Armed police arrest gardener taking trowel home from allotment
A gardener was arrested by armed police for "carrying a knife" while returning home with gardening tools from his allotment. Samuel Rowe, 35, was held in a cell and cautioned by police after they accused him of carrying a "large dagger" last month.
He had just finished tending to his allotment vegetable patch and was trimming the hedges outside his home with a sickle when armed police descended on July 3. Samuel had his Japanese gardening trowel, a sickle and a fruit harvesting tool seized before being taken to a police station.
He was then detained in a cell for over seven hours before he was released by police when he accepted a caution for possession of an offensive weapon. The theatre manager said he was left terrified when officers armed with guns arrived outside his home and now wants the caution overturned.
The keen gardener, from Manchester, said: "I was coming back from my allotment in the morning. I'd just got home and started trimming the hedge at the top of my house, and then I heard shouting and it was armed police – two armed police telling me to 'drop the knife'.
"At the time I had my Japanese gardening sickle in my hand that I was using, so I dropped that along with the privet I'd been cutting. Then they turned me around, pushed me up against the house, handcuffed me behind my back, took everything out my belt.
"Then they asked me why I was there and where I'd been. Eventually they bundled me into the back of their van and transported me to Cheadle Hulme police station, which is miles away from my house. They got it into their heads that I was some sort of extremist wandering about with knives."
Samuel claims he was then held in cells and asked whether he wanted a solicitor, but he never managed to see one. He said: "It was a good seven hours before an officer was assigned my case.
"They came back and said 'we've tried contacting this solicitor three times and they've not answered the phone'. They said 'we can ring them again, start the process again with another solicitor, or you do the interview without a solicitor'.
"By this point I was pretty traumatised, I'd spent hours in a cell with the lights going dim, going bright again over periods of time. I didn't know exactly what time it was.
"I'd tried getting to phone my partner to let her know where I was, with five different people, each time it was like the first time I'd asked. Then this officer eventually took me out, it must have been 7.30 or 8pm at this point, to let my partner know, and all they did was ring her up and tell her where I was.
"They said 'to be honest, it's a courtesy call, he'll ring you when he gets out'."
During questioning, Samuel claims police posed bizarre questions such as what an allotment was. He said: "It didn't fill me with any kind of confidence I was going to be treated fairly, because I'd been arrested doing my gardening with what they were telling me was an offensive weapon.
READ MORE: Elderly mum and son stuck in Travelodge living off Pot Noodles after eviction
"All the way through the interview I was saying 'this is what I had on me, if you look this up on the internet all these gardening sites will come up with gardening tools'. One of the armed officers took one of them out of the pouch which was branded with the gardening brand – the kind of thing you see hanging off the belt of people on Gardener's World.
"It's not a weird thing to have on me, but they just weren't listening. I was explaining I had good reason to take them to and from my allotment, I said my allotment isn't secure – people can break in and steal stuff, as they often do."
Samuel's partner had gifted him the £32 Niwaki Hori Hori weeding trowel, which was in a sheath on his belt at the time of the arrest, for his birthday. The £10 Ice Bear gardener's sickle was bought from an online garden centre, while the fruit harvesting tool – which he's still not been returned – was a family heirloom from his late grandmother.
Samuel continued: "It makes me angry, because they shouldn't have it. I'm still upset about her dying, and they just took it off me." Samuel has been growing fruit and vegetables such as rhubarb, broad beans, artichokes, and tomatoes, at his allotment since 2022.
After a two-year wait on his local council's waiting list, he was allocated a plot. Now he is worried that the police caution he accepted might show up on background checks for future job applications.
Samuel is now campaigning to have the caution removed from his record. He explained: "I've done absolutely nothing wrong in the past, because I didn't want to have any contact with the police.
"I got a phone call [afterwards] from Greater Manchester's mental health team who were then asking for questions about my lifestyle, religion, and that kind of thing. It's not a large dagger – it's a tool for digging with, and I kept telling them that. It's not a peeling knife either, because why would I have a potato peeler in my pocket? It doesn't make sense."
