Candidate for police commissioner withdraws over teenage conviction

A LABOUR Party candidate who had hoped to become one of 41 police commissioners elected in England has had to stand down because of an offence committed 46 years ago, when he was 13.

Bob Ashford was to have contested the November election to become police commissioner in Avon and Somerset, in charge of budget and policy and with the power to fire the chief constable.

In 1966, however, he was convicted of trespassing on a railway line and being in possession of an offensive weapon – an air gun – and fined £2 10s for each offence.

The legislation for the elections disqualifies anyone convicted of an offence for which they could have gone to jail, whether or not they went to jail.

Mr Ashford said he became aware that his juvenile conviction could bar him only after he read debate about whether Falklands veteran Simon Weston could run.

In 1976, aged 14, Mr Weston, who later was horrifically burned during the Falklands campaign, was convicted in Wales of being in a stolen car. He was fined £30 and given three months’ probation.

Ministers initially argued the legislation did not bar Mr Weston, though it later became clear it did.

In the decades since his conviction, Mr Ashford has been highly regarded as a social worker working with young offenders. He has frequently been approved in security checks run by the Home Office and other bodies.

In a statement yesterday, he said he had gone with fellow schoolboys to the railway line because he felt he would be bullied later in school if he did not.

“One of the lads pulled out an air gun and started shooting at cans. I never touched the air gun and felt unable to leave, as I was frightened at what might happen at school,” he said.

A goods train driver spotted them and reported them to police. “The lads with the air gun ran away whilst I and two others froze and were arrested,” he said.

He said he had always declared his conviction during past security checks, even though no official record of it exists.

Candidates are required to sign a letter confirming they have had no convictions. “[To do so] would in itself be a criminal act, which of course I am not prepared to countenance,” Mr Ashford said.

During his years working with young offenders, he said he had always believed that all children “have worth and the ability to reform and lead productive and valuable lives, as I have done”.

“It is deeply and bitterly ironic that I now find myself in a position where my prospective career and my work to date [are] to be overshadowed by an event which occurred 46 years ago,” he said.