Inspector Hitch addresses Caddington & Slip End

Caddington Sports & Social Club was full this morning as plenty of villagers from Slip End, Caddington and surrounding hamlets came to listen to local policing Inspector Jim Hitch.

This meeting was arranged at very short notice following the recent events in Woodside and public concerns as to what had (and had not) happened.  There was no formal agenda, but Inspector Hitch spoke for 10-15 minutes and then took questions from the public.

To recap, last Sunday (September 14) a member of the public saw two men in a field in Woodside; this was away from the public footpath and not somewhere people are normally seen and so their presence, coupled with their apparent use of some sort of monocular or range finding device, appeared suspicious.  The member of the public approached the men and challenged them; they ran away without responding.  The incident was reported to the Police by calling 101.

The Police referred the report to an appropriate senior officer who, against the background of the heightened alert against potential terrorist threats nationally, decided that the incident merited further investigation.  The local policing team secured the site and a specialist counter-terrorism team covering the eastern region of England and supported by SO15 (Scotland Yard counter-terrorism) took charge of the investigation, which is ongoing.  Other than a piece of paper recovered by the member of the public who made the original report, no further evidence was found.

Inspector Hitch confirmed that, contrary to some rumours which have been circulating, the piece of paper did NOT contain instructions on targeting planes or details of an attack.  The unidentified men's presence in the field and their activities could have been innocent (plane spotting or bird spotting) but, as they did not remain in the area to speak to Police, nothing can be absolutely confirmed or ruled out.  The specialist team continue to investigate and have also spoken to local residents who wished to report other incidents they have been concerned about in the past.

The general message from the Police is that there is no particular reason to feel unsafe or under threat but if you do see anything that you consider unusual or causes concern then please do ring 101 or 999.

Update: a resident has forwarded me a copy of their much more detailed notes which they were happy to share with the wider community - available here.