Greater Manchester Police said armed officers were dispatched as they were nearest to the location after being notified by a member of the public. The force denies any claims that Samuel was refused legal counsel, asserting that they attempted to reach a solicitor multiple times and ultimately, he opted to decline legal advice.
A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said: "At around 12.20pm on 3 July, we acted on a call from a member of the public that a man was walking in public wearing khaki clothing and in possession of a knife.
'Nearby officers were flagged down by the caller, who directed them towards a male. He was subsequently stopped and a small sickle, a large dagger which was in a sheath on a belt, and a peeling knife, were seized.
'He was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and taken into custody. He admitted the offence and was given a conditional caution, which entailed advice and guidance around the legislation of knives and bladed weapons in a public place.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
16 hours ago
- Reuters
South Korean president to pardon former Justice Minister Cho Kuk
SEOUL, Aug 11 (Reuters) - South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will grant a presidential pardon to former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, the Ministry of Justice said on Monday, a move that could restore Cho's position as a liberal political leader after he was jailed for academic fraud. The pardon will reinstate Cho's eligibility to be elected to public office, and may make him a focal point for support by some liberals in a political landscape currently dominated by Lee and the ruling liberal Democratic Party, analysts have said. Cho launched the minor Rebuilding Korea Party ahead of the general election in April last year. The Democratic Party relies on the support of the party and other smaller liberal parties to cement its control of South Korea's parliament. Since December, Cho has been serving a two-year jail term for forging documents to facilitate his children's admission to prestigious schools and unlawful interference with a government inspection. The Rebuilding Korea Party welcomed Cho's pardon and accused the previous administration of abusing the power of prosecutors. However, pollster Realmeter said "pardon issues" were partly to blame for a downturn in Lee's support in an opinion poll. Lee's approval rating fell to 56.5% in the first week of August from 63.3% the previous week, Realmeter said on Monday. Cho's pardon, among 2,188 people to be pardoned and reinstated on Friday, had been the most heavily trailed in South Korean media before it was confirmed on Monday. Song Eon-seog, the conservative opposition People Power Party's floor leader, criticised the pardon and said Cho "has destroyed the values of fairness and justice in our society, inflicting great deprivation on young people". Others to be pardoned by Lee include former lawmaker Yoon Mee-hyang, the Ministry of Justice said. She was charged with personally using donations meant to help women forced to work in Japanese wartime brothels, and her guilty verdict was finalised last year. Others include a number of conservative political figures, businessmen, as well as small business owners, truck drivers and fishermen, the ministry said. "The pardons focused on providing opportunities for national unity ... and revitalising the economy," Justice Minister Jeong Seong-ho told a televised briefing. The presidential pardons are to mark August 15, South Korea's National Liberation Day, which this year falls on the 80th the anniversary of Korea's independence from Japan's 1910–45 colonial rule.
Metro
3 days ago
- Metro
'I was gardening when armed police arrested me - they thought I was an extremist
A man walking back from his allotment holding gardening tools was arrested for carrying 'offensive weapons', he told Metro. Samuel Rowe, 35, spent his morning tending to his elephant garlic and globe artichokes with a peeling knife, sickle and trowel. At around 10.30am on July 3, armed police arrested Rowe at his home in Fallowfield, Manchester, and accused him of carrying a 'dagger'. Sam said he had little choice but to accept a police caution – an admission of guilt – after 12 hours behind bars because police were unable to contact a solicitor for him. Describing his arrest, Sam told Metro: 'I got home and decided to trim the hedge with the sickle by the front door. After five minutes, I heard shouting and turned around to see armed police. Officers, who did not present their weapons, shouted at Sam to 'drop the knife', despite him stressing that he was not holding a knife but a sickle. 'They turned me around, pushed me against the house, cuffed me and took everything from my tool belt,' he added. 