Bath crack house raid is welcomed by neighbours
Neighbours have cautiously welcomed the closure of a drugs den in a Bath block of flats – but say something should have been done sooner.
A joint operation by the police and social landlord, the Sovereign Housing Association, saw a “crack house” order implemented at a property in Inchalloch, in Snow Hill.
Tenant Sherrie Banks was ordered to leave and the flat will now be boarded up for the next three months before it is renovated and made ready for someone else to move in.
The authorities have been investigating anti-social behaviour and illegal activity at the address for years and have compiled evidence to show both heroin and crack cocaine was being used and may have been dealt from there. Matters came to a head earlier this year when Jessie Harris, Banks’ boyfriend at the time, was left with serious injuries after being stabbed during an altercation at the flat.
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Two men, father and son Jimmy and Anthony Tagg, are now serving prison sentences for the attack.
Other people living in the building said they were often afraid to venture out of their homes after dark because they were fearful of what was going on in the ground floor flat.
Two women, who did not want to be named, said Harris was the real cause of the problems and had been aggressive to most of the other residents at one time or another. One of them said: “The effect it had on me was always being nervous about coming in and out of the building. I have a lot of grandchildren and I was worried about what they were going to face.
“I definitely feel a lot more relaxed with Jessie no longer on the scene.”
The other added: “I had seen him down in the hallway, topless, with blood all down his arms. He was just very unpredictable.”
The women said they had made numerous complaints to Sovereign over the past three years, begging for something to be done to ban Harris from the building and reporting the strong smell of drugs coming from the flat.
But they feel their concerns were ignored or not taken seriously enough.
A Sovereign spokesman said it started receiving complaints about the address in autumn 2010 and, after warnings from the housing association, things went relatively quiet until June this year.
That was when an injunction banning Harris from entering the building was obtained.
He added: “We’d like to thank the residents of Inchalloch flats for their patience and perseverance on this matter. Despite the intimidation and threats to which they were subjected, they were able to provide information that enabled Sovereign and local police to present a robust case to achieve this outcome.
“Sovereign aims to help build and support strong and cohesive communities, and we are determined to take action against anti-social behaviour, which causes such misery to neighbours.”
Tim Harris, Bath police’s anti-social behaviour manager, said both the police and Sovereign had to prove to the courts they had taken previous action against the tenant before they were able to obtain the closure order from the courts.
Comments
by Imp-Act
Monday, December 10 2012, 2:19AM
“What is a drug? Something that makes you better? Happy? Sad? Dead?
AND why do most of us 'use' some type of drug. Watching sport is a type of drug and IS habbit forming (just look at the crowds that flok to games and millions more watch on tv). These folk are all hiped up and yet they are NOT even playing! It's their way of getting a 'high' a 'buzz'! Go to any night club and you see the same 'high' (inc. by mouth and intraveness) on the dance floor. Just because one lot of people says it's against the law does NOT make it OK! Look at the dumb USA and prohibition. That did just what todays drugs are doing ...Making the criminals filthy rich! Weed is now legle in some States but STILL against the Fedal law (yep! That's just how dumb they are! This country likes to follow them in lots of ways inc. this dumb way of so called speaking. Sup?”
by rogerh3
Friday, December 07 2012, 3:11PM
“I think anyone convicted of drug addiction should be locked up and given cold turkey."
Locking people up where drugs are not only more easily obtained but the standard currency of everyday life is possibly the least effective and most expensive of all options.
.”
by Dan_001
Friday, December 07 2012, 2:08PM
“"I think anyone convicted of drug addiction should be locked up and given cold turkey."
Drug addiction is not a crime, it's an illness.”
by honeybunny55
Friday, December 07 2012, 1:40PM
“I wonder if this is the same Jessie Harris that used to terrorise the city centre years ago? He started out with shoplifting and petty theft, being particularly fond of intimidating female shop staff. At one time he was escorted around the town with his tree-hugging goody goody social worker. He escalated to knifepoint robbery and was locked up for a while, and the last we heard he had moved away and "reformed". There can't be two low-life scumbags with exactly the same name can there? Looks like he upset the wrong people this time - shame!”
by CyrilCringe
Friday, December 07 2012, 10:23AM
“Sorry but this case shows a lamentable lack of action by the police and housing association over a number of years. Both can put their own spin on it but what it seems to have come down to is a simple "too hard to do" piece of work. The more the police rely on an Agency approach to law enforcement the less seems to get done and a culture of buck passing and blame avoidance has resulted. It is deplorable that it took a couple of years for either 'agency' to allegedly 'gather evidence' to progress from complaints to action.”
by jezer
Thursday, December 06 2012, 11:08PM
“I think anyone convicted of drug addiction should be locked up and given cold turkey. Anybody convicted of dealing should have all assets confiscated and given over to victims.”
by JessePinkman
Thursday, December 06 2012, 1:15PM
“I might add that there is nothing cautious about the welcome to this action, but affirm that something should have been done sooner.”
by JessePinkman
Thursday, December 06 2012, 1:09PM
“Funny the police never came and bashed the door in at 4 o'clock in the morning, now if these crackheads had had a couple of scrawny dope plants the cops could have had them locked up long ago.”