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All week, the tributes have gathered. Those whose lives were touched by PC Lorne Castle haven't hesitated to come forward. One woman's account of how her child's life was saved by his 'generosity and mankind' and desire to 'go beyond what is expected of a cops officer' is especially moving.

She discussed how the distressed teenager lost his method life and ended up being understood to cops, who were forever having to bring him home. It was PC Castle, himself a father of 3, who wound up talking her kid down from the ledge, in a metaphorical sense along with an actual one.
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Not just did he make the teenager see that he had a future, he helped him sculpt one out by organizing work experience, even though this was not his task. 'We need more officers like PC Castle, not less,' this grateful mom concluded.

'That one made me well up,' says Lorne, 46, who is sitting in his living space in a peaceful residential street in Bournemouth, sorting through the countless messages he has gotten this week - some from strangers, however others from those he directly helped.

He seems quite overwhelmed and a little teary (really uncharacteristic, 'or it was before all this', according to his wife Denise), by all the nice things people have been saying about him.

'It's blown me away, to be honest,' he states. 'To have people come back to defend me. I'm not used to this, but it's truly touching.' He continues reading, on the verge of tears: 'If I 'd died, you could not have actually got nicer homages.'

And in a manner he has actually passed away, since, as he points out: 'I'm not dead but the policeman I was is dead. PC 1399 is dead.'

Who killed PC Castle? Well, according to his managers at Dorset Police, the fatal injury was completely self-inflicted. Recently, he was fired - 'in a manner that was ruthless. Alan Sugar fires people in a nicer way,' he says - after being found guilty of gross misconduct.

'I'm not dead however the authorities officer I was is dead. PC 1399 is dead,' states Castle

His criminal activity? One that was considered so serious that it cleaned out 10 years of unblemished service consisting of citations for bravery.

He arrested a teenage suspect - later discovered to have actually been in ownership of a knife - without showing appropriate 'courtesy or regard'. While grappling on the ground with the 15-year-old, who was resisting arrest in January last year, PC Castle screamed, swore and pointed his finger at the suspect, who was professing his innocence.

In the cold light of day, safe in his own home, having simply waved his youngest daughter off to bed, Lorne, newly jobless, still can't rather believe that finger-pointing helped lose him his whole career.

He raises the offending finger today and waggles it in front of his own nose. 'I need to holster this,' he says, despairingly. Nor can he accept some of the questions he needed to address throughout a 'disastrous and embarrassing' three-day gross misbehavior hearing.

'For a policeman, the idea of gross misconduct is just the worst, however one of the important things I was asked was if I had not heard the suspect state that he hadn't done anything. Did I not look at him and believe he might be informing the reality?' He throws both hands up.

'Were they seriously asking me why I didn't fall for the old, 'it wasn't me, guv' line. Most suspects resisting arrest state they haven't done anything. I imply a child understands that.

'Let's put this into context. We were examining an attack. I've detained him. He has resisted. I'm having a hard time on the ground with him. There is a crowd event. I'm attempting to include this circumstance but my concern is to make this arrest and keep everyone safe.

'So when he says he hasn't done anything, I'm seriously supposed to stop and say, 'Oh, you didn't do it? Dreadfully sorry, young Sir. Let me help you up! Tally ho! My error!' This is a suspect who did have a knife.'

Denise, who says she 'was so proud to be the other half of a policeman', attended every day of her partner's disciplinary and has been there to get the pieces as his life broke down

The shock and bewilderment in his living room is palpable. As is the large shock. 'I mean, the audacity of even asking me that. But I knew even before the gross misconduct hearing started that I was walking to the gallows. And they hung me out to dry.'

He adds: 'Even if I win my appeal, even if I got my job back, I wouldn't have the ability to do it.

'How might I walk down the street with members of the general public thinking I'm a bully and a goon - all the things I went into the police to challenge.

'My career is gone. I'm never going to get another task, because who would offer me one. My life is destroyed. They've broken me.'

Denise, who tells me she 'was so proud to be the spouse of a police officer', participated in every day of her husband's disciplinary hearing and has actually existed to get the pieces as his life broke down.

The couple, who have children aged 27, 18 and 8, inform me that on the day Lorne was informed he was facing gross misbehavior charges, he didn't go home - 'since how could I tell my better half?' - but walked along Bournemouth beach till 3am. He was too shocked to think about walking into the sea and states he hasn't seriously contemplated suicide 'however can understand people who do, in this sort of scenario, since the nature of this job isolates you from people who aren't cops, so when the rug is pulled from under you ... you feel so alone'.

