Thursday, May 25, 2006
Murder at the Grotto
Gunned down at the Grotto
A 42 year old man was "executed" in cold blood by callous "revenge" gunmen at the scenic clifftops near Marsden Grotto, South Shields at 4.00 p.m. yesterday. The victim, David "Noddy" Rice was well known to police as a hard man involved in the dark and dangerous underworld of drug dealing. He had served time in the past and had also been the victim of a ferocious knife attack which had left him with an ugly scar running from his ear to his chin.
"Noddy" was sitting in his car surrounded by other locals enjoying the sunshine, peace, and tranquility of the sea views when a dark Ford Mondeo carrying his killers arrived; the two men dressed in dark clothes and wearing full face balaclava masks approached his vehicle and began shooting at him through the car window. Mr. Rice sustained a number of gunshot wounds to the neck and chest yet still managed to clamber out of the car before collapsing on the ground. At this stage, one of his attackers moved around to the other side of the vehicle and emptied another round into his head at close range. The killers then fled the scene and torched the (probably stolen) Mondeo in nearby Lizard Lane.
Early this morning a 46 year old man was arrested in Wallsend on suspicion of murder, police are stillsearching for a second man.
Ten years ago, Thomas Hamilton committed his infamous atrocity at the school in Dunblane, and Parliament in a knee jerk reaction hastily passed new laws which banned the ownership of hand guns, yet since that Act of Parliament the number of shootings involving revolvers, and semi-automatic pistols has continued to rise. It seems that, even after the Home Office's gun amnesty, the amount of hand guns available for criminal use has gone up and up. At the time all registered and licensed holders of hand guns were required to submit them to their local police stations; it seems rather churlish now to suggest that licenced gun owners were not the type (in general) to commit crime. Killings (on the whole) were always going to involve unlicensed weapons, of which the supply had started to increase with relaxation of controls under Europe's open borders policy.
Similarly, the country is becoming awash with imports of cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, ecstacy and other narcotics, the foodstuff of the gangsters, earning easy money and dealing misery to thousands.
This present government needs to take the bull by the horns and divert resources from other programmes to finance stricter controls at our ports, airports, rail stations and other points of entry. The police need additional officers rather than regionalisation, and finally the European model needs to see drastic change, security cannot be attained with open borders. The judiciary and the Home Office need to toughen up against the criminals and sentencing needs to be more severe and meaningful, with an element of sincere thought for the victims of crime.
Until these changes are in place, the sad reality is that we will see more, not less, drug related crime on our streets crime.
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