Police e-fit omits Down’s syndrome

Epsom Police has received 150 calls in
connection with a robbery involving a man with Down’s syndrome
after a reconstruction was shown on the BBC’s Crimewatch
programme.

The calls came despite the fact that the e-fit
shown on the programme did not depict the offender as having Down’s
features because none exist on the police system.

The robbery took place in Ashtead, Surrey, in
September, and was carried out by two men in their twenties.
Detective sergeant Kevin Selfe at Epsom said that the man with
Down’s syndrome may have been coerced into committing the crime. He
added that crimes committed by people with Down’s syndrome are
rare, but he now knows of around 10 incidents involving two men
fitting the same description as the Epsom case.