Denise says she has actually seen him 'shrink, become somebody who simply isn't Lorne'.

'My husband is an outgoing, bubbly, glass-half-full individual, who is a natural leader and motivator,' she discusses. 'He's the most moralistic person I know - our children will back me up on that. And he's the sort of male who never ever employed sick even when he was ill.

'Since all this, I've just seen him alter. He breaks down now. He doubts himself. It has actually been devastating to enjoy. Even the kids say, 'he isn't Dad'.'

Their hero father, openly lauded after plunging into the freezing River Avon to save an elderly woman, is now making headlines for all the wrong factors.

When the first murmurings began, recommending this once-admired officer had actually been unjustly treated by 'woke' bosses who were far eliminated from the reality of policing at street level, Dorset Police moved rapidly to defend their position, releasing damning video footage, taken from a colleague's body web cam, which does undoubtedly show PC Castle in a not-too-flattering light.

He's tape-recorded informing the suspect to 'stop screaming like a little b ** ch' and cautioning him: 'I'm gon na smash you'.

This footage, Lorne claims, was presented out of context, cherry-picked to 'not inform the full story'.

'It was ravaging that Dorset Police could do this to me, that they might wish to ... destroy me,' he states. 'What that selective video didn't show was the aftermath - when this suspect continued to resist arrest.

'It took 4 officers to get him in handcuffs. That video does not reveal the crowd around us, whom I could see in my peripheral vision.

'There was only one 999 call made about what was taking place there and it originated from a member of the public who was concerned about me. They called to say that there was an officer struggling, who looked as if he needed back up.'

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Lorne adds: 'Dorset Police didn't even believe it was required to call that individual as a witness in my disciplinary hearing. I needed to demand it. It paints an extremely various image to what happened and I thank goodness that witness was there, due to the fact that otherwise I 'd think I was freaking.'

This is an extremely troubling - and dissentious - case. There is no question that Lorne made judgment mistakes in his handling of that arrest on January 27, 2024.

He admitted as much during the misconduct hearing and repeats that belief today. 'I ought to not have used the language I did. I'm ashamed and saddened that I did that, which it's out there for everyone to see. But the essence of what occurred was, unfortunately necessary. That was an arrest that needed to be made and I made a judgment call.

'Could I have done it differently? Naturally, but ultimately I took a knife off the streets. Another police force has this slogan, 'Take a knife; Save a Life'. My force said, 'Take a knife; Get your P45'.'

Did he deserve to lose his career? 'I don't believe that's one for me to answer,' he states, however his spouse has no qualms. 'No, he did not,' Denise says strongly.

'They went out to string him up. Once they decided that they were opting for gross misconduct, they went trying to find things to support that. I sat there and could not think what they were doing.

'They have ruined a great guy and taken an excellent law enforcement officer off the streets. I still can't think this. This whole thing seems like such an offense.'

There has actually been outrage about Lorne's dismissal, significantly from those who were when in the ranks of Dorset Police.

Former Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Martyn Underhill informed Radio Solent today: 'This officer overreacted, utilized bad language - that's about it. We're becoming too woke. I think Dorset Police have got this massively incorrect. Do I believe he deserved to lose his task? Absolutely not.'

It is especially ravaging for Lorne that it was coworkers who first complained about his handling of that arrest. He will not discuss their participation, but it is understood that the 2 junior officers who saw it had only been in the job for six months.

It is likewise understood that while, initially, it did not appear misconduct charges were likely, the decision was taken to initiate them. Lorne was notified of this by Superintendent Ricky Dhanda, head of Professional Standards.

In an amazing twist, Mr Dhanda has himself been placed on limited responsibilities while he is examined over sexual misconduct accusations. 'Maybe me and him have various decision-making procedures,' is all Lorne will state. So who is Lorne Castle - and how will history judge him?

His path into the police was a little uncommon. He matured in Torquay but moved to nearby Bournemouth to go to university, where he studied law.

An eager sportsman and martial arts professional, he satisfied Denise - who would go on to be a world champion Muay Thai fighter - and they set up a sports academy together.

It was his work with young people that brought him into contact with the male who would become his coach - former Chief Inspector Chris Amey, who had a long profession with both the Met and Dorset Police.

He satisfied Lorne in 2013 and was impressed by his drive and commitment on a youth task. He encouraged him to join the authorities - first as a neighborhood assistance officer, then as a PC. Denise concurred that he had 'found his location' in the police.

