why dident they go in.

[nugnug]

if there was no sign of life in the house why dident the raid time go in there why did they wait outside.

[Alias]

if there was no sign of life in the house why dident the raid time go in there why did they wait outside.

It is very strange. They stood there for hour upon hour. Were they afraid? Wasn´t it the job of the raid team to, well, raid the house? Possibly saving the lives of the people inside, including two defenceless little children.
They didn´t even approach the house and peek through the windows - otherwise they would have seen Nevill slumped over in the kitchen, dead.

[lookout]

 No idea,nugs,,but they wasted an awful lot of time. The biggest cocked-up case this country's ever seen.

[lookout]

 Why was the raid team sent for if it was just " a trick of the light " ?

[lookout]

 They spent two hours solid,farting around with a map of the layout of the farmhouse and how best to enter ? These were ARMED men !! Bullet-proof clothing,etc,,,supposedly trained for any eventuality.

[nugnug]

the light being on could of confused them thats the only thing i can think of.

[grahameb]

if there was no sign of life in the house why dident the raid time go in there why did they wait outside.

The police always do this in a hostage situation. The first thing they do is to try and talk to the assailant and try and negotiate with them.
Because of the length of time they took it makes me think that they were actually talking with someone in the house.
But having said that, they may have been waiting for daylight. Remember there were 5 persons in that house and they had no idea where the assailant was. They didn't want any innocent person hurt when they stormed the house.

[nugnug]

but if everybody's dead inside they cant talk to anyone and surely when nobody replied the penny should of dropped eventually.

[Alias]

In my opinion it was a disgrace that they waited so long. How could they know if there were one or more people inside wounded who could have been saved?
The ambulances make good sense, but their delayed action does not.

[nugnug]

it also makes no sense going to get there guns if there were no sighns of life in there.

[Alias]

it also makes no sense going to get there guns if there were no sighns of life in there.

Well, I think that makes sense - just to be on the safe side, sign of life or no sign of life.

[nugnug]

you would think after a couple of hours talking and nobody replying and no sighn of any movement the penny would drop and someone would say hang on there all dead.

or maybe there all criticly injured lets go in.

[lookout]

 Well,yes,nugs,,after 2 hours you would.

[nugnug]

so were thy just really dim or did they have good reason to think there was someone alive in there who would shoot them if they tried to go in.

[scipio_usmc]

if there was no sign of life in the house why dident the raid time go in there why did they wait outside.

Because of Jeremy:

"Having walked to the house from the lane there was further conversation. The appellant told the police that Sheila Caffell could use a gun. He said they had gone target shooting together and she had used all the guns in the house before. In the light of what they were told the uniformed officers requested armed assistance before any attempt to search the house was made. The appellant dictated a list of the firearms kept at the house. He told the police that he had loaded the .22 automatic rifle the previous night because he thought he had heard rabbits outside. He said he had left the gun on the kitchen table with a full magazine and a box of ammunition nearby. Those who saw the appellant at the scene at that time described him as remarkably calm. At some stage during their conversations that morning PC Myall and the appellant spoke about motor cars. The appellant said that the Osea Road Caravan Site company, "would be able to stand him a Porsche" car at some point during the year."

Jeremy intentionally scared them with lies about her weapon proficiency and how well armed she was.

Some armed police arrived at 5 but the majority did not arrive until 7AM

They used a megaphone around 5:20 to try to negotiate assuming it could be a hostage situation but received no response.  They periodically continued with calls to the house from the megaphone but never got a response.

They didn't want to put officers or potentially hostages in danger so wanted to wait to enter until it was totally light so they could see inside the rooms as they went room to room.  They also wanted enough officers to be able to cover all sides of the house so a potential gunman could not escape. 

In the US all officers are armed so every cop on the scene could have protected the outside perimeter but not so with the UK police present.