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Opened Jun 16, 2025 by Connor Giroux@connorgiroux63
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I have actually been Publicly Crucified for Arresting A Knife-wielding Teenager


All week, the tributes have actually . Those whose lives were touched by PC Lorne Castle have not been reluctant to come forward. One lady's account of how her child's life was saved by his 'generosity and humanity' and willingness to 'exceed what is expected of a law enforcement officer' is particularly moving.

She composed about how the struggling teenager lost his way in life and became known to authorities, who were forever needing to bring him home. It was PC Castle, himself a dad of 3, who ended up talking her young boy below the ledge, in a metaphorical sense along with a literal one.

Not just did he make the teen see that he had a future, he helped him sculpt one out by organizing work experience, although this was not his job. 'We require more officers like PC Castle, not less,' this grateful mom concluded.
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'That one made me well up,' says Lorne, 46, who is sitting in his living room in a peaceful property street in Bournemouth, sorting through the thousands of messages he has gotten today - some from complete strangers, but others from those he straight helped.

He appears quite overloaded and a little teary (very uncharacteristic, 'or it was before all this', according to his wife Denise), by all the nice things individuals have actually been saying about him.

'It's blown me away, to be honest,' he states. 'To have people come back to defend me. I'm not used to this, but it's truly touching.' He checks out on, on the brink of tears: 'If I 'd died, you couldn't have got better homages.'

And in a way he has died, because, as he points out: 'I'm not dead however the policeman I was is dead. PC 1399 is dead.'

Who eliminated PC Castle? Well, according to his employers at Dorset Police, the deadly injury was totally self-inflicted. Last week, he was fired - 'in a manner that was brutal. Alan Sugar fires people in a better method,' he says - after being condemned of gross misbehavior.

'I'm not dead but the cops officer I was is dead. PC 1399 is dead,' says Castle

His crime? One that was deemed so major that it erased 10 years of unblemished service including citations for bravery.

He arrested a teenage suspect - later discovered to have actually been in belongings of a knife - without showing sufficient 'courtesy or regard'. While grappling on the ground with the 15-year-old, who was withstanding arrest in January in 2015, PC Castle yelled, swore and pointed his finger at the suspect, who was proclaiming his innocence.

In the cold light of day, safe in his own home, having simply waved his youngest daughter off to bed, Lorne, newly jobless, still can't rather think that finger-pointing helped lose him his whole career.

He raises the offending finger today and waggles it in front of his own nose. 'I require to holster this,' he states, despairingly. Nor can he accept a few of the questions he had to respond to throughout a 'disastrous and humiliating' three-day gross misconduct hearing.

'For a police officer, the idea of gross misbehavior is simply the worst, however one of the things I was asked was if I hadn't heard the suspect say that he hadn't done anything. Did I not take a look at him and think he might be informing the fact?' He throws both hands up.

'Were they seriously asking me why I didn't succumb to the old, 'it wasn't me, guv' line. Most suspects withstanding arrest say they have not done anything. I indicate a kid knows that.

'Let's put this into context. We were investigating an assault. I have actually detained him. He has withstood. I'm struggling on the ground with him. There is a crowd gathering. I'm attempting to include this scenario however my concern is to make this arrest and keep everybody safe.

'So when he states he hasn't done anything, I'm seriously supposed to stop and state, 'Oh, you didn't do it? Dreadfully sorry, young Sir. Let me help you up! Tally ho! My mistake!' This is a suspect who did have a knife.'

Denise, who states she 'was so happy to be the other half of a law enforcement officer', went to every day of her husband's disciplinary hearing and has actually been there to get the pieces as his life broke down

The shock and bewilderment in his living room is palpable. As is the large shock. 'I indicate, the audacity of even asking me that. But I understood even before the gross misbehavior hearing started that I was strolling to the gallows. And they hung me out to dry.'

He includes: 'Even if I win my appeal, even if I got my task back, I would not be able to do it.

'How could I walk down the street with members of the public thinking I'm a bully and a criminal - all the things I entered into the police to challenge.

'My profession is gone. I'm never ever going to get another task, because who would provide me one. My life is destroyed. They've broken me.'

Denise, who tells me she 'was so happy to be the wife of a policeman', attended every day of her hubby's disciplinary hearing and has actually been there to pick up the pieces as his life fell apart.

The couple, who have children aged 27, 18 and 8, inform me that on the day Lorne was told he was dealing with gross misbehavior charges, he didn't go home - 'since how could I tell my better half?' - but strolled along Bournemouth beach till 3am. He was too shocked to believe of strolling into the sea and states he hasn't seriously contemplated suicide 'but can understand individuals who do, in this sort of circumstance, since the nature of this task isolates you from individuals who aren't authorities, so when the rug is pulled from under you ... you feel so alone'.

