Help Talking-up Scotland keep going
Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going
Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421
For a short video account of this issue see: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2026/07/23/why-multiple-rapist-alan-greer-is-not-police-scotlands-wayne-couzens-moment-short-video/
As many of us anticipated BBC Scotland have returned to this case feeling they have found something they can accuse Police Scotland of in the case of Alan Greer and imply failure at ministerial level.
What have they found? What were these ‘warnings?‘
Greer made inappropriate phone calls to two women in 2002 and in 2005 with in the second case in London, a formal police caution by the Met.
What does ‘inappropriate’ mean to the legal system, to policing?
An accusation that a phone call was “inappropriate” is a low-to-moderate severity label, not a legal category. It sits well below terms like “harassing,” “obscene,” “threatening,” or “stalking.” Its real weight depends almost entirely on context, content, and who is making the claim.What “inappropriate” usually signalsPeople and organizations use the word when they want to flag discomfort or a boundary violation without committing to a stronger legal claim. Typical examples:
- An off-color joke or personal remark that landed poorly
- An unsolicited late-night or after-hours call from a colleague or supervisor
- Comments about appearance, dating, or personal life that felt unwelcome
- A single awkward or overly familiar conversation rather than a pattern
What had been know about Wayne Couzens BEFORE he murdered Sarah Everard in March 2021?
- 2004: Failed an interview/application to join Kent Police as a regular officer.
- 2006: Joined Kent Special Constabulary as a volunteer special constable (same uniform, kit and powers of arrest as a regular officer). Later promoted to section officer.
- 2008: Failed vetting for a regular Kent Police post, largely because of heavy personal debt and an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) from 2007. He was still allowed to stay on as a special.
- 2011: Joined the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (armed nuclear-site protection). Thames Valley Police, which did the vetting, recommended he should not be recruited because of the debt/IVA. That advice was ignored. He later received high-level clearance.
- 2018: Transferred to the Metropolitan Police. A Police National Database check was recorded as “no trace.” In fact there were earlier entries, including a 2013 missing-from-home report and a 2015 indecent-exposure link to his car. Those were missed. In 2019 he was authorised as a firearms officer after another incomplete check. The Met later told the inquiry that, even with that information, it would still have recruited him. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/29/police-could-and-should-have-stopped-him-key-points-wayne-couzens-report
Utterly different level of warning?
On 23 July 2026, BBC Scotland had:
A police officer who took his own life in May was a violent rapist who carried out a spate of sexual attacks and attempted murders of women over at least 14 years, the BBC can reveal.
PC Alan Greer’s first known victim was a woman he raped in her home in Glasgow in 2012 after she had called the police to report being the victim of a crime.
The woman reported the sex attack by Greer late last year, sparking one of Police Scotland’s biggest ever anti-corruption inquiries.
Note that last bit. Greer had no known previous as they say. Police Scotland had no file on him that would have alerted them to a problem. In sharp contrast, the Met had 10 warnings going back to 2008, on Couzens, and they ignored them all.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68418971
Wayne Couzens, a serving police officer in London, raped and murdered Sara Everard in 2023.
BBC Scotland even state – ‘Greer’s family and colleagues are understood to have been “oblivious” to his violent double life.‘
Yet, today BBC Scotland wonders:
A source close to the investigation told the BBC: “Some of his colleagues thought this was a callous move on behalf of the police, saying he was under criminal investigation when he’d only just died.
“But it’s clear they were all totally in the dark about this guy’s offending.
“Folk will be in a state of shock when they learn the full truth. I don’t think anyone really knows how bad it is yet.
“It feels a bit like this could be Police Scotland’s Wayne Couzens moment.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3v0rq66q3no
Here’s a better ‘moment’ and it’s for policing under Scottish Labour:
The Emma Caldwell Public Inquiry must ask if the Scottish Labour Government of 20 years ago took its eye of the ball
From Emma Caldwell Public Inquiry begins work, published 8 December 2025:
The independent Public Inquiry into the investigation of Emma Caldwell’s murder in April 2005 has been formally set-up and begins its work today (9 Dec).
Justice Secretary Angela Constance informed Parliament on the formal setting-up date and on the Inquiry’s terms of reference through a Government Initiated Question today.