'They've said that the armed police were there because they were the closest ones at the time, which would suggest if someone was graffitiing a wall at that time, they'd have had guns pointed at them' During the interrogation, police asked Sam what an allotment is, what the tools are used for and whether he was planning on hurting anybody. He told police that the tools in his belt were a Niwaki Hori Hori gardening trowel, an Ice Bear Japanese gardener's sickle and a peeling knife once owned by his grandmother. 'They were trying to make out like I'm some sort of extremist,' he said. He knew the tools could cause injury, he told the investigator, it's why he has a first aid kit in his tool belt: 'I just thought, 'Why are they asking stupid questions?' 'I could barely string a sentence together. My voice was high. I took ages to answer questions because my brain wasn't working,' he added. Sitting inside a cell, Sam said he was unable to call his girlfriend, a teacher, as she was working. 'Nobody knows I'm here,' he says he thought to himself. 'I didn't know when I was getting out, didn't really know what was going on, and I didn't know where I stood legally as no one was there for me. 'I thought, if it's a knife crime, then that's a prison sentence – then I won't be getting out of this cell.' An initial police statement said Rowe was arrested at 12.20pm, when Sam said he was arrested two hours before. When approached by the Metro, police officials said this was when officers 'contacted a solicitor, which is what we accidentally thought was the arrest time'. Yet Sam claimed he repeatedly asked the police for one until about 7pm, when he was told officers rang a solicitor 'three times with no response'. Sam was given a conditional caution, which included having to be educated about knife crime legislation and a call with mental health professionals. Cautions do not amount to a criminal offence, but some are flagged up on Disclosure Barring Service checks, used by employers when recruiting. 'I need a DBS for work, we do visiting shows and, in-house, we work with adults who have a history or are at risk of homelessness and do shows with adults and children with learning disabilities,' Sam added. Returning home, Sam claimed that a packet of seeds that was in his tool belt was on a dresser in his bedroom. 'I was powerless against them… They're relying on me being grateful for being let go, shutting up and being scared,' Sam said. Legal experts told Metro that the law around carrying offensive weapons is murky at best. 'I can understand why he was arrested,' said Stephen Halloran, one of the founding directors of Lawtons and a specialist criminal defence solicitor. 'Looking at the items, the trowel looks problematic and even the company website cautions against carrying it in public and outlines that you could be committing the offence he was arrested for. The sickle speaks for itself.' While Sam had a 'reasonable excuse' for having the instruments, 'on balance, moving the tools on a regular basis between your home address and an allotment is inviting trouble'. Nick Titchener, a managing partner at Lawtons, said that, typically, garden tools aren't considered offensive weapons – it's all about intention. Stressing this is an 'over-simplification', Titchener said: 'Merely carrying a pair of garden shears in public from location A to location B for logistical reasons, eg, an allotment or shop back home, would not in itself be an offence. 'Provided that the person in question did not have an intention to use them for an ulterior purpose, such as to harm or provoke fear of violence, ie, used or threatened as a weapon.' Sam said that when he was gifted the trowel, he was not aware of any warnings. The trowel's product page states: 'Please familiarise yourself with the Offensive Weapons Law before carrying this tool in public. 'We strongly advise that you keep this tool concealed, sheathed, and out of sight in public spaces – preferably in a gardening bag or toolbox rather than on your belt.' Archived versions of the webpage, seen by Metro, show there was no disclaimer before at least July 27. Sam spent two years on a council waiting list for the Chorlton plot, planting rhubarb and raspberries and tending to the pond three times a week. 'I thought doing gardening would be good for my mental health,' he said. 'Now I associate it with that experience. I don't feel 100% safe walking there.' 'At around [10.30am] on July 3, we acted on a call from a member of the public that a man was walking in public wearing khaki clothing and in possession of a knife. 'Nearby officers were flagged down by the caller, who directed them towards a male. He was subsequently stopped and a small sickle, a large dagger which was in a sheath on a belt, and a peeling knife, were seized. 'He was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and taken into custody. He admitted the offence and was given a conditional caution, which entailed advice and guidance around the legislation of knives and bladed weapons in a public place.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page.
Spectator
4 days ago
- Spectator
Could Britain learn from Japan's ‘vigilante' groups?
