Anyone seen the piece in The Mirror this morning about a British snapper that was chased by a mob of angry parents after taking photos on a beach in Malia, Crete? They were apparently furious that he'd been taking pictures with their kids in them. No immediate suggestion that he was a P**** but he was still arrested and spent five days in jail before being bailed out.
Snapper chased along beach by a mob of angry parents
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Cleisthenes
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A link would be good!
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Malia is not somewhere I would recommend anyone took kids. Full of "Brits on the poness" staggering and puking in the streets at 10am.
Free lodging is about all he'd get in clink there apparently - sheets and food are likely to be optional extras. Mid August is likely to be stinking hot and I very much doubt he'll have had the luxury of air con.
Free lodging is about all he'd get in clink there apparently - sheets and food are likely to be optional extras. Mid August is likely to be stinking hot and I very much doubt he'll have had the luxury of air con.
Sharky
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cambsno
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The fact he was charged and faces court would suggest otherwise, if nothing dodgy on camera he would have been released immediately.
Not necessarily. I don't know the laws over there and their idea of 'indecent pictures of children' might be somewhat different to ours. He may well have been photographing a general scene as far as he was concerned but there just happened to be kids in the vicinity. We don't know.
Bobsyeruncle
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I would suggest that he wasn't just photographing a general scene. If he was, it would be obvious when they checked his camera.
The fact that the parents asked him to delete some pictures would also indicate that they were not just general scene shots.
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Have a search through this forum. You'll find several comments about photographers being asked (almost ordered) by irrational parents to delete pictures of their 'little Johnny' just because he happened to be in shot when a perfectly innocent photograph was being taken. It is a common occurrence. And if you need evidence of the Greek police and state prosecutor's irrational behaviour then you need look no further than the British plane spotters arrest, trial, and conviction a few years back. Anyone with half a brain working could see that they were essentially harmless but they still got done up like a kipper over nothing. The only thing they were guilty of was being sad people.
I'm not saying that nothing untoward happened in this latest case. All I'm saying is that it's possibly innocent enough by our standards but not by theirs.
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Quicksnapper
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Reading the report, it seems he crossed the (Greek) line between acceptable and unacceptable images. Like others, I don't know the law over there, but the parents involved clearly thought the images were unacceptable and the police agreed, hence the period of detention. I'd say he got what he deserved here, but it's not a great precedent for those of us who who are more responsible when photographing general scenes.
You need to be careful. I took a picture in the lake district with a 300mm zoom on my Micro 4/3 camera, so a very long shot. When I looked on the computer at home there was a small child having his clothes changed at the bottom of the picture, that I never noticed when I composed the shot!
jonbeeza
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But there again, the age of consent in Greece is fifteen. What could be legal over there, would be illegal over here! Depending where you are, you could be deemed an upstanding person of good character, while over here you would be labelled a dodgy person not to be trusted !
shapeshifter
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We need your name and address please so we can send a mob around with flaming torches and a noose.
Hang him high! 
Alastair
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Bloody foreigners. When they come to this country they should follow our laws. And when we go to their country we should be allowed to do what's legal in our country.
Bloody foreigners. When they come to this country they should follow our laws. And when we go to their country we should be allowed to do what's legal in our country.
Don't be so bloody stupid. I don't suppose for one minute they had a clue that what they were doing wasn't allowed and even if it wasn't, all the Greek authorities had to do was give them a bollocking and deport them. All that talk of spying was trumped up cobblers and borne out of nothing but paranoia. I suppose when you go abroad you know every law there is so you can avoid breaking them, do you? No, I didn't think so.
Alastair
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No..but in the Greek case I would have expected the tour orgainiser (who specialised in aviation photography tours) to have had some basic competence in the subject.. perhaps to have read the "no photography" clause on the airshow tickets. Going back and re-reading the stories on the plane spotters case, it's clear that there's more gong on - it wasn't the first time the tour organiser had taken such a tour to Greece, it was just the first time he got caught. And was this not very close to the time the Greek photographer was held for photography on the London Underground? (another complicated case where it sounds like he talked his way into being charged by questioning the childs parantage)
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I make bloody sure I keep an eye out for "No Photography" signs (and there are plenty about over there) and obey them. They're particularly sensitive around all their military bases and exercise areas, especially their air bases.
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Bloody foreigners. When they come to this country they should follow our laws. And when we go to their country we should be allowed to do what's legal in our country.
Quit arguing like a pair of fishwives. If you want to discuss something, do it like Stephen Fry does, gentlemanly
kennethwfd
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whatever happened to justice - the burden of proof lies with the prosecutor
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Would this be the same Mirror that organised a 'paedophile' witch hunt that targeted a paediatrician?
The same Mirror that swore blind to Leveson that they'd never phone hacked but whose Editor boasted about it? (And are now being charged)?
If you believe their account of anything you're a credulous moron.
The article doesn't actually state what he was charged with - it may have nothing to do with children.
But the hatchet job 'ooh, weirdo' interviews and defamatory 'related links' have Christopher Jeffries written all over it.
The same Mirror that swore blind to Leveson that they'd never phone hacked but whose Editor boasted about it? (And are now being charged)?
If you believe their account of anything you're a credulous moron.
The article doesn't actually state what he was charged with - it may have nothing to do with children.
But the hatchet job 'ooh, weirdo' interviews and defamatory 'related links' have Christopher Jeffries written all over it.
Dave *
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I'm confused by the #brokenbritain hashtag, I can't find Crete on any map of Britain
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Tony101
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Actually...no.
The facts of this tale is that in 2000 the News of the World were running a campaign to name and shame paedophiles. In August 2000 someone (according to police, probably someone aged 12-17) daubed graffiti on the home of a paediatrician in Gwent (not Portsmouth as is often mistakenly mentioned). No mobs, no organised witch-hunt - just a bit of paint daubed on a house by ignorant teenagers.
Over time this tale has become twisted into some wildly inaccurate urban myth.
While I have no love for the red-tops, and they have indeed committed many unpalatable (and occasionally illegal) acts; I just think accuracy is important when people criticise others for inaccuracy.
I appreciate this adds nothing to the current topic under discussion, so please feel free to ignore and carry on.
