In the Latest Twist to the PC Castle Saga, Things Just Got Even More Surreal
Two junior officers with less than seven months’ experience reported a decorated cop for being too firm with a knife-carrying suspect. Now, with knife crime surging, is public trust collapsing?
In the latest twist to the PC Lorne Castle saga, the situation has taken another jaw-dropping turn, highlighting the growing disconnect between parts of some senior police leadership teams and the grim reality faced daily by officers on the thin blue line.
Thanks to The Telegraph, we’ve now seen the knife that was recovered from the suspect PC Castle detained. It’s not a penknife or a toy. It’s a serious weapon: one end a double-edged 3-inch blade, the other a sharp Stanley blade. This wasn’t a misplaced penknife or a novelty blade. It was a purpose-built weapon, designed to tear through skin and muscle. A weapon that has no place on any high street, yet one we’re seeing more and more in the hands of young offenders.
It is exactly the kind of weapon that kills people on Britain’s streets every week. The kind of weapon that Castle had every reason to suspect could be used against him, his colleague, or members of the public.
Yet Castle was dismissed not for using excessive force, but for how he spoke to the male carrying that knife. He did not show enough ‘courtesy and respect’ to this knife-carrying male, and now we know even more.
The complaint against PC Castle wasn’t made by the suspect. It wasn’t made by the public. It wasn’t made by the parents of the male. And it certainly wasn’t made by any victim. It came from within. And to their credit, neither the 15-year-old male nor his family raised any complaint about how he was dealt with.
No, the complaint came from two junior officers who were present at the arrest. Between them, they had fewer than seven months of street experience. One had been on the job for just four months. Perhaps they believed reporting their colleague might boost their chances of promotion, a reflection of how advancement in the police can sometimes (and often does) work.
However, these were officers still finding their feet. Still at the front end of their probation. Still not allowed to go out on patrol on their own. And while there are still some fantastic probationers out there (many of them ex-forces) who do actually understand what policing the streets in modern Britain is really about, it’s hard to ignore how much things have changed. But not for the better.
A few years ago, some of the officers coming through now might not have made it past the first stages of recruitment. And from what I’ve been told by former colleagues, the situation is getting worse. There are recruits going through training who are refusing to learn how to carry out stop and search (nice one, mainstream media). Others refuse to take part in the angry man scenario — a basic training exercise designed to prepare officers for dealing with an aggressive or armed suspect. Training that is needed now more than ever. We’ve even heard of probationers calling their parents from crime scenes because they don’t want to have to deal with dead bodies.
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That might sound unbelievable to anyone who hasn’t served, but this is the reality of what happens when you continually undermine the police, talk them down, and treat them with contempt and when fewer senior officers have the courage to stand up for the men and women who are on the front line.
Fewer people want to join, more want to leave, and standards fall. All while violent crime continues to rise. Our team of former emergency services personnel have been writing about this for a long time. We, and many of our former colleagues, saw this coming.
Yet in Britain in 2025, we’re seeing an increasing number of probationers more focused on reporting a colleague for how he handled a knife-carrying suspect than actually stepping in to help detain him. The body-worn camera footage shows one officer, after a few moments, standing back while PC Castle contained the suspect to the ground.
That kind of approach would have been unthinkable not long ago.
While Castle threw himself into danger to protect his colleagues when his shift should have been over, the officers behind him stood watching. In the video, we see Castle calling for back-up — back-up he wouldn’t have needed if the officer beside him had stepped forward and gone hands-on with the suspect. But instead of asking why a probationer failed to act, the broken system took their complaint and turned on the officer who did. It’s a version of policing many who have served, or are still serving, barely recognise anymore.
It is genuinely hard to get your head around. A police officer with ten years of service, multiple commendations, and a proven history of bravery — including saving several lives — was thrown under the bus because two new recruits complained that he told them to potentially use leg restraints and because raised his voice in a situation where command presence was needed.
And it gets worse the further you look.
Dorset Police’s Professional Standards Department initially, with credit to them, dismissed the complaint. They felt that it could have been dealt with more informally, perhaps in the form of some Reflective Practice. But that decision was overruled by the head of PSD, Ricky Dhanda — who is now under investigation himself for alleged sexual misconduct.
As a result, Lorne Castle spent 18 months on restricted duties. His wife and three daughters had to worry about their financial future. He was banned from speaking face-to-face with the public. He was left in professional limbo while the force figured out how to deal with the fact that an officer had dared to speak firmly to an armed suspect while trying to stop him escaping.
