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'My confidence in the police is gone': Priest launches complaint after violent assault

by Marcus Jones
Father Colin Mason.png - Banner image
Fr Colin Mason

A Bristol priest has written a letter of complaint to the police after being told that an investigation into an attack on him was being dropped.

Father Colin Mason of Sacred Heart Church in Westbury-on-Trym said he was set upon by four men in August after telling a group who were renting his church hall for a party that they had gone past their curfew.

"Four blokes bundled me outside and one of them beat me up, so I was lying on the grass covered in blood," he told the BBC.

He said the initial 999 response from the police was very efficient but he didn't hear anything else for a month.

When he called to get an update he was told that the case was being 'filed'.

"To say they had closed the case was astonishing. They closed it with no investigation whatsoever.

"It doesn't give you confidence in the police if they are not prepared to investigate violent crime."

He's now taken action, claiming his trust in the police has gone.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said: "The complaint has been assessed and formally recorded by our Professional Standards Department.

"It has been allocated to the area patrol inspector, who is reviewing the service provided.

"We cannot comment further until that review has been concluded and the complainant updated."
 

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