Denise says she has seen him 'diminish, end up being somebody who simply isn't Lorne'.

'My hubby is an outgoing, bubbly, glass-half-full individual, who is a natural leader and motivator,' she discusses. 'He's the most moralistic person I know - our kids will back me up on that. And he's the sort of guy who never ever employed ill even when he was ill.

'Since all this, I've simply seen him alter. He breaks down now. He doubts himself. It has been ravaging to view. Even the children state, 'he isn't Dad'.'

Their hero father, publicly admired after plunging into the freezing River Avon to conserve a senior female, is now making headings for all the incorrect factors.

When the first murmurings started, suggesting this once-admired officer had been unfairly treated by 'woke' employers who were far gotten rid of from the reality of policing at street level, Dorset Police moved rapidly to safeguard their position, launching damning video footage, drawn from a coworker's body web cam, which does certainly reveal PC Castle in a not-too-flattering light.

He's recorded informing the suspect to 'stop shrieking like a little b ** ch' and alerting him: 'I'm gon na smash you'.

This video footage, Lorne claims, was presented out of context, cherry-picked to 'not inform the complete story'.

'It was ravaging that Dorset Police might do this to me, that they could wish to ... ruin me,' he says. 'What that selective video didn't reveal was the consequences - when this suspect continued to resist arrest.

'It took four officers to get him in handcuffs. That video footage doesn't show the crowd around us, whom I might see in my peripheral vision.

'There was just one 999 call made about what was happening there and it came from a member of the general public who was worried about me. They called to say that there was an officer struggling, who looked as if he required back up.'

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Lorne adds: 'Dorset Police didn't even think it was necessary to call that individual as a witness in my disciplinary hearing. I needed to demand it. It paints a very various picture to what took place and I thank goodness that witness existed, since otherwise I 'd believe I was freaking.'

This is an extremely unpleasant - and divisive - case. There is no question that Lorne made judgment mistakes in his handling of that arrest on January 27, 2024.

He confessed as much throughout the misbehavior hearing and repeats that belief today. 'I need to not have actually utilized the language I did. I'm embarrassed and saddened that I did that, and that it's out there for everyone to see. But the essence of what happened was, sadly necessary. That was an arrest that required to be made and I made a judgment call.

'Could I have done it differently? Of course, but ultimately I took a knife off the streets. Another police force has this motto, 'Take a knife; Save a Life'. My force said, 'Take a knife; Get your P45'.'

Did he deserve to lose his career? 'I do not believe that's one for me to address,' he states, however his partner has no qualms. 'No, he did not,' Denise states strongly.

'They went out to string him up. Once they decided that they were opting for gross misconduct, they went trying to find things to support that. I sat there and couldn't think what they were doing.

'They have actually damaged an excellent male and taken an excellent police officer off the streets. I still can't believe this. This whole thing feels like such an infraction.'

There has been outrage about Lorne's termination, especially from those who were once in the ranks of Dorset Police.

Former Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Martyn Underhill informed Radio Solent this week: 'This officer overreacted, used bad language - that's about it. We're ending up being too woke. I believe Dorset Police have actually got this enormously incorrect. Do I believe he should have to lose his task? Absolutely not.'

It is especially ravaging for Lorne that it was colleagues who first grumbled about his handling of that arrest. He won't discuss their participation, however it is understood that the two junior officers who experienced it had actually only been in the job for six months.

It is also comprehended that while, initially, it did not appear misbehavior charges were likely, the decision was required to prompt them. Lorne was notified of this by Superintendent Ricky Dhanda, head of Professional Standards.

In a remarkable twist, Mr Dhanda has himself been put on limited responsibilities while he is examined over sexual misbehavior accusations. 'Maybe me and him have different decision-making procedures,' is all Lorne will say. So who is Lorne Castle - and how will history judge him?

His route into the police force was a little unusual. He matured in Torquay but transferred to close-by Bournemouth to go to university, where he studied law.

A keen sportsperson and martial arts professional, he satisfied Denise - who would go on to be a world champ Muay Thai fighter - and they established a sports academy together.

It was his work with young individuals that brought him into contact with the guy who would become his mentor - former Chief Inspector Chris Amey, who had a long profession with both the Met and Dorset Police.

He met Lorne in 2013 and was impressed by his drive and commitment on a youth job. He persuaded him to sign up with the police - first as a community assistance officer, then as a PC. Denise concurred that he had actually 'discovered his place' in the authorities.

