out of these 11 convictions for crimes ranging from property offences, to weapons offences and fraud. The defendant was asked why he had not mentioned the convictions and he answered in the Court by saying if he had, he wouldn’t have been allowed into the Islands.

Senior Magistrate, Nick Saunders, told the defendant that both offences were serious ones and, that in the matter of the affray, it was, in his opinion, that he had intended to hurt the other man. On the immigration charge, he said that the law sets a maximum penalty of £7500.00, or 12 months in prison. He told Mr. Morley that he intended to impose a custodial sentence and didn’t need pre-sentence reports as, in his view, this was the only way of dealing with the case.

And, Mark Wakefield pleaded guilty to using threatening words and behaviour towards Michael Morley. This also resulted from the incident on the 4^th of May, when he told Michael Morely he looked like some kind of Martian. He was fined £50.00 with £30.00 costs.

MILITARY NEWS:

The Military have been fairly busy recently with their involvement with Exercise Cape Petrel and the Landing Day commemorations at Blue Beach. Their Media spokeswoman. Capt Rachael McFayden, (RM) came into the studio to talk about what else they have been up to.

RM: Members of the Stanley based EOD team were busy throughout the whole of April. At the start of the month, they travelled down to South Georgia and destroyed some mortars and other unexploded ordinance down there. Then, coming up to the end of the month, they were called upon to destroy a number of anti-vehicle and anti-personal mines that had been found in the minefields on Stanley Common. And, they also destroyed an anti-vehicle mine in situ down at Gypsy Cove beach.

CG: How did the trip down to South Georgia go?

RM: The EOD sailed to South Georgia on HMS LEEDS CASTLE. A whole combination of activities took place – a maritime patrol, and also, a patrol from the RIC went down and land patrols around the Island.

CG: Last week was Exercise Cape Petrel. How did that go?

RM: It went very well. It’s been the focus of most of the Military’s attention in the last few weeks preparing for it. Changes had been made and so we were going to practice the defence of the Mount Pleasant Complex. Because everybody’s focused on the exercise, lots of emergency scenarios were enacted. The various emergency services were called upon to react to those. It gave us a really good opportunity to work alongside the elements of the FIDF as well. They came down and played "enemy" and made the scenarios much more realistic and much more testing. Hopefully, it gave the FIDF a chance to practice some skills they wouldn’t normally get to do, including beach landings and tactical insertions by helicopter. It was a very rewarding exercise. People really were on a high at MPC after that because they had been tested and they know they had performed well. All in all, it was a very successful exercise.

CG: What sort of lessons do you think were learned during the exercise?

RM: We have various plans for how we feel we deal with situations. It’s OK working something through on paper but only when you put it into practice that you find it does work. As well as the basic plans, we were testing the command and control and the inter-relationship between all the different agencies because it involves maritime assets, air assets and land assets all working together. You practice it and then you can tweak it and it’s a continuous process.

CG: Something held recently was the market at MPC. How did that go?

RM: That followed directly on from Cape Petrel on Saturday. It wasn’t quite as busy as normal and a few of the regular stall-holders didn’t attend. But it was still a successful event, particularly the coffee and cake stand. We are looking forward to the next market being held in August.

BUDCO:

The end of the financial year is almost upon us. On Tuesday, Governor Howard Pearce will be giving his annual address. Legislative Council session starts at 0915 in the morning and it will be broadcast on 88.3FM and 530MW only. Coverage will continue on all frequencies after 1000.

Wednesday’s session gets underway at 1415. It will be broadcast on 88.3 and 530MW only.

(100X Transcription Service)

Last night a potentially serious fire at the Abattoir was saved by the prompt and responsible actions of John Ferguson, Maintenance and Planning Manager at the Plant.

At approximately 7pm, on a routine check of the buildings prior to locking the complex for the night, John heard the fire alarm ringing in the outer building and upon further investigation he could see flames through the door. He dialled 999 immediately and turned off the fuel supply to the incinerator. John then attempted to control the flames using the fire-extinguishers on hand, but was unable to bring the fire under control. John said "Grease was dripping from the bottom of the incinerator door on to the drip pan on the floor and this was alight".

As John’s concern was also for livestock situated nearby, he then proceeded to move three hundred sheep to a safe area. He added "when I went to get the sheep out of the building, for once they didn’t do anything wrong".

The police were first at the scene, followed swiftly by the Falkland Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Led by Gardner Fiddes, the fire crew entered the building and quickly dealt with the blaze outside the incinerator. It was relatively straight-forward, but complicated by the extremely high temperature within the incinerator.

Julian Morris, GM FIDC, said "We had a lucky escape; it was thanks to John’s conscientiousness and then his quick thinking and prompt actions that we didn’t have a disaster."

An engineer from the Manufacturer, Techtrol Ltd, had serviced the incinerator two weeks before and the door seal was specifically inspected and approved. This problem had not been encountered before. When it has cooled down the incinerator will be inspected to determine what the fault was. Minimal damage was done outside the incinerator. As the incinerator had a lot of material in the chamber at a very high temperature, a team from the plant and FIDC remained on site throughout the night to ensure there was no flare up.

Julian Morris said "With just three days remaining of the export season, minimal disruption should be caused. We are extremely grateful to John Ferguson and the rest of the abattoir team for responding in this typically committed way. This commitment has moved the project a very long way in only a few months of operation."