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Arguido is here too
• THE sinister-sounding arguidos slapped on Dr Kate McCann and surgeon husband Gerry McCann have their counterpart in Britain.
British police once arrested a suspect at the end of an investigation, after they had assembled the evidence. Now they can arrest at the beginning of an investigation, on the merest suspicion.
Local people arrested summarily have been newspaper columnist Janet Street-Porter, of Clerkenwell, over a neighbour dispute, and Harendra Bhatt, the newsagent at Highbury and Islington rail station, after defending himself from a drunk terrorising him at his kiosk.
They were subsequently released.
The arguido status allowed the Inspector Clouseau-like Portuguese police to put 22 key questions to the McCanns, with questioning going on after midnight. British police would have been able to apply the third degree right at the beginning.
Authoritarian “New” Labour has so far brought in 53 new law-and-order acts and created 3,000 new criminal offences since 1997.
LEO CHAPMAN
Dufferin Street, EC1
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