is it ilegal for the police to refuse take statment

[nailit]

Further to my previous posts below, my niece and nephew initially refused to make a statement to to police, however after hearing that the police were making their own statments that were contrary to what they saw themselves they rang the police to make a statment and were told that there was no point as Id already commited an offence and there statment was not needed. Their statment contradicts the police's version of events. can the police legally decline to take a statment from someone that contradicts their own officers?
Im in crown court for a trial in october, need to get my facts right. The police are lying because I believe that the threatened use of tasers has to be justified and they had no justification unless they had to lie.
thanks.

[HowardKennitby]

Your own solicitor can take evidence to support your defence and can call witnesses in court to do the same.

[nailit]

thanks howard, but why can the police refuse to tak statments thet contradict their own officers especially when they asked for them in the first place

[thenry]

The police can do what they want. That is the point. THEY ARE THE POLICE !

[EDDIE51]

The problem here for you is that your witnesses, niece and nephew , refused to make a statement when asked the first time. They can't now just because they have seen the police statement suddenly change their minds and say they want to make a statement after all, that would look very bad for you.
When and if this comes to trial they can be witnesses for the defence and explain why they initially refused to make statements.
My advice was and still is, change your plea to guilty! and ask for all your mental/medical problems to be considered.

[nailit]

EDDIE51, thanks for all your help, my brief thinks i ought to plead not guilty and have done so. My niece and nephew initially refused to make a statement in case they made matters worse for me but once they heard that the polive were telling lies just wanted to put the record staight. The police then didnt want to know. Surely the police cant refuse to take a statment because it contradics them?

[EDDIE51]

As I said the problem is that they refused to make statements until AFTER they knew what was in the police statement. If they now do make statments the police will make it look in court as if the defence witnesses just made up their statements after they already saw what the police statement said.
The best you can do is to use them as defence witnesses and they can say why they at first refused to make statements.

[nailit]

thanks EDDIE.

[bednobs]

if the police haven't taken a statement, how on earth do they know whatever they are going to say contradicts them?

[Duncer]

"The police can do what they want. That is the point. THEY ARE THE POLICE !"

They cannot!

They are there to enforce the law, not reinterpret or ignore it. There are strict rules and regulations as regards behaviour, and ALL police officers are expected to meet them, as they should be.

[EDDIE51]

There is a lot more to this post, look at nailit's profile !
This is a continuation of the previous story and really should be read as part of that. Most of the answers to this specific question are not relavent in view of the whole history. Not the respondants fault as nalit should have just continued the previous thread.