Police appeal to Asian students to solve murder enquiry
Police have appealed to Asian students to help identify the body of a murder victim dumped in a canal.
The victim, whom police described as “Oriental”, was found on March 20 in the Selby Canal and is thought to have been in the water for two to three weeks. He died from a “severe and savage beating to his head and face”.
Officers have so far struggled to identify the body and have begun a postering campaign on campus in Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Vietnamese appealing for information. A multi-lingual information phone line has also been set up
In a statement Detective Superintendent Karnail Dulku, who is leading the investigation, said: “This man has a family somewhere, he is someone’s son, brother, father, grandson. He did not deserve to end his life as an anonymous body dumped in a canal. If you believe you can help I urge you to do the right thing and help us identify him or his killers.”
A police spokesman said the victim was not thought to be a student and police continue to suspect he may have been trafficked illegally into the UK.
The victim is described as between his late teens and early thirties, 5ft 7in tall and weighing 10 stone (140 lbs). He was found wearing black underpants with the logo PROEA, khaki green long-john type trousers with the logo UTEJIAO and a Calvin Klein t-shirt with a distinctive white pattern. He was not wearing any shoes or socks.
An appeal for information and a artist’s impression have been broadcast in China in the hope of reaching the victims’ friends or family members.
The postering campaign comes weeks after campus bedrooms were searched and the lake dragged by officers looking for missing Goodricke chef Claudia Lawrence.
Anyone with any information is encouraged to contact North Yorkshire Police at 0845 60 60 247 or the multi-lingual line at 01904 669 120
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Please ring the multi-lingual answer-phone to leave your message in Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean or Vietnamese. Please dial 01904 – 669120 and follow the instructions.
Or email opcaddy@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk
Or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Or North Yorkshire Police on 0845 60 60 247.
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“Officers have so far struggled to identify the body and have begun a postering campaign on campus in Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Vietnamese appealing for information.”
Let us assure the North Yorkshire Police Department (NYPD?) that all of the university’s students are perfectly capable of understanding English, regardless of their race or nationality.
That said, if this unfortunate man could be in any way related to someone in this university, why is the appeal limited to Asian students?
George,
That’s a slightly bizarre thing to say. There are very mixed levels of English amongst Asian students on campus, in the same way there are mixed levels of Mandarin amongst British students studying at Chinese universities, for example. Making appeals in a number of languages strikes me as sensible policing.
Best,
Raf
I think George is trying to say it could be seen as being rather patronizing since all students at the University must have IETLS 6.0 or higher with most departments requiring 6.5 or higher. (http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/uao/ugrad/admiss/internat/englishlang.htm and http://www.york.ac.uk/graduatestudy/applying/englang.htm )
That said, I think that making the effort to approach these students in languages they may be more comfortable with is a good thing. Let’s not be PC for PC’s sake by targeting all students rather than the demographic singled out by the North Yorkshire Police.
Concerning my first point – there are indeed mixed levels of English among overseas students but, for the reasons Richard mentioned, I doubt that there is anyone in this university who’s not capable of understanding a few simple sentences in English.
After all, this is a top university we are talking about, and no course is taught in a foreign language. Is there really a possibility that somebody can understand a lecture on quantum mechanics or post-structuralism but struggle to read a poster?
In any case, I did not mean that this is offensive or patronising, but rather unnecessary.
On the contrary, surely anything that may even slightly improve the chances of a result in this case, be it slightly patronizing or not, is well worth it?
I suspect the case is just simply the police already having the posters (due to targeting the Asian community around Selby too).
Good point.
There have been suggestions that this man was infact in Britain illegally. If so, he probably arrived with other people from the same area, who may not have university level english.
When abroad, posters or articles or signs in your native language become more striking. Even with a good grasp of french, when in France, anything written in English often stands out. There’s nothing patronising about this at all.
Posters in Polish, Swahili, Bulgarian, Arabic and Turkish are commonplace in many places in the UK now, it’s just an easier way to get a point across to people who only speak english as a second language. We mustn’t forget that talking to the police is a difficult enough thing to do in your mother tongue, let alone in a foreign language. Hopefully a multi-lingual incident room and appeals will help lead to the identity of this man, and some evidence surrounding the way in which he died.
I was going to say just that – if I was in France and spoke reasonable French, a big poster in English would get my attention more. If there’s any advantage to seeing the poster, then it’s worth it… but on the other hand if lots of people saw posters that were in languages they don’t understand (Chinese, British and Korean students probably don’t speak Vietnamese as a general rule, for instance) but don’t see any in their own language then they may miss the point.
That said, I suspect that if I recognised the guy I’d go out of my way to find out what’s going on!
Though I haven’t heard any rumours of him being an illegal immigrant other than as a general thought by people who always suggest that sort of thing
God, Mr. Rose, the Easter holiday has done wonders for you!
On a serious note though, this chap wasn’t reported missing by anyone in spite of not being seen for many weeks. This would suggest that there might be some chance that he was an illegal immigrant and a line of enquiry that the police would obviously have to pursue for the reasons pointed out by A.Politician.
“Though I haven’t heard any rumours of him being an illegal immigrant other than as a general thought by people who always suggest that sort of thing”
You’ve not been following the story closely enough then. The police have said that they suspect he was illegally trafficked into the country (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/7997674.stm)
That article is poor. No quotes, no nothing – it just says in passing “detectives believe he may have been trafficked” – that’s not a rumour of him being an illegal immigrant but suggesting it as a possibility, which is always obviously a possibility when people don’t own up to knowing the person. Even if they’re caucasian, since a lot of trafficking is from Poland and surrounding countries. Doesn’t mean that it’s a likelihood though and we’re in a low-illegal-immigrant area.
These comments seem a bit ridiculous.
First you have George who seems to take offence that the police have set up multi-language hot lines for information on the death of an Asian man who they suspect is an illegal immigrant. That makes perfect sense.
Then there’s Jason Rose who points out the obvious that if you see a sign in a language you don’t know, you probably won’t understand it. Cheers for that insight Jason. The article clearly states that there is a poster campaign in Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Vietnamese so the point is made across to all of them.
I also think the police probably wouldn’t suggest the likelihood of him being an illegal immigrant without reason and your argument that this is a low level illegal immigrant is flawed as it does not discount that he could be an illegal immigrant. I think I’ll trust the police on this one over your ‘informed’ point. Also, Poland is part of the E.U. so I really doubt there is much trafficking with the freedom of movement for workers. I think most of the trafficking comes from the Balkans and other Eastern European nations outside the E.U. since their passports alone don’t let them freely into this country.
First of all, I did not ‘take offense’ and there was no suggestion in the article that the man could have been an illegal immigrant.
I only suggested that putting up multi-language posters in this university was a rather unnecessary measure, a point which was answered by both Chris and Dan.