Police sneak off duty to watch Blaine's box

A group of 10 officers were facing disciplinary action today after they abandoned their street patrol to go and watch American illusionist David Blaine in his box.

The probationers were supposed to be on night duty in Newham, east London, when they sneaked off to see the magician in his 44-day starvation bid.

Their shift ran from 10pm to 6am but – still dressed in full uniform – they left their patch at 4am to find Blaine in his suspended glass box next to London’s Tower Bridge.

The men should have been covering the East Ham and Stratford area and were called into line by the Metropolitan Police.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “We are disappointed that they were not patrolling the streets of Newham.

“As part of out inquiry we will be considering disciplinary action.”

The officers were carrying out anti-robbery patrols as part of the Met Police Safety on the Streets policy.

The high profile two-week campaign – which started on September 28 – was designed to show a strong police presence around London.

But the men, who were being supervised by a police constable specialising in street duties, went astray on the morning of October 9.

Newham Borough superintendent Roger Smalley said: “We are totally committed to providing the people of Newham with the type of professional service that they expect from us.

“This incident was clearly unacceptable an appropriate action will be taken.”

Throughout the two-week safety campaign, officers arrested 42 people in the Newham area, something described by the police spokesman as “pretty impressive”.

But, referring to the illicit Blaine visit, he said: “It was a silly thing to do really as they should not have been there.

“For the main, they were young inexperienced officers who have learnt their lesson from the embarrassing coverage.”