Knife crime in Dorset isn’t just rising. It is surging. According to Home Office figures, knife and sharp instrument offences in the county have more than doubled in the past decade. In 2013, Dorset Police recorded under 150 incidents. By 2023, that number had climbed to nearly 300. Knife-enabled assaults causing injury and those with intent to cause serious harm have seen the steepest increases.
Knife-related robberies and threats to kill are also up. These aren’t just statistics. They represent real fear on the ground — fear felt by parents, teachers, shop workers, bus drivers, key workers and anyone walking through town on a Friday night daring to risk being assaulted whilst trying to enjoy themselves on a night out.
Believe it or not, the very force that dismissed PC Castle recently pledged a crackdown on youth knife crime following a series of high-profile tragedies, including the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Cameron Hamilton in Bournemouth town centre in August 2023.
Just a year earlier, 21-year-old Thomas Roberts was stabbed to death by Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai — an Afghan asylum seeker and convicted double murderer — during a dispute over an e-scooter.
These incidents sparked public outrage and led to renewed promises from Dorset Police to take a tougher stance on knife crime. The Police and Crime Commissioner, David Sidwick, even called for a no-nonsense 90s approach to crime and urged officers to be crime fighters again.
Yet when one fearless and very brave experienced police officer did exactly that — when he showed up, took control, and made an arrest in a potentially dangerous and volatile situation — he was disciplined and dismissed. No praise. No support. Just a hearing, a ruling, and the end of his career.
The Great British public sees what is happening. And for those of us who have served — whether in the emergency services or the armed forces — it offers some comfort. Because once you strip away the noise from some anit-police parts of the mainstream media and the increasingly out-of-touch decisions from some senior leadership teams, what you’re left with is something that still matters: common sense.
And, as we have seen with PC/Mr Castle’s case it’s still out there, in abundance.
In the days since Castle’s dismissal, more than £60,000 has been raised to support his young family. And messages of support continue to pour in. One that stands out is from Sarah Robinson, the mother of Cameron Hamilton. Her son was tragically murdered with a knife in Bournemouth last year.
She said this:
“As the mum of Cameron Hamilton, who was killed by someone using a knife in August 2023 in Bournemouth Square, I thank you for doing your job and I am saddened that the police force has lost such a good officer.”
Perhaps the most devastating response in this whole situation came from someone who knows the true cost of knife crime; Sarah Robinson, the mother of Cameron Hamilton.
What a damning indictment of the current state of policing.
You have rising knife crime, increasing violence against officers, falling public confidence, and a recruitment crisis. And your response is to dismiss a decorated officer because his tone upset a couple of junior colleagues who had just a few months experience while an experienced officer was detaining an armed male. A male who, we now know, was carrying a weapon capable of killing someone with a single strike.
There are urgent and deeply serious issues facing policing today. Violent crime is rising. Dangerous offenders are being released from prison early. Children are being targeted by predatory repeat sex offenders who are breaching their Sexual Harm Prevention Orders and who pose a serious risk to children. Women are being left vulnerable as they are targeted by dangerous sex offenders. Yet somehow, for some within the system, the real problem appears to be brave, no-nonsense officers like PC Castle. That’s not accountability — it’s a symptom of a leadership class that has completely lost touch with reality.
The public knows it. The rank and file know it. And the longer forces like Dorset Police continue to pretend that tone matters more than action, that optics matter more than outcomes, and that junior opinions outweigh frontline experience, the more damage they will do.
Dorset Police didn’t just sack one of their best cops. They sent a message to every officer in the UK. If you step up, if you speak firmly, if you act decisively — even in the face of danger — you could be next.
And the law-abiding public should ask themselves: who will be left to protect us then?
Speaking personally, as someone who served on a response team in East London for nearly a decade, I know exactly who I’d want by my side when dealing with a violent suspect. Given the choice between PC Castle and a probationer with just a few months on the street who reports their own colleague for doing what’s necessary, it’s no contest. But, that’s just me. Or is it?
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It’s unbelievable how badly Dorset Police have handled this situation!
If probationers complain about ‘real world’ incidents, should they actually be in the Police?
Wait a minute "refusing to do stop and search training or 'Angry Man' training?" Is that true? I do not see how that is compatible with staying employed.