A Note From The Curator

The Black Museum contains the archives of the 'Foreign Criminal(s) Of The Day' series I began on The G-Gnome Rides Out and continued on my eponymous blog.

I started it because, as a former criminal justice professional, I began to notice just how much serious crime was being committed in the UK by non-UK nationals.

Crime, of course, is always sensational. People love reading the salacious details of others' misdeeds. However, there have always been three very serious purposes to this exercise.

Firstly, crime has costs. One of the reasons why citizens, regardless of race or creed, are taxed is to provide police resources for the prevention and detection of crime in their own communities. If these resources are having to be used to prosecute those who shouldn't be in the country, or who abuse their rights of residence or asylum, then the state has failed the citizen.

By permitting the admission of those whose crimes are reported here, the British state, in the person of Anthony Charles Lynton Blair and his predecessors, has diluted the value of my citizenship; something they had no right to do.

Secondly, the people whose actions are reported here are mostly vicious, brutal, avaricious and conscienceless in inflicting suffering on others. Speaking for myself, I don't want such people living in my country; which the state often forgets is also my home.

Thirdly, the crimes reported here are mostly indictable crimes, the most serious of all offences. However, my own experience tells one that such crimes constitute only a very small proportion of the criminal justice system's workload. The more one reports on foreign crime in the UK, the more one realises its phenomenal scale; for if one conviction for people trafficking equals 30 unpaid TV licences, how many unpaid parking tickets does a murder equal?

This archive is not intended to have the slightest statistical value. It is only a list of data that Dennis Mangan and myself have been able to record at particular points in time and space.

Occasionally, Britons convicted of crimes overseas appear here. If we insist that those who reside here abide by our laws, we must also insist that those of us who reside in or travel to others' homes abide by their laws. The people of Cambodia did not deserve to swap Pol Pot for Toss Pot.

So let the roll of dishonour commence...