Neighbours of murdered man accuse police of failing to act
SCOTLAND YARD has been forced to deny claims that it has lost control of the capital’s streets after residents said police ignored complaints about drug dealers on an estate where a father was battered to death on his doorstep.
Michael Swan, 45, and Gary Beech, 48, were last night charged with the murder of 46-year-old Ian Tomlin, who was discovered slumped and fatally injured next to his block of flats in Battersea, south-west London on Wednesday evening. Medics battled to save Mr Tomlin, but he was pronounced dead 45 minutes later.
The death of Mr Tomlin, a lorry driver and former professional boxer, has sparked claims from local residents that police have lost control of the area in and around the Doddington estate, close to Battersea Park, where he lived.
Mr Tomlin himself had reportedly raised concerns over crime in the area.
Supt Peter Gardner, head of CID for Wandsworth Police, said: “I don’t feel at all that we’ve lost control of the streets, I think that’s not at all accurate.”
Earlier, residents on the estate told The Daily Telegraph that cuts to police numbers had left officers “plugging a hole in a dam with their fingers”.
Glenroy Gottshoak, a cousin of the victim, said that Mr Tomlin had repeatedly complained of crime in the area. He said: “This should have been sorted ages ago … Why did it have to take a life for something to happen?”
Maurice Mcleod, 48, a local councillor, said he and local residents had “repeatedly” complained to police about anti-social behaviour in the area.
“It’s a real hotspot for anti-social behaviour,” he said. “Police are massively under-resourced. They are plugging a hole in a dam with their fingers.”
A post-mortem examination, held yesterday afternoon, gave Mr Tomlin’s cause of death as a head injury caused by blunt force trauma.
Swan, of Wandsworth, and Beech, of Battersea, will appear at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court today.