Welcome to the Fens where police go to sleep and the felons go free

Two hare coursing dogs seized by police

By PAT PRENTICE

Cambridgeshire police are being praised for their quick response to the Huntingdon train stabbing.

Quite a change from earlier this year when a squad of illegal balaclava-clad hare coursers terrorised villages not far from where the late Tony Martin shot dead a persistent burglar and wounded another some years ago. He accused Norfolk police of neglecting his requests for help.

Some time earlier, my sister just over the border in Lincolnshire was ignored by police when she called them as night-time thieves stole her car from her remote village home where she lives alone.

When the cops did call days later, she fumed that if she'd had my shotguns, she would have fired at them. She was cautioned that such words were threatening and she was in danger of breaking the law.

In the hare coursing rampage, property was vandalised, people threatened, cars set on fire and crops and possessions destroyed by marauding vehicles.

Fire engines were damaged and a crew were attacked. Frightened householders were forced to barricade themselves in their homes with their children for hours while repeated 999 calls were ignored.

In the remote area's pubs, dark rumours circulated later that four designated rural Bobbies had got wind of the mini-invasion and logged days off. True or not, people believed it. After police appeals, a number of people have now been prosecuted.

Topers also recalled that police threatened Tesco shoppers trying to buy smalls from a forbidden supermarket aisle at Bar Hill during the Covid lockdown, and remembered police inaction when protesters vandalised Trinity College's lawn and prevented ambulances from reaching hospital and paralysed Cambridge.

In February, police failed to visit Wisbech St Mary when a witness dialled 999 as a man was being attacked. The victim suffered bruises and swollen eyes and had the imprint of a shoe left on his cheek.

The call handler advised the witness to hang up and call an ambulance.

Police later blamed a poor phone signal.

Later in the year, a single mother was told not to keep bothering cops when her son's motorbike was stolen and the thief was captured on CCTV. She spent hours tracking it down and with the help of social media and a reward, found the bike dumped under a hedge. She insisted that fingerprints and DNA were taken eventually. Police said they had found samples, but took no further action.

Now we hear that Mr Plod failed to apprehend a knife man who twice threatened a barber's shop in Fletton and a 14-year-old boy was stabbed in nearby Peterborough city centre hours before the rail attack. The knifeman allegedly boarded the train at Peterborough station, about 23 miles from Huntingdon.

Cambs police have referred themselves to the police watchdog.

Still, congratulations to them for their prompt response to the train stabbing. Reports vary, but some say that it took them only about five to 11 minutes to get to the railway station. County police HQ is at Hinchingbrooke Park — just over a mile away.

10 November 2025