Public meeting in Yarnfield focuses on recent arrest involving Afghan camp resident

A representative from Swynnerton Training Area made the disclosure that a 16-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of sexual assault was living at a military camp providing accommodation for Afghans fleeing the Taliban at a public meeting in Yarnfield last night.

The boy was detained on Sunday afternoon after a girl reported being sexually assaulted at Yarnfield skate park. Staffordshire Police have since bailed the boy to live outside Staffordshire.

Editor’s Note: Please note: initial statements from the police identified the boy as being “of Stone”, which we tried to clarify before publication. We were advised that they had stated Stone – “..consistent with College of Policing guidelines.”

Hundreds of people attended last night’s meeting organised by Yarnfield and Cold Meece Parish Council on the Labour in Vain pub car park.
 
A Ministry of Defence official told the meeting:

“We have been working since Sunday alongside Staffordshire Police after the initial response by them and during the investigation and, as has been alluded to already, the individual who was arrested on Sunday was an under 18, so a minor who was currently at that time living at Swynnerton, one of our Afghan communities.

We have probably got about 23 Afghan families living at Swynnerton in the camp where you’re probably in the past more familiar with seeing army reserves or cadet forces or similar using at weekends and during the summer. It’s a fairly transitional approach. They arrive here in the UK and indeed it’s the first port of call for them having arrived here is to come and live in somewhere like Sywnnerton. They should only be here a number of weeks, some have been here longer.”

The meeting heard that the families living at the camp are not illegal immigrants or asylum seekers. The camp is being used as part of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme, which looks to home individuals and their families who risked their lives working for the British Government in the fight against the Taliban. Those on the scheme have the right to remain in the UK.

Staffordshire Police have increased patrols following Sunday’s incident. Inspector Kelly Wareing told the meeting:

“We cannot keep a child in custody while our investigation goes on. So he has been released on police bail but he has been bailed out of the area. He’s not in Staffordshire, he cannot come back to Staffordshire, his family are out of the area. Hopefully that will provide a little bit of reassurance for you.”

It comes as a number of residents are calling for the camp to be shut down. They say there was no consultation before displaced Afghan families were moved to the area.

One resident said:

“Most of us moved to this village to keep our families safe and then we’ve had something happen that we didn’t even know about. We had no consultation, we haven’t had letters. We’ve all bought homes and we work hard. We’ve all come here to be safe with our families and then we have this on our doorstep.”

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