A uniformed group of volunteers is planning to patrol the mean streets of Bournemouth in response to a recent surge in crime in the once sleepy south coast retirement haven. More than 200 have signed up so far, including ex-forces personnel. They will be equipped with radios, stab vests, and body cameras and have promised to be 'non political and inclusive'. Given the widespread tensions surrounding migrant hotels (there are three in Bournemouth) this could be the start of a national trend, prompting the obvious question – do such groups work? The clear point of reference is the USA and the Guardian Angels, the crime prevention force wearing red berets that originated in New York in 1979. The Angels began by riding the notorious New York subway and especially line four (known as the 'Mugger's Express)'. They have since expanded their activities considerably and are currently focusing on the city's horrendous homelessness problem and the frequent 'medical emergencies' it produces. As to whether the Guardian Angels have been a success, the jury appears to be out. They have spread to multiple US cities, but there is little data to support a drop in crime directly related to their activities. In New York, currently under the leadership of Mayor Eric Adams murder and shootings are down but everything else is sharply up and law and order remains a key issue (even left-wing progressive Zohran Mamdani doesn't want to decrease the NYPD headcount). But it is hard to evaluate the Guardian Angels as they have often been overwhelmed by events, such as the homelessness epidemic, the huge influx of immigrants and wildly shifting state policies, most dramatically mayor Bill De Blasio's commitement to cut $1 billion from the police budget after the death of George Floyd and the rise of BLM. A less obvious comparison is with Japan, a country with an enviably low crime rate. Recent data is lacking but in 2014 Japan had an estimated three million 'Bouhan' (crime prevention) volunteers. They patrol in groups of five to ten twice daily particularly at the beginning and end of the school day. They don't engage. On the ultra-rare occasion when they spot something amiss, they blow their whistles and alert the authorities. The Japanese groups have a faintly comical side. They are generally old, if not elderly, and shuffle around in home-made uniforms with outsized high viz jackets looking like they would struggle to pacify an errant toddler never mind a mugger. But to dismiss the patrols as a Dad's (and Mum's) army of busy bodies would be to do them a disservice and play into the well-worn myth of the Japanese as naturally peaceable and law-abiding. Japan may be a relatively safe country now but it wasn't always so. Tokyo within the living memory of many of the veteran security patrollers was a filthy crime-ridden sewer, unsafe for women at night, and where the yakuza held considerable sway. The great clean up and makeover that precipitated the 1964 Olympics and subsequent economic recovery helped transform Japan but there was always more crime than easily impressed onlookers imagined. The citizen's security patrols exploded in popularity in the 1990s as a response to an alarming uptick in crime, the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway of 1995, and the Kobe earthquake of the same year (when 6,500 people lost their lives). Reported crime reached a peak of 2.85 million in 2002, roughly double the figure of 20 years before. The Kobe earthquake also seems to have induced a sense that community relations needed to be reinforced – that the authorities could not be relied on for everything. By 2015 reported crimes had fallen to 1.2 million. There were various reasons for this including the virtual outlawing of the Yakuza, but the surge in participation in citizen security patrols cannot be discounted. At their peak (according to the Ministry of Justice) one in 38 Japanese citizens was a member, a significant societal safeguard. Apart from numbers, Japan's security patrols have two things that may be lacking in New York, or Bournemouth. One is the unequivocal backing of the Japanese people. The idea of antifa or migrant's rights groups denouncing their activities (as the Bournemouth group has already experienced) is unthinkable here (and this is not because there are no problems with new arrivals, as the recent murder of a woman in Saga by a Vietnamese immigrant and the rise of the Reform-ish Sanseito party shows). They also appear to have the backing of the state ('Plus Bouhan' a community policing initiative has been supported by the government). The groups' uniforms, tactics and demeanour mirror the police, with whom they maintain good relations. The fact that officers are never far away, due to the extensive Koban (police box) system is crucial. Wrong doers may not fear the geriatric pavement pounders but they do fear the real version, who can be summoned in minutes. The key point may be that the Japanese patrols feel like an extension of the police and in a way, a tribute. Elsewhere, attempts at citizen-led security have felt like a substitute and a rebuke of a failed state.
