Arrest and Charges.

On the afternoon of Saturday 19^th of May police went to Jordan’s house looking for him. Jordan was not there but after a brief telephone conversation with his mother Jordan agreed to return home and hand himself over to the custody of the police to help with their enquiries. Upon returning home Jordan was arrested on suspicion of murder.

There was several lengthy interviews conducted in which Jordan steadfastly denied any involvement in the violence that had occurred. He also denied that he knew anyone was in possession of a weapon of any kind. He told police he had witnessed a fight between his two friends and an unknown male that had come out of a house. He did not see the male being stabbed nor did he know the male had been stabbed. He said he himself stood back throughout the altercation, he also admitted that he had thrown a rock into the street. He admitted this before the police had any evidence against him. He said he had thrown the rock to stop them fighting, he told the police that the unknown male was ‘knacking his two friends’.

Jordan then went onto confess that he himself had a knife. He then lead police to a knife that had been discarded in a patch of grass some distance away from the murder scene. He told police to test the knife and they would see it had not been used. Again this confession was made before police had any evidence against Jordan.

During interviews the police told Jordan that he was there as an important witness. They were repeating their questioning of who did the stabbing. Jordan could not answer this question as he did not know, he was too far away and did not see. All the police were telling Jordan was that they knew it was not him, they even mentioned as much in the other accused’s interviews. However in Jordan’s final interview when the police realise Jordan cannot tell them who did the stabbing they take on the view of ‘ah well you did throw a rock’ .

During interview Jordan was then arrested for a second stabbing. This was the stabbing of Jamie Thompson in the Grindon area of Sunderland. Jordan admitted having the initial conversation with an unknown male in the Grindon area now known to be Jamie Thompson. He told police that the initial conversation had been about heroin but the police alleged that the conversation was about a cigarette. Jordan told police that after he had walked past the man he turned around and saw the man running away clutching his side though he did not see what happened to cause this. Jamie later ID’d one of the co-accused as the person who stabbed him.

During interview, Tony Hawkes blamed Jordan and Dean Curtis. Dean Curtis blamed Jordan and Tony Hawkes and obviously Jordan blamed Dean and Tony. Tony having been picked out in an ID parade by Jamie Thompson went on to admit that he was the stabber in the second incident.

On Monday 21^st of May 2007 Jordan Towers, Dean Curtis and Tony Hawkes were jointly charged with the murder of Kevin Johnson. Tony Hawkes was alone charged with section 18, serious wounding with intent, in relation to the stabbing of Jamie Thompson. On Tuesday 22^nd of May the three were remanded to the same young offenders institute.

PROBLEMS DURING ARREST.

After Jordan handed himself over to the police he was taken in to custody and in due course was interviewed. Police had asked Jordan’s sister if she would act as a legal guardian during interview, as she was the only family member who hadn’t spoke to Jordan for several days prior to his arrest. His sister agreed to this and was told to wait until the police came and collected her for the interview. During her wait the police came to see her and asked her to give a statement just to clarify that she had not seen nor heard from Jordan prior to the incident. She did what the police asked of her and upon signing the statement she was subsequently told that she could no longer act as an appropriate adult as she was now part of the evidence, and could be called to give evidence if any charges were brought. The only thing that was said in the statement was that his sister had not seen or spoke to him since the Wednesday before the incident. When his sister challenged the police over the this they said it did not matter, anyone who gives a statement is part of the evidence and Jordan would now have to get a social worker to act as an appropriate adult. Police would later go on to use her statement as evidence to have his bail application refused. Jordan was held in custody for more than 48 hours without being allowed contact with his family. After 48 hours passed, after Jordan’s family begging police on numerous occasions, Jordan was allowed a very short phone call to his mum just to let her know he was all right.

During interview Jordan was scared, he had been arrested for a murder that he knew he had not been involved in. The police were telling him that it did not matter if he was standing back because blood splatter can travel quite some distance and could have landed on his clothing. The police then went onto say to him that if there was blood on his clothing and they could not prove who the stabber was he would also go down for murder. Jordan was scared by this so he told police that he himself had a knife and then he lead police to a knife secreted in a grassy area. This knife had in fact been dumped there a couple of days prior to the incident. Jordan knew the knife would be there because it was he himself who had dumped it there.

Prior to his conviction Jordan did gardening work for pocket money. Several days prior to the incident Jordan was strimming gardens and he had a small kitchen knife to cut the strimmer wire. Upon seeing police he dumped the knife because he thought he would be stopped and searched, as he often was. Jordan was about to start a college course along with an apprenticeship and did not want to get into any trouble for carrying the knife. After leading police to the knife he went onto say to them ‘go on test the knife, you will see it hasn’t been used’ because he knew without doubt that the knife had been no where near the scene of the incident.

A complaint was lodged with IPCC in relation to the incident with Jordan’s sisters statement and the way in which Jordan admitted being in possession of the knife. After investigating the complaint the IPCC said that the police no longer ask family members to act as appropriate adults involving such serious offences, and in relation to the knife they said it did not matter that Jordan admitted to being in possession of a knife because the knife was not used in the commission of the offence so it was not used as evidence to charge him. The knife was produced as evidence against Jordan in court.

So Jordan would later go on to retract his confession of him being in possession of a knife, however Jordan was advised not to give evidence during trial so his new statement was never produced in court.

On Sunday 20^th of May Jordan’s mum received a phone call from Jordan’s solicitor, this was the first contact the family had had with the solicitor. Jordan’s mum was told that Jordan would be charged with affray and would probably be out by morning. On Monday 21^st of May Jordan phoned his mum, he was screaming down the phone that he had been charged with murder. Jordan’s mum could hear a female police officer in the background saying to Jordan ‘come on stand up son, you’re sliding down the wall’. Jordan could not even stand he was that distraught. Jordan’s mum was in shock as she had been told by several police officers during Jordan’s arrest that Jordan was ‘just in the wrong place at the wrong time’.

There are a couple of things worthy of mention. First – Jordan has been stopped and searched by police on numerous occasions and has never been found with anything illegal in his possession, nor has anyone in his company. Jordan was actually stopped and searched several days prior to the incident where police recorded that Jordan had a garden strimmer on his person. Second – Jordan commented during interview that the only reason he has ever carried a knife was for gardening work, in order to cut the strimmer wire.