Shrines aim to help grieving, but this one provokes fury

When Henry Vincent broke into the home of 78-year-old Richard Osborn-Brooks in the early hours of April 4, he was confronted by the old man and stabbed to death.

Osborn-Brooks was arrested on suspicion of murder but later told that no action would be taken against him.

But he and his wife had to move into a police safe house when their home in the quiet Hither Green area of southeast London became the focus of community fury.

The problems began when family and friends of the dead burglar hung flowers, cards and balloons outside Osborn-Brooks’ house.

Angry local people responded by tearing them down. This happened four times. One of the locals said he received death threats.

TRIBUTE
Last April 15 would have been Vincent’s 38th birthday and when some 20 to 30 supporters arrived with more flowers and birthday cards, a confrontation seemed likely.

However, at the request of the police, the tributes were left at a local community garden about 100 metres from the house.

A woman from the group said, “We’re here because it’s his birthday, we just want to lay flowers.”

The practice of creating outdoor shrines is common in continental Europe, but it did not become widespread here until the death of Princess Diana in 1997.

Literally tons of flowers were left outside her former home in Kensington Palace, London.

MEMORIAL
Since then, memorials can be seen by many roadsides in Britain marking traffic accidents or other deaths.

When Daniel Squire, 18, was killed while cycling near Ringwould village in Kent in 2013, his father Symon marked the spot by installing a bicycle painted white and surrounded by flowers.

“As his dad, it’s tricky going past,” Symon said. “I sort of say hello to him and it tells people there was an incident here, slow down. It’s quite striking.”

Five years on, Symon paints the bicycle twice a year and pays a gardener to tend the flowers.

Other “ghost bicycles”, as they are known, have been installed in Britain, but some have been vandalised and others removed for not receiving council permission.

Bereavement counsellors say leaving flowers or personal items at the site of a sudden death is a powerful way to actualise a loss. It can be a healthy part of the grieving process.
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Thousands of people arrived in Britain from the Caribbean in the first wave of Commonwealth immigration between 1948 and 1971.

They are known as the Windrush generation, after the ship, MV Empire Windrush, which brought them here.

The children of these immigrants arrived legally on their parents’ passports, went to school, grew up and found jobs.

But many of them never applied for passports of their own and some were subsequently, and incorrectly, identified as illegals.

Under the 1971 Immigration Act, all Commonwealth citizens already living in the UK were given indefinite leave to remain.

DEPORT

But no paperwork was issued confirming their status and civil servants targeted many of these people for deportation, depriving them of benefits and incarcerating some in removal centres.

It could not be ascertained if any were actually deported.

Tottenham MP David Lammy denounced the Home Office angrily, declaring the bureaucrats’ actions to be “inhumane and cruel”, and a “national shame”.

The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, apologised on behalf of the government and announced a task force would be set up to help those affected.

She promised that anyone affected would be assisted to get the correct documents for free.

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Here’s another fraudster, but this one a top-rank performer who conned the government out of more than £245,000 (Sh34 million) over 15 years.

Truro Crown Court heard that Brian Matthews, 51, fooled doctors into giving him medical documents and made false benefit claims in the names of his children who were actually in care.

He also stole the identity of a man, David Blewett, who died in 2011.

Among his claims was one for incapacity benefit, based on the false statement that he fell 15 feet onto a hard surface and suffered irreversible spinal damage.

A government inspector said, “He has managed to commit fraud against almost every part of the benefits system”.

Matthews pleaded that he was a gambling addict. He was jailed for three and a half years.
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Told that he would have to wait three weeks to see the doctor, an outraged patient with a really bad dose of flu yelled, “Three weeks! I could be dead by then”.

Coolly, the doctor’s receptionist replied, “In that event, please have your wife telephone and cancel the appointment.”

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She was a blushing new bride and embarrassed about being recognised as a newly-wed.

So as she and her husband arrived at their honeymoon hotel, she asked him, “Is there a way we can make it look as if we have been married for a long time?”

“Sure,” he said, “You carry the suitcases.”

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