Bedfordshire Police have refused to disclose the nationality of convicted paedophile Zakei Ciurar, described as a “Luton man” by the press, telling Breitbart London: “Immigration isn’t something the police really deal with.”
Ciurar, 29, who groomed his 13-year-old victim via social media and attempted to hush up her parents by offering them money, was convicted at Luton Crown Court of “three counts of sexual activity with a child, two of which involved penetration”, according to a Bedfordshire Police news bulletin.
The force made no reference to Ciurar’s nationality or immigration status — if any — however, with local media merely referring to him as a “Luton man”.
While he may be a British citizen, mainstream media outlets have sometimes used descriptions like this to avoid mentioning the migration background of foreign criminals. Eltiona Skana, an Albanian failed asylum seeker who slit a seven-year-old girl’s throat in a public park on Mother’s Day, was repeatedly referred to as merely a “Bolton woman” by the BBC, for example.
They initially claimed to this reporter that they “refer to ethnicity, race or sexuality only where we believe there is a direct relevance to the case in hand,” but a subsequent report did admit her background in its very last paragraph.
In hopes of clarifying Ciuraqr’s background, Breitbart London asked Bedfordshire Police to confirm his nationality and immigration status, but was told to “speak to immigration” — presumably a reference to the Immigration Enforcement agency of the Home Office.
The force was asked why they could not disclose the paedophile’s nationality themselves, given they investigated and arrested him and saw through his conviction alongside the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) — prompting the astonishing reply that “[i]mmigration isn’t something the police really deal with.”
The force’s anonymous spokesman added that they “wouldn’t be able to pass any info we hold anyway due to data protection.”
Breitbart London questioned this, given they had published his address (Hitchin Road, Luton), age, and photograph on their website, but the spokesman insisted they had “given the relevant info” — i.e. nothing — and indicated that they would not correspond on the matter any further.
Luton Crown Court and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) were also asked to clarify Ciurar’s nationality, but neither had responded as of the time of publication.
Ciurar was handed a seven-year sentence alongside weaker measures including a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which prohibits him from unsupervised contact with under-16s, at least in theory, and being placed on the sex offenders register, although this is not viewable by the public.
The investigating officer for Bedfordshire Police, PC Amy Craig, described this as “a great result” and said she was “really pleased we got justice for [the] young victim, who was so brave to give evidence in court.”
“Ciurar’s not guilty plea meant she had to go through the trauma of his grooming and exploitation all over again. The bravery it takes for anyone to do this, let alone someone so young, is extraordinary and I cannot commend her highly enough,” she added, claiming her force “won’t tolerate male violence against women and girls” and that “[s]exual predators like Ciurar will be brought to justice and won’t be able to pose a risk to girls in our county.”
However, the paedophile will almost certainly not serve his relatively short seven-year sentence in full, as prisoners in Britain given non-“life” sentences — also usually misleading — are typically eligible for early release on licence halfway or, more rarely, two-thirds of the way through their terms.
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