The statutory inquiry will examine what went wrong in the investigation carried out by Strathclyde Police into the murder of Emma Caldwell, including the direction given by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
It will examine what steps which could reasonably have been taken that might have resulted in Emma’s killer being apprehended and prosecuted at an earlier stage, and any other factors relevant to the circumstances of the investigation and related prosecution. https://www.gov.scot/news/emma-caldwell-public-inquiry-begins-work/
In September 2025, Emma Caldwell’s mother thought the prosecutors hope she dies before the truth of her daughter’s tragic death comes out. I’d say Scottish Labour has more to fear and hopefully this inquiry will properly assess their guilt.
The Daily Record then did not spend any time on the wider picture of misogyny and callous neglect, going back for a century, so deep within Scottish Labour.
Here’s what they won’t tell you, in case it should hurt Anas:
From BBC Scotland, in June 2024:
Nearly 300 rapes and sexual assaults reported by sex workers during the Emma Caldwell murder investigation were not dealt with by police at the time, a senior officer has confirmed.
Police Scotland’s deputy chief constable said an operation had been launched to examine sex offences which were reported around 2005. She said a number of the offences were now being dealt with by the courts. A former detective told the BBC he had received multiple reports of rape when he worked on the murder inquiry. But he said they were “boxed” – marked as irrelevant and not followed up.
The then Strathclyde Police launched one of its most expensive murder investigations after Emma Caldwell’s body was found in remote woodland in South Lanarkshire in 2005.
Imagine, these events took place in 2015 after 8 years of SNP government?
The media would be all over the current SNP First and Justice ministers, asking why they had failed to scrutinise Strathclyde Police? Why had they apparently ignored the reports of massive abuse of sex workers?
Had First Minister Jack McConnell and Justice Secretary Cathy Jamieson taken their eyes off the ball in 2005? Were they too busy campaigning to keep the UK together in the face of surging SNP support? Should heads have rolled?
Does this remind you of something else?
Help Talking-up Scotland keep going
Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going
Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421
Discover more from Talking-up Scotland
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Talking-up Scotland 
“Watch out for media ‘inappropriately’ trying to blow this case up into a ‘Wayne Couzens’ crisis for policing in Scotland and door-step an SNP minister with accusations from Jackie Baillie”
Apologies for this long comment but let’s focus on (Tory and) Labour’s record on policing elsewhere shall we (as English Mayors and/or UK Home Secretaries).
The s*** that has continuously gone on with the London Met police in their poor record on cases that they have failed to investigate properly or dealt with, is , as far as policing is concerned , an embarrassing position to be in and also a clear example of how not to police within an area, a city or a country (like within England for example).
Since January 2012 the Mayor of London is responsible for the governance of the Metropolitan Police through the Mayor’s office for Policing and Crime. (Tory Boris Johnson was Mayor of London from 2012-2016 and then from 2016 Labour’s Sadiq Khan has been the Mayor of London).
Mayor of London governance in policing involves “setting the overall strategic direction, targets, and priorities for London’s policing, Managing resources, expenditure, and setting the annual policing budget from City Hall, holding the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to account for the delivery of efficient and effective policing and Investing in crime prevention programs and commissioning services to support victims of crime”.
The Home Secretary’s role is one that “retains the ultimate statutory power to hire and fire the Met Commissioner (though legally required to “have regard to” mayoral recommendations), provides the vast majority (roughly 75%) of the Metropolitan Police’s multi-billion-pound funding via central government grants, oversees national policing capabilities, counter-terrorism functions, and royal/VIP protection carried out by the Met that extend beyond London’s local borders and also sets national policing standards, oversees nationwide criminal justice bodies like the IOPC and holds the power to legislate structural reforms”.
Before 2000, the Metropolitan Police was under the authority of the Home Secretary.
Controversies pre 2000 and post 2012 onwards:
The 1993 Stephen Lawrence case was “heavily criticised and the subsequent Macpherson Inquiry (1999) found the Metropolitan Police to be “institutionally racist,” a landmark finding that mandated significant police reform efforts across the UK”.
In 2005 a Brazilian electrician living in London, Jean Charles de Menezes , was shot and killed by Metropolitan Police officers , the “Met Police mistakenly identified him as a suicide bomber linked to failed bombing attempts on the London transport network the day before, coming two weeks after the 7/7 London bombings” and “he was entirely blameless and unarmed, no individual police officers were prosecuted, though the Metropolitan Police Service was fined for breaching health and safety laws”.
