Alice Gross disappearance: Suspect Arnis Zalkalns has murder conviction

[Insel affe]

Police searching for 14-year-old Alice Gross are treating a 41-year-old man with a murder conviction as a suspect in her disappearance.
Latvian builder Arnis Zalkalns went missing a week after Alice and used the Grand Union Canal route to get to work.

Alice, from Hanwell, was last seen on CCTV cameras on 28 August by the same canal route in west London.

Mr Zalkalns served seven years in prison for murder in Latvia, after being convicted in 1998.
Police said he was arrested in the Ealing area of west London in 2009 for indecently assaulting a 14-year-old girl, but no further action was taken.

Alice Gross was last seen near the Grand Union Canal on 28 August
Mr Zalkalns was seen on CCTV on 28 August cycling along Brentford Lock at 16:00 BST, 15 minutes after Alice walked that route. He was last seen on 3 September.
Latvian authorities told Metropolitan Police (Met) about Mr Zalkalns murder conviction "in the last few days", Scotland Yard said.

Det Supt Carl Mehta, from the Met's Homicide and Major Crime Command, said: "The conviction was in 1998 and he served a custodial sentence of seven years."
Police have received more than 100 calls to their Find Alice investigation after an appeal on BBC Crimewatch earlier this week.

A reward of up to £20,000 is being offered for anyone who has information that leads police to find the missing girl.
Detectives believe he is likely to have come across Alice as they were both going in the same direction, north along the canal towpath.


Question.....

Why & How was he let into our country ?

 

[Seagull58]

And why was no action taken when he indecently assaulted a 14 year old girl? Surely, he should have got a police clearance certificate from the Latvian Police before getting permission to stay here?

 

[seagully]

He shouldn't have been legally, surely? I thought if you have had a criminal conviction of over 4 (?) years then you are not allowed into the UK? Could be wrong.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Question.....

Why & How was he let into our country ?

Latvia has been an EU state since 2004. I suspect that has something to do with it.

Should a convicted murderer be allowed the same free movement rights as a non-criminal? I'd say no, but defining which crimes were on the exemption list would be very tricky, and getting every member state to agree an alteration to the current free movement laws would, imo, be nigh on impossible.

I hope the girl is ok - but it's not looking good, is it?

 

[Deleted member 22389]

I hope this girl is OK. Just further proof of why we should checking in and outs to this country regardless of whether that person is from the EU or not.
Person has been convicted in the past, no entry, how hard is it. There are no excuses.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Person has been convicted in the past, no entry, how hard is it. There are no excuses.

No excuses other than I'm pretty sure it's illegal to ban convicted people entering the country if they are EU member state citizens, assuming their conviction is spent.

 

[vegster]

This is terrible, no British person would dream of going abroad and killing or assaulting anyone.

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

This is terrible, no British person would dream of going abroad and killing or assaulting anyone.

The thing is veg, as true as your statement is, what would happen if, and I say if as its never likely to happen, they committed said crime in, say the old Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia or indeed anywhere in the Middle East, or somewhere like Vitetnam or Thailand?

 

[vegster]

The thing is veg, as true as your statement is, what would happen if, and I say if as its never likely to happen, they committed said crime in, say the old Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia or indeed anywhere in the Middle East, or somewhere like Vitetnam or Thailand?

Would never happen, not in a million years, well maybe only once or twice. All murderers should have MURDERER branded in to their foreheads so that any country they visit would be instantly aware of previous convictions.

 

[Chris001]

Why & How was he let into our country ?

This

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

Would never happen, not in a million years, well maybe only once or twice. All murderers should have MURDERER branded in to their foreheads so that any country they visit would be instantly aware of previous convictions.

Oh no, where will it end? I can't walk the streets with 'Bull Buggerer' tattooed across my forehead

 

[Chris001]

Would never happen, not in a million years, well maybe only once or twice. All murderers should have MURDERER branded in to their foreheads so that any country they visit would be instantly aware of previous convictions.

Hang them and the problem goes away completely

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Question.....

Why & How was he let into our country ?

The answer is in the article, is it not?

We didn't know about his conviction, same as the Latvians, French, Spanish, Poles, Germans etc wouldn't know if a convicted British rapist decided to go on a little weekend break to their country.

EU free movement rules mean we can all go where we like without visas. Only somebody who has (for example) a sex offender notification requirement would need to contact the authorities if he was going abroad, and not all sex offenders have these. Murderers may have licence conditions, but they're usually about not committing crimes, rather than preventing them from travelling.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I hope this girl is OK. Just further proof of why we should checking in and outs to this country regardless of whether that person is from the EU or not.
Person has been convicted in the past, no entry, how hard is it. There are no excuses.

Playing devil's advocate here then: you'd be happy to wait three hours in the immigration queue when you go to Majorca on holiday then, whilst the Spanish authorities check all 200 people on your flight for criminal convictions?

 

[Deleted member 22389]

Playing devil's advocate here then: you'd be happy to wait three hours in the immigration queue when you go to Majorca on holiday then, whilst the Spanish authorities check all 200 people on your flight for criminal convictions?

With modern technology and every person in the EU being given an identity card which holds information about you, it would only take a second to swipe and check someones status.
Better to have that than having convicted criminals cross our borders and vice versa.

 

[El Presidente]

With modern technology and every person in the EU being given an identity card which holds information about you, it would only take a second to swipe and check someones status.
Better to have that than having convicted criminals cross our borders and vice versa.

How much will this technology cost and who is going to pay for it?

 

[El Presidente]

The person who did this was a builder, just like Fred West. Surely the only answer is to tag everyone who has ever worked on a building site. You can't be too sure after all.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

With modern technology and every person in the EU being given an identity card which holds information about you, it would only take a second to swipe and check someones status.
Better to have that than having convicted criminals cross our borders and vice versa.

Ahh, ID cards. Now that's a whole new debate.

Besides. What's to stop a convicted rapist: murderer getting hold of a fake ID card? People manage fake passports now.

What about mainland Europe, where there are no physical borders between countries? Or an independent Scotland, say, where you can just drive straight across into England?

The cost of such a plan would be astronomical. Also- there is currently no centralised European criminal convictions database. To check an individual from, say, the Czech Republic, you have to go through an third party agent. And different countries have different criteria for recording criminal offences. So there would need to be a specially compiled, standardised database of convictions accessible to all member states, which would require building & paying for.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Also- there is currently no centralised European criminal convictions database. To check an individual from, say, the Czech Republic, you have to go through an third party agent. And different countries have different criteria for recording criminal offences. So there would need to be a specially compiled, standardised database of convictions accessible to all member states, .

Furthermore - what if your theoretical suspect had committed his crimes in OTHER countries?

English police stop a Latvian in London. Even if they check with the Latvia authorities about his recorded crimes there, would they have on file offences he'd committed in Estonia? or Guam? or the Solomon Islands?

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Furthermore - what if your theoretical suspect had committed his crimes in OTHER countries?

English police stop a Latvian in London. Even if they check with the Latvia authorities about his recorded crimes there, would they have on file offences he'd committed in Estonia? or Guam? or the Solomon Islands?

This too. Plus, every criminal has a first time. A Ukrainian guy was locked up a while back for a nail bomb campaign on mosques around the West Midlands. There was no record of any previous history for him, I don't think.