Determined officer gets her man after Durham graffiti outrage (From The Northern Echo)

Determined officer gets her man after Durham graffiti outrage

7:32pm Friday 16th November 2012 in News By Matt Westcott

A DETERMINED police officer finally got her man after painstakingly tracking down a graffiti artist over two years.

The vandal had blighted Durham with his 'tags' and caused damage estimated to run into tens of thousands of pounds.

But all police had to go on was his graffiti signature until PC Kay Howarth found photos on the internet.

PC Howarth, of Durham Constabulary took on the task of finding the culprit, but needed the help of two judges, the Home Office and the FBI in America, before he could be brought to justice.

"We have worked with Yahoo! for 17 months. We had to get an international letter of request through the Home Office, that then went through to the FBI, then that eventually ended up with Yahoo!"she said.

"We have had 90-day preservation orders in all the way through the year and then finally, last week, I got an email address, a name and a date of birth for the person.

"The following day we came on duty and the whole team was really excited. We went round to his house and he was in. He was really surprised to see us and he was arrested for criminal damage."