Undoubtedly, it was a profession at which Lorne excelled. In 2021, he was named neighborhood officer of the year, after having actually been twice awarded commendations.

In 2017, he saved somebody in a medical emergency then, in 2023, he plunged into the Avon, duping his stab vest to go into the water, eventually holding an elderly lady up.

He states it did occur to him that he was, technically, breaking all the guidelines and 'could face manslaughter charges' if his efforts to get the woman to stick to a life ring failed.

'It did go through my mind that professional requirements could tell me I wasn't expected to enter, that I was trying to be a hero. That is the world we operate in.'

But his desire to do the right thing won out and he got an award from the Humane Society for that rescue.

Fellow officers 'who had held the ropes as I went in' were likewise commended however, bizarrely, when it pertained to the invites for the ceremony, Lorne didn't get one.

'I 'd been put on restricted responsibilities by then [after the event with the teenager] and told my superiors were going to 'keep' mine until after the misconduct procedures.' He was furious, and deeply injured. 'The other officers weren't going to go without me and I did ultimately go, but it felt extremely much like being the kid at the celebration you weren't invited to.'

On the night of the contentious arrest, Lorne was at completion of an 11-hour shift when a call was available in about a violent masked culprit, last seen driving an e-scooter, who was suspected of assaulting an elderly man and a teenage kid.

Staff at a local McDonald's had been scared enough to close their doors before calling for help. Earlier that day, authorities officers had been warned that there had actually been a large gang battle and prospective suspects were still at large.

There was no reason for Lorne to take that call - the approaching shift could have managed it - but he says he volunteered, 'because that's what you do'.

The suspect was rapidly found and when he withstood arrest, Lorne 'took him down to the ground'.

This part is not contentious. The misbehavior hearing discovered no fault with the force utilized to take the suspect to the flooring. It was the tussle that followed that was deemed problematic.

Did PC Castle lose control? He stresses how fraught that situation was. 'As a law enforcement officer, you enter into the unidentified and there is a worry there.' He explains that his managers released a damning statement which repeatedly referred to the suspect as a 15-year-old boy.

'The narrative was that he was frightened of me. But he never made a grievance. I would argue that he was terrified of getting caught.

'And I did not understand he was 15 - to ride an e-scooter you need to be 16. Even if I had known, should I have kept back due to the fact that of his age? That is doing a disservice to every household who have actually lost someone because they were stabbed by a teenager. No, I did not know that he had a knife, but it was my job to do a danger assessment and I have to state my evaluation was area on.'

The knife that fell from the suspect's waistband was little however possibly deadly, particularly at close quarters, he points out.

'Do you understand how much space you need for a machete to be fatal? Quite a lot, because it needs a swing. A knife like this? With a small motion you can be talking about a severed artery.'

He shakes his head. 'I can keep saying sorry for swearing. But I made that arrest. I took a knife off the streets. There was no injury. No complaint from the suspect.'

Did he go off that shift thinking that it had been a disaster?

'Quite the opposite. I remember thinking of the knife and going: 'Jeez, that was close. That could have gone badly'.'

He will not criticise the junior officers who raised the complaint, aside from to refer me to that witness who called 999. 'He thought I was on my own there.'

But the feeling that he has actually been pulled down by his superiors is clear. 'I believed we were all working towards the same thing, which is keeping our neighborhood safe. That's all I have ever attempted to do and I have been publicly damaged for it.' Lorne describes having to turn over his badge as 'the worst moment in my life'.

He states he is almost afraid to walk the streets he when patrolled now. 'Dorset Police have actually put a target on my head. I don't even understand if we can stay here, as a household, which is heartbreaking due to the fact that this is our neighborhood.'

The only benefit is the swell of support from those who think he has actually been mistreated. A GoFundMe account, established by Chris Amey, the guy who motivated him to sign up with the police, was last night standing at ₤ 95,000. 'I'm just humbled, however so grateful. It indicates I can pay the mortgage, in the meantime anyway.'

He returns to those messages again. One sent out on Facebook comes from another mom, Sarah Robinson, who lost her boy Cameron Hamilton in 2023. The

18-year-old was stabbed to death by another teen in Bournemouth. 'As the mum of Cameron Hamilton, who was eliminated by someone utilizing a knife, I thank you for doing your job,' she wrote. 'I am saddened that the police has lost such an excellent officer.'

This makes Lorne wish to cry - for himself and his household, yes, however likewise for those individuals he assured to serve.

'I did my job,' he repeats. 'And I have actually been crucified for it.'