Undoubtedly, it was a profession at which Lorne stood out. In 2021, he was called community officer of the year, after having been two times awarded commendations.

In 2017, he saved somebody in a medical emergency situation then, in 2023, he plunged into the Avon, duping his stab vest to get in the water, eventually holding an elderly lady aloft.

He says it did occur to him that he was, technically, breaking all the guidelines and 'could face manslaughter charges' if his efforts to get the woman to hold on to a life ring went wrong.

'It did go through my mind that expert standards might inform me I wasn't supposed to enter, that I was attempting to be a hero. That is the world we operate in.'

But his desire to do the ideal thing won out and he got an award from the Humane Society for that rescue.

Fellow officers 'who had held the ropes as I went in' were also commended but, bizarrely, when it pertained to the invitations for the ceremony, Lorne didn't get one.

'I 'd been put on restricted tasks already [after the occurrence with the teenager] and told my superiors were going to 'hold onto' mine till after the misconduct proceedings.' He raged, and deeply hurt. 'The other officers weren't going to go without me and I did eventually go, however it felt very much like being the child at the celebration you weren't invited to.'

On the night of the controversial arrest, Lorne was at completion of an 11-hour shift when a call came in about a violent masked transgressor, last seen driving an e-scooter, who was presumed of assaulting a senior male and a teenage kid.

Staff at a local McDonald's had actually been terrified enough to close their doors before calling for help. Earlier that day, law enforcement officer had been cautioned that there had actually been a big gang battle and prospective suspects were still at big.

There was no factor for Lorne to take that call - the oncoming shift might have managed it - however he says he volunteered, 'because that's what you do'.
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The suspect was rapidly discovered and when he withstood arrest, Lorne 'took him down to the ground'.

This part is not controversial. The misconduct hearing discovered no fault with the force utilized to take the suspect to the floor. It was the tussle that followed that was considered troublesome.

Did PC Castle lose control? He worries how fraught that circumstance was. 'As a law enforcement officer, you enter into the unidentified and there is a fear there.' He points out that his managers released a damning statement which repeatedly described the suspect as a 15-year-old young boy.

'The narrative was that he was scared of me. But he never made a complaint. I would argue that he was terrified of getting caught.

'And I did not understand he was 15 - to ride an e-scooter you need to be 16. Even if I had known, should I have held back because of his age? That is doing an injustice to every household who have lost somebody because they were stabbed by a teenager. No, I did not understand that he had a knife, however it was my job to do a risk evaluation and I have to state my assessment was area on.'

The knife that fell from the suspect's waistband was small however possibly fatal, especially at close quarters, he points out.

'Do you know just how much area you require for a machete to be fatal? Quite a lot, due to the fact that it requires a swing. A knife like this? With a small movement you can be discussing a severed artery.'

He shakes his head. 'I can keep stating sorry for swearing. But I made that arrest. I took a knife off the streets. There was no injury. No grievance from the suspect.'

Did he go off that shift believing that it had been a catastrophe?

'Quite the opposite. I remember considering the knife and going: 'Jeez, that was close. That could have gone severely'.'

He will not criticise the junior officers who raised the complaint, other than to refer me to that witness who called 999. 'He believed I was on my own there.'

But the feeling that he has actually been let down by his superiors is clear. 'I believed we were all working towards the same thing, which is keeping our community safe. That's all I have ever tried to do and I have actually been openly damaged for it.' Lorne explains having to hand over his badge as 'the worst minute in my life'.

He says he is nearly scared to walk the streets he once patrolled now. 'Dorset Police have put a target on my head. I don't even understand if we can stay here, as a household, which is heartbreaking due to the fact that this is our community.'

The only advantage is the swell of assistance from those who believe he has actually been wronged. A GoFundMe account, set up by Chris Amey, the guy who motivated him to sign up with the police, was last night standing at ₤ 95,000. 'I'm simply humbled, but so grateful. It indicates I can pay the mortgage, in the meantime anyway.'

He goes back to those messages once again. One sent on Facebook originates from another mom, Sarah Robinson, who lost her child Cameron Hamilton in 2023. The

18-year-old was stabbed to death by another teenager in Bournemouth. 'As the mum of Cameron Hamilton, who was eliminated by someone utilizing a knife, I thank you for doing your task,' she composed. 'I am saddened that the police has lost such an excellent officer.'

This makes Lorne wish to sob - for himself and his family, yes, however likewise for those individuals he assured to serve.

'I did my task,' he duplicates. 'And I have actually been crucified for it.'

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Reference: connorgiroux63/mcsold#1