Cheshire police questioned newsagents selling a special edition of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in an attempt to monitor sales, it has been alleged.
The force is one of three nationwide whose officers are said to have tried to trace the UK buyers of the satirical magazine featuring a cartoon of Prophet Mohamed, the Guardian has claimed.
An officer from Cheshire Constabulary is alleged to have telephoned a newsagent who had ordered one copy for a customer saying they had been informed he had been ‘selling’ and ‘advertising’ Charlie Hebdo in his shop.
The news comes days after Wiltshire police apologised after one of their officers visited a newsagent to ask for the names of four customers.
Dyfed-Powys police are also said to have questioned newsagents about sales, the newspaper said.
Cheshire Constabulary denied knowledge of any of their staff phoning the newsagents in Warrington, but said officers visited newsagents across their beat areas to provide ‘reassurance’ and ‘advice’.
A spokesperson said: “We were aware of the potential for heightened tensions following the attacks in Paris. Therefore, where it was felt appropriate, officers visited newsagents to provide reassurance advice around the time of its publication.”
"Amazed no one came round"
But one Chester newsagent, who ordered in and sold the special ‘survivors’ issue', told The Chronicle he was surprised no one had come in to offer advice and check they were selling them appropriately.
“I was slightly amazed no one came around and said anything. With all the focus I was half expecting someone from the council or the police,” said Paul Felgate, of Foregate News.
“We serve a lot of Muslims here, no one batted an eyelid. No one said they didn’t think we should be selling it. A few people picked it up.
“I never saw anything in the city centre. We didn’t have any advice from police whatsoever.”
Mr Felgate, who used to work as a manager in WH Smith in Paris and is a former owner of the city newsagents, said he had only taken the issues off the shelves on Tuesday (February 10) and had to return half of the 15 he had ordered.
He said they hadn’t sold well as they were in French, too expensive, and arrived two weeks late due to distribution issues, claiming only 200 copies were made available for the whole of the UK.
“We knew there would be a demand in the initial few days after the tragedy. We had lots of interest at the time but they arrived two weeks later,” said Mr Felgate, who said he didn’t know what had happened to the English translation issues.
“People who had ordered it came in and collected them. But they were in French, I had to translate it for some people.”
"Quite disturbing"
In an article on the Guardian website on Wednesday, February 11, a woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “My husband ordered a copy of the special edition of Charlie Hebdo from our local newsagent in North Cheshire.
“Several days later the latter had a phone call from the police, saying they’d been told that he had been selling and advertising Charlie Hebdo in his shop. He replied that this was untrue: he had supplied in total one copy, concealed, to a customer who was a French lecturer. I find the police action quite disturbing.”
The Guardian stated that Wiltshire police apologised on Monday and Dyfed-Powys police said the visits to newsagents were only made to ‘enhance public safety’ and to provide ‘community reassurance’.
