All week, the homages have actually put in. Those whose lives were touched by PC Lorne Castle have not hesitated to come forward. One female's account of how her kid's life was conserved by his 'kindness and mankind' and willingness to 'exceed what is expected of a law enforcement officer' is particularly moving.
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She blogged about how the struggling teenager lost his method life and became known to police, who were forever having to bring him home. It was PC Castle, himself a daddy of 3, who wound up talking her kid below the ledge, in a metaphorical sense in addition to a literal one.

Not just did he make the teen see that he had a future, he assisted him sculpt one out by arranging work experience, even though this was not his job. 'We require more officers like PC Castle, not fewer,' this grateful mom concluded.

'That one made me well up,' says Lorne, 46, who is being in his living room in a peaceful property street in Bournemouth, sorting through the thousands of messages he has received this week - some from complete strangers, but others from those he directly helped.

He appears rather overwhelmed and a little teary (very uncharacteristic, 'or it was before all this', according to his spouse Denise), by all the nice things people have actually been stating about him.

'It's blown me away, to be sincere,' he states. 'To have individuals come back to defend me. I'm not utilized to this, however it's really touching.' He keeps reading, on the verge of tears: 'If I 'd passed away, you could not have got better tributes.'

And in a way he has actually died, due to the fact that, as he explains: 'I'm not dead but the policeman I was is dead. PC 1399 is dead.'

Who killed PC Castle? Well, according to his employers at Dorset Police, the fatal injury was completely self-inflicted. Last week, he was fired - 'in such a way that was ruthless. Alan Sugar fires individuals in a better way,' he says - after being discovered guilty of gross misconduct.

'I'm not dead but the police officer I was is dead. PC 1399 is dead,' says Castle

His criminal offense? One that was deemed so serious that it eliminated 10 years of unblemished service citations for bravery.

He arrested a teenage suspect - later on found to have actually remained in possession of a knife - without showing adequate 'courtesy or respect'. While grappling on the ground with the 15-year-old, who was resisting arrest in January in 2015, PC Castle shouted, swore and pointed his finger at the suspect, who was proclaiming his innocence.

In the cold light of day, safe in his own home, having simply waved his youngest child off to bed, Lorne, recently out of work, still can't quite believe that finger-pointing assisted lose him his entire career.

He raises the offending finger today and waggles it in front of his own nose. 'I need to holster this,' he states, despairingly. Nor can he accept some of the concerns he had to answer throughout a 'devastating and embarrassing' three-day gross misconduct hearing.

'For a policeman, the idea of gross misbehavior is simply the worst, however one of the important things I was asked was if I hadn't heard the suspect say that he had not done anything. Did I not look at him and think he might be informing the reality?' He throws both hands up.

'Were they seriously asking me why I didn't fall for the old, 'it wasn't me, guv' line. Most suspects resisting arrest say they haven't done anything. I imply a child understands that.

'Let's put this into context. We were examining an assault. I have actually detained him. He has actually resisted. I'm struggling on the ground with him. There is a crowd event. I'm attempting to include this scenario however my priority is to make this arrest and keep everyone safe.

'So when he states he hasn't done anything, I'm seriously supposed to stop and state, 'Oh, you didn't do it? Dreadfully sorry, young Sir. Let me help you up! Tally ho! My mistake!' This is a suspect who did have a knife.'

Denise, who says she 'was so happy to be the partner of a policeman', attended every day of her other half's disciplinary hearing and has been there to get the pieces as his life fell apart

The shock and bewilderment in his living room is palpable. As is the sheer shock. 'I suggest, the audacity of even asking me that. But I understood even before the gross misconduct hearing started that I was walking to the gallows. And they hung me out to dry.'

He includes: 'Even if I win my appeal, even if I got my job back, I would not be able to do it.

'How might I walk down the street with members of the public thinking I'm a bully and a thug - all the important things I entered into the police to challenge.

'My profession is gone. I'm never going to get another task, due to the fact that who would offer me one. My life is messed up. They have actually broken me.'

Denise, who tells me she 'was so happy to be the better half of a cops officer', attended every day of her partner's disciplinary hearing and has actually existed to choose up the pieces as his life fell apart.

The couple, who have children aged 27, 18 and 8, inform me that on the day Lorne was told he was facing gross misconduct charges, he didn't go home - 'because how could I inform my wife?' - but strolled along Bournemouth beach until 3am. He was too shocked to believe of strolling into the sea and says he hasn't seriously contemplated suicide 'however can comprehend individuals who do, in this sort of circumstance, because the nature of this task isolates you from people who aren't cops, so when the carpet is pulled from under you ... you feel so alone'.

Denise states she has actually seen him 'shrink, become somebody who just isn't Lorne'.

'My other half is an outbound, bubbly, glass-half-full individual, who is a natural leader and motivator,' she discusses. 'He's the most moralistic person I understand - our children will back me up on that. And he's the sort of male who never called in ill even when he was ill.

'Since all this, I have actually simply seen him change. He breaks down now. He questions himself. It has been devastating to watch. Even the kids say, 'he isn't Dad'.'

Their hero daddy, openly lauded after plunging into the freezing River Avon to conserve an elderly lady, is now making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

When the first murmurings started, suggesting this once-admired officer had actually been unfairly treated by 'woke' employers who were far gotten rid of from the reality of policing at street level, Dorset Police moved rapidly to safeguard their position, releasing damning video footage, taken from an associate's body web cam, which does certainly reveal PC Castle in a not-too-flattering light.

He's tape-recorded informing the suspect to 'stop yelling like a little b ** ch' and alerting him: 'I'm gon na smash you'.

This footage, Lorne claims, existed out of context, cherry-picked to 'not tell the complete story'.

'It was devastating that Dorset Police could do this to me, that they could wish to ... damage me,' he states. 'What that selective video footage didn't reveal was the consequences - when this suspect continued to withstand arrest.

'It took four officers to get him in handcuffs. That video footage does not show the crowd around us, whom I could see in my peripheral vision.

'There was only one 999 call made about what was taking place there and it came from a member of the public who was worried about me. They called to state that there was an officer struggling, who looked as if he required back up.'

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Lorne includes: 'Dorset Police didn't even believe it was necessary to call that individual as a witness in my disciplinary hearing. I had to demand it. It paints a very different picture to what took place and I thank goodness that witness existed, due to the fact that otherwise I 'd think I was going mad.'

This is an extremely unpleasant - and dissentious - case. There is no question that Lorne made judgment mistakes in his handling of that arrest on January 27, 2024.

He admitted as much during the misconduct hearing and repeats that belief today. 'I must not have actually used the language I did. I'm embarrassed and saddened that I did that, and that it's out there for everyone to see. But the essence of what happened was, unfortunately essential. That was an arrest that required to be made and I made a judgment call.

'Could I have done it in a different way? Obviously, however eventually I took a knife off the streets. Another authorities force has this motto, 'Take a knife