Earlier post on this:

Wirral Globe local crime incident re: Martin Liptrot – published then hurriedly removed. What’s going on?

22nd August 2018

Transcript of a phone conversation between Paul Cardin, writer of this blog and a phone operative at British Transport Police, made yesterday 21st August 2018 at 12:09 PM.

Answer machine:  You are through to the British Transport Police non-emergency centre.  For emergencies, please dial 999.  To ensure we direct your call to the appropriate department, please choose from the following three options: 

• To report a crime, please press #1

• If you know the person or staff number of the person you want to be connected to please press #2

• For general enquiries including lost property, please press #3

Otherwise, please hold for an operator to become available.

Operator: Afternoon, British Transport Police, how can I help?

Paul:  Hiya, I’m responding to an article in a newspaper I saw yesterday morning, in the Wirral Globe, and it was asking for help with a photo of somebody, with identifying a certain person that was in the newspaper article.

Operator:  What’s that?  No problem.  What we’ll do…let me just have a quick look for you.  Did it have a log number or anything there?

Paul:  Yeah, it did.  Oh, I’ll just have to look on my phone to see if I can locate that.  Hang on a second.

Operator:  Yeah, no problem at all.

Paul:  Hello?

Operator:  Yeah.

Paul:  Yeah, 337-16.08.18.

Operator:  Okay, no problem.  I’ll just have a quick look for you.  Okay, I’ll put your information up here.  Would you like to give your name or would you like to remain anonymous?

Paul:  I’ll remain anonymous, I think.

Operator:  No, no problem at all.  Okay, so what information do you have?

Paul:  It looks like a person called Martin Liptrot.

Operator:  Martin Liptrot.

Paul:  Yeah.

Operator:  Okay, and what do you know about him?  Do you know what area he lives in or…?

Paul:  No, I know where he works.  He works at Wirral Council.

Operator:  Okay.

Paul:  And I think he’s based at the Town Hall which is in Brighton Street, Wallasey.

Operator:  Okay.  No problem.  Anything else that you have at all?

Paul:  Yeah.  The story itself, the article in the Wirral Globe website wasn’t up for long.  It was only up for about a few hours, I think, and then it went down.  The link went down.  I mean, when I went back they had a list of the Top Ten read stories and it was number 2 in the Top Ten and you could see the headline there about this person who was being violent on a train at Central Station.  I don’t know whether Martin Liptrot was the person being violent but that’s the sort of implication.  But anyway, the link was no longer working, so the story had been taken down for some reason and, you know, I find that highly suspicious because he’s a senior person at Wirral Council and Wirral Council appear to have a partnership with the Wirral Globe whereby they link to each other’s stories and this, that and the other and personally I find that disturbing because there should be an element of separation between the local media and the local government, if you like, you know, so I find it a bit suspicious and I think it’s worth you recording that, you know.

Operator:  Yeah, if you want I can have a quick look through the log to see if I can find out exactly why that’s happened.

Paul:  Yeah, that would be great.

Operator:  Okay, bear with me.

Paul:  Thank you.

Operator:  Right.  There’s a few things that I just need to read to see if I can find this out for you.

Paul:  Okay.

Operator:  Okay, so what’s happened is the person involved – I can’t confirm or deny if it is him – but the person involved has actually attended British Transport Police Liverpool Office.  And has arranged an interview and everything so because we don’t need the media appeal to be out because we have the person, and that’s why it’s been taken down.  I mean, you know, it might have been where he saw it himself and if he saw it himself then whoever it is might have just turned round and said, okay, I’ll get that down so not many more people see my picture, but yeah, so as I say, I can’t confrm or deny if it is him.  But I can say that that person has attended the British Transport Police office and that’s why it’s been taken down.

Paul:  So it’s like a routine thing, so if it was me and I rang – I saw my photo in the paper and I thought, oh, I’d better ring them, I don’t want people seeing my…

Operator:  Yeah, exactly.

Paul:  Is it a personal data thing, is it?

Operator:  Well, I mean, well, as soon as we found out what it is because obviously it depends on what it is, you know, let’s say for a sexual assault happened on a train.  Your picture came up and even if it wasn’t saying that you were a suspect or anything, it might just say that this person might have information and we want to talk to this person, it’s like you wouldn’t want your picture associated with a sexual assault on a train regardless of whether, you know, it’s just…  So, I mean, it could just be, you know, you see your picture and go, oh my God, and you thought yeah, it’s like I did see something on the train but I don’t want people thinking I was the suspect, if you know what I mean.  So it would be exactly the same thing.  You could ring up and go, okay, my picture’s in the paper, can you get this taken down and yeah, as soon as you’re in there then you can get it taken down.

Paul:  Totally understandable that, yeah, okay, thanks for explaining that.  Appreciate that.

Operator:  No.  Okay, thanks for your call.  Okay.

Paul:  Thank you very much.

Operator:  No, no problem at all.  Have a good day.

Paul:  Thank you, bye.

Operator:  Thank you, bye.

End of transcript.