The 2009 G20 London summit protests – “the Met faced widespread criticism over the actions of officers including the death of demonstrator Ian Tomlinson after being struck by an officer. This led to public criticism over excessive force and officers concealing their identification numbers”.
In 2011, it was disclosed that “a number of (Met) undercover officers had entered into intimate relationships with members of targeted groups, and even proposed marriage or fathered children with protesters who were unaware their partner was a police officer in a role as part of their official duties”.
In 2020, “two Met officers assigned to guard the scene of the murders of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were jailed for taking and sharing photographs of the deceased women on WhatsApp referring to them as “dead birds”.
In 2021 “a review into the handling of the investigation of the murder of Daniel Morgan found that the Met Police was “institutionally corrupt”.
In 2023, “a report found racism, misogyny, homophobia and corruption within the organisation after the abduction of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, a police constable. 12% of female Met employees had been harassed or attacked, with 33% experiencing sexism. Other incidents included a Muslim officer who had bacon stuffed into his boots and a Sikh officer whose beard was cut”.
In April 2024, “the Met settled a claim for misfeasance in public office and false imprisonment by agreeing to pay a five-figure sum as damages to a French publisher who had been arrested and detained under anti-terrorism laws while he was on his way to a book fair in London”.
In November 2024, “it was alleged that the Metropolitan Police was told about allegations of sexual assault against Mohamed Al-Fayed the late businessman and owner of Harrods, ten years earlier than it had acknowledged” (The Met “claimed that it first received such allegations in 2005, but the BBC was told that it had been informed by victims in 1995, but had not acted on the information”).
Not sure if the above is an exhaustive list of failings linked to the Met police, but I strongly suspect that it is not.
“The Metropolitan Police’s systemic and investigative failings have been the focus of several critically acclaimed UK television dramas. These series use real-life cases to highlight institutional errors, bias, and misconduct” .
(Some of these TV dramas highlighting failures in Met investigations included the Stephen Port murders in a TV drama called “Four Lives”, also “Stephen” – the murder of Stephen Lawrence, “Deceit” based on the 1992 undercover honeytrap operation after Rachel Nickell’s murder and then also “Believe Me” on the failings of the Met police investigation into black cab rapist John Worboys which saw “the Metropolitan Police lose an appeal against two rape victims, who won compensation over the Met’s (mis)handling of the case of black cab rapist John Worboys”).
The rule seems to be that with any major failings within England in any public service areas , be it policing, education, the NHS or anything else then the UK media and pro UK politicians must then (over) promote any (rare and odd) case that happens within Scotland.
This is not cases within Scotland of the same magnitude, as in not the same excessive amount of shocking cases that there has been involving the Met police force in England.
So a spiralling amount of investigation failings linked to the London Met police is often then (wrongly) presented, by the UK media and pro UK politicians, as being a similar situation happening within Scotland .
That is any identified case that happens in Scotland, be it Police or any other public service, then it is promoted as being a situation where Scotland is then to be seen as being no different to nor any better than England .
BTW there are also documented failings in the police elsewhere in other English regions too, like for example:
“Greater Manchester Police faced severe scrutiny for a systemic failure to record reported crimes, which significantly obstructed initial investigations. A major review exposed that the force failed to record one on five reported crimes (amounting to roughly 80,000 unrecorded crimes a year), including significant failures in documenting allegations of rape and domestic abuse , HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said about 220 crimes a day went unrecorded in the year up to June 2020” .
Andy Burnham was Mayor of Manchester from 2017 to 2026.
So really the media, especially BBC Scotland, always try to make a meal out of any random case/situation within Scotland that they then hope will cast aspersions upon the SNP as the Scottish government.
A too obvious ploy which the BBC then also hopes will make people in Scotland doubt the SNP’s ability to run an independent Scotland.
While simultaneously the BBC conveniently (deliberately) forgets the catalogue of failures connected to other places within their British State , as in places governed by pro UK parties, that is goverened at different levels e.g English Mayors and as UK (English) Home Secretaries).
Scotland – the nation where all of the pro UK media and all of the pro UK politicians always politicise absolutely anything and everything.
Liz S
LikeLiked by 1 person