BLACKMAIL MENACE

Hokitika Guardian, 4 January 1930, Page 2

BLACKMAIL MENACE

HYDE PARK GANG. LONDON, October 25. Hyde Park has again become the hunting-ground of blackmailers, who are extracting thousands of pounds a year from men and women who have not the courage to expose them to the authorities. As was pointed out by DetectiveInspector Bradley in a case at the Old Bailey recently, the park is infested by a gang constituted mostly of soldiers and ex-soldiers. The blackmailers are crude ruffians, who often attack their victims before they blackmail them. Their favourite method is to follow a man and women in the park until they reach an unfrequented spot and to accost them, posing as police officers. The man is told that he has been closely watched for some time, and his name and address are demanded. In most cases the terrified man will there and then hand over money as well as his name and address to the bogus police-fficers.

ROBBERY. Often the man is lured away from the woman into a still more, lonely part of the park, and there robbed of his watch and wallet. The chief object of the attacker is to obtain a visiting card so that he can pursue his souf-destroying business. Threats of physical violence are often used by these men, but they are not persisted in if the victim has the courage to resist them. The gang is so big that various members of it can tva.tch the patrolling police while others do the blackmailing. A big proportion of the gang consists of women. When a well-dresesd woman is seen with a' man in the park one of these parasities follows her home, and, obtaining her name from the telephone book or the directory, begins to blackmail her. The women of the gang are protected by the men. Some of them lure elderly men into the park, and male members of the gang then accuse the victims of insulting their “wives.” A detective told a Daily Mail reporter yesterday. Hyde Park is becoming *a-s unsafe as it was four or five years ago. We have had complaints from husbands and wives who have been accosted by these blackmailers.

FACE THEM. When people are stopped by men who call themselves police officers they should ask to be taken to Hyde Park Police station. No one need be afraid of blackmailers for people who prosecute them are afforded every protection in the courts. Most magistrates agree to suppress the names of people who have the courage to fight these ruffans. If people will only face these blackmailers and resist their demands they will hear nothing more from them. The police give every protection they can to people in the park, and plain clothes and uniformed officers patrol it after dark.