College course in Fleetwood to thwart pirates

No ship with armed guards has ever been captured”
John Matthews, Head of Fleetwod Nautical Campus

"When some skippers see pirates are coming they stop the engine - that is just about the worst thing you can do."

For Tony Dumbell, head of Maritime Operations at Fleetwood Nautical Campus, dealing with pirates is a matter of common sense, as he speaks from a virtual ship's bridge in a classroom off the Lancashire coast.

The Gulf of Aden may be a world away from the Irish Sea but this college is leading the way in preparing mariners on how to deal with pirates.

It also helps sea marshals - armed security guards based on ships - tackle the basics of managing the potentially-lethal situation.

The college, where Prince William learned how to escape from a submerged helicopter, is offering modules on dealing with piracy as part of its courses for merchant navy officer cadets.

Campus head John Matthews said the college decided to offer the courses after a former student told them about an attempted piracy attack 18 months ago.

The ship eventually repelled the attempted boarders by hurling large chunks of wood at the approaching launch.

Although students don body armour and are taught how to avoid rocket propelled grenades, much of the training offered is based on the less heroic world of protocols, procedure and risk management.

"We're not looking for Rambos," said Mr Matthews.

Sea marshals on the course are ex-servicemen drawn from security firms who have weeded out any unsuitable applicants.

It is already taken for granted they know how to handle weapons and operate in combat situations.

Students learn how to deal with emergencies using a simulated ship's bridge which can replicate any conditions at sea from storms to gunmen landing on deck. The computer generated images which can be seen on the screen are so realistic that some people even report feeling slightly seasick as they view the swell of the waves.

Ships' officers learn how to carry out risk assessments for each voyage - this will usually determine the number of marshals to keep aboard.

Once at sea, ships operate a six-mile exclusion zone - any craft encroaching into this area will force the marshal to decide whether to fire warning flares.

His next step might be to issue the crew with body armour and his last move might be to collect live ammunition from a locked cupboard.

Panic room
By this time the naval coalition patrolling the gulf will have been contacted and non-essential crew moved to the ship's citadel - a maritime panic room in the bowels of the vessel.

Normally warning shots are enough to deter pirates but if a pirate craft keeps heading to the vessel, eventually the crew will be ordered into the citadel. This is the time to cut the engines and sit tight until helicopters or ships from the naval coalition arrive.

Eleven vessels with 149 hostages are currently being held by pirates, who are mostly Somalis.

The UK Chamber of Shipping recently said the longer term solution lies with action by the international community but in the short term, measures such as sea marshals will certainly help, or as Mr Matthews put it: "No ship with armed guards has ever been captured."

And there is one basic message for all mariners, "We always tell them to look behind you - that's where the pirates are coming from," he said.

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Does anybody regulate private investigators?

A lawyer who represents phone-hacking victims is to sue News International for damages after it was revealed the News of the World hired private investigators to spy on him and another lawyer. But who regulates private investigators?

Under the Private Security Industry Act 2001, provision was made for private investigators to be licensed.

The Act set up the Security Industry Authority which prioritised the licensing of bouncers and wheel clampers.

There are now 367,000 people in the UK with valid SIA licences to work in the security industry.

But the SIA did not get round to private detectives and last year the government announced it was scrapping the organisation and replacing it with a "phased transition to a new regulatory regime".

Legislation is expected late next year and the new body, which will probably retain the SIA name, will be independent of state control.

It will be up to the new body, which may not come into force until 2013 or 2014, to decide on its priorities and whether it has the manpower to embark on licensing private investigators.

There are a number of professional organisations which represent the industry.

One of them is the Institute of Professional Investigators (IPI) and its secretary general, Dave Pryke, said they would like a licensing scheme to be introduced immediately.

'Professionalism'

He said of the News of the World revelations: "Certain journalists have been invading people's privacy to an outlandish extent. Licensing would make it clearer for the investigator what he can and cannot do.

"A licensing structure would help the professionalism of the industry because without licensing anybody can do anything."

Mr Pryke said there were between 20,000 and 50,000 people working as private investigators in the UK.

But he said many of them were "cowboys" and estimated that if regulation was introduced only around 2,000 people would be cleared to get a licence.

Mr Pryke said private detectives' work varies but includes divorce and personal work, as well as insurance fraud, tax investigation and corporate investigations.

The IPI offers training courses which warn investigators of the legal pitfalls.

Suspension risk

One of the biggest obstacles is the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which made it illegal to tap phones, intercept e-mails or otherwise invade someone's privacy.

Mr Pryke said: "We would like to believe that our members are whiter than white and if any of them sail too close to the wind we'd learn about it, and if they went too far we would suspend them."

Other trade associations include the Association of British Investigators, the World Association of Professional Investigators and the World Association of Detectives.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are currently considering whether to regulate private investigators.

"A new independent regulatory scheme will replace the Security Industry Authority, and that would cover any such regulation. In the meantime private investigators are subject to the law on intercepting communications like everyone else."

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Police marksman describes Hampshire bank robbery shooting

A firearms officer who shot and killed an armed suspect during a bank robbery in Hampshire has described the moment he pulled the trigger.

Mark Nunes and Andrew Markland were shot by police during a security van raid in Chandlers Ford in 2007.

The Metropolitan Police rifleman told an inquest in Winchester he shot Nunes when he saw him aim a pistol at a security guard's head.

A second rifleman shot Markland when he ran towards Nunes' body.

The first rifleman, whose name has not been disclosed, said he was watching from near the HSBC Bank where police had been expecting the raid.

'Squeezed the trigger'
Describing the moment the cash van pulled up, he said: "My heart was racing. I felt like I'd just run a hundred metres. My heart was pounding.

"There was one bank robber at the bus stop, there was one in the car. I was scared.

Nunes died after being shot in the chest, while Markland was shot twice in the chest
"Members of the public were walking past. I knew that when the cash van door opened there would be some overt aggressive act towards the guard.

"Mark Nunes moved quickly with his pistol raised and put the gun to the guard's head. I believed the guard was to be shot - that there was a threat to life.

"Mark Nunes was in front of the guard. I could not shoot because the round might have hit the guard.

"I waited a few moments. Mark Nunes moved to the left. He was still a threat. He still had the gun to the guard's head. So I squeezed the trigger and fired one shot."

He said Nunes fell down and he then saw Markland run over to Nunes and crouch down. He then heard a shot fired by a second rifleman and Markland fell.

Lack of evidence
He told the inquest he then heard one more round fire by the second rifleman.

The second rifleman is due to give evidence later today.

Previously the court heard that Nunes, 35, and Markland, 36, both from London, were shot as they held up a G4S van at a branch of HSBC in December 2007.

Officers were lying in wait for the pair but had not arrested them earlier because of a lack of evidence.

The jury was shown police footage of Nunes being shot as he pointed a gun at the head of a security guard.

Central Hampshire coroner Grahame Short told jurors Markland then appeared to pick up the gun before being shot by another marksman.

Post-mortem examinations found Nunes died from a high-velocity gunshot wound to the chest which exited through the neck and Markland died from two separate high-velocity gunshot wounds to the chest.

The inquest continues.

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