All week, the homages have actually poured in. Those whose lives were touched by PC Lorne Castle have not hesitated to come forward. One woman's account of how her boy's life was saved by his 'compassion and humankind' and determination to 'surpass what is anticipated of a policeman' is particularly moving.

She discussed how the struggling teenager lost his way in life and became known to cops, who were permanently having to bring him home. It was PC Castle, himself a father of 3, who ended up talking her young boy below the ledge, in a metaphorical sense as well as a literal one.

Not just did he make the teen see that he had a future, he helped him carve one out by setting up work experience, although this was not his job. 'We need more officers like PC Castle, not less,' this grateful mother concluded.

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

He appears quite overloaded and a little teary (extremely uncharacteristic, 'or it was before all this', according to his better half Denise), by all the great things individuals have actually been stating about him.

'It's blown me away, to be sincere,' he states. 'To have individuals come back to stand up for me. I'm not used to this, however it's actually touching.' He keeps reading, on the verge of tears: 'If I 'd died, you couldn't have actually got better tributes.'

And in a manner he has passed away, because, as he points out: 'I'm not dead however the law enforcement officer I was is dead. PC 1399 is dead.'

Who killed PC Castle? Well, according to his managers at Dorset Police, the deadly wound was totally self-inflicted. Last week, he was fired - 'in a way that was ruthless. Alan Sugar fires individuals in a nicer way,' he says - after being discovered guilty of gross misconduct.

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

His criminal offense? One that was deemed so severe that it wiped out 10 years of unblemished service including citations for bravery.

He detained a teenage suspect - later on discovered to have actually been in possession of a knife - without displaying sufficient 'courtesy or regard'. While grappling on the ground with the 15-year-old, who was resisting arrest in January last year, PC Castle yelled, swore and pointed his finger at the suspect, who was proclaiming his innocence.

In the cold light of day, safe in his own home, having simply waved his youngest daughter off to bed, Lorne, recently unemployed, still can't rather think that finger-pointing assisted lose him his entire profession.

He raises the angering finger today and waggles it in front of his own nose. 'I need to holster this,' he says, despairingly. Nor can he accept a few of the concerns he needed to address during a 'devastating and humiliating' three-day gross misbehavior hearing.

'For an authorities officer, the idea of gross misconduct is just the worst, however among the important things I was asked was if I had not heard the suspect say that he had not done anything. Did I not look at him and think he might be telling the truth?' He tosses both hands up.

'Were they seriously asking me why I didn't succumb to the old, 'it wasn't me, guv' line. Most suspects withstanding arrest say they have not done anything. I mean a kid understands that.

'Let's put this into context. We were investigating an attack. I've detained him. He has withstood. I'm struggling on the ground with him. There is a crowd gathering. I'm attempting to include this scenario however my top priority 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 assist you up! Tally ho! My mistake!' This is a suspect who did have a knife.'

Denise, who states she 'was so proud to be the spouse of an authorities officer', attended every day of her hubby's disciplinary hearing and has actually existed to get the pieces as his life fell apart

The shock and confusion in his living space is palpable. As is the large shock. 'I suggest, 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 includes: 'Even if I win my appeal, even if I got my task back, I would not have the ability to do it.

'How could I stroll down the street with members of the public thinking I'm a bully and a punk - all the important things I went into the authorities force to challenge.

'My career is gone. I'm never going to get another job, since who would offer me one. My life is messed up. They have actually broken me.'

Denise, who informs me she 'was so happy to be the better half of a law enforcement officer', went to every day of her other half's disciplinary hearing and has actually existed to pick up the pieces as his life fell apart.

The couple, who have children aged 27, 18 and 8, tell me that on the day Lorne was informed he was facing gross misbehavior charges, he didn't go home - 'due to the fact that how could I inform my other half?' - however walked along Bournemouth beach up until 3am. He was too stunned to believe of strolling into the sea and says he hasn't seriously contemplated suicide 'but can understand people who do, in this sort of circumstance, due to the fact that the nature of this job isolates you from people who aren't authorities, so when the rug is pulled from under you ... you feel so alone'.

Denise says she has seen him 'diminish, become someone who simply isn't Lorne'.

'My other half is an outbound, bubbly, glass-half-full person, who is a natural leader and motivator,' she discusses. 'He's the most moralistic person I understand - our kids will back me up on that. And he's the sort of guy who never ever hired sick even when he was ill.

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

Their hero father, publicly lauded after plunging into the freezing River Avon to save a senior female, is now making headlines for all the incorrect factors.

When the very first murmurings started, recommending this once-admired officer had actually been unfairly treated by 'woke' employers who were far gotten rid of from the reality of policing at street level, Dorset Police moved quickly to safeguard their position, launching damning video footage, drawn from a coworker's body cam, which does undoubtedly reveal PC Castle in a not-too-flattering light.

He's taped informing the suspect to 'stop yelling like a little b ** ch' and alerting him: 'I'm gon na smash you'.

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

'It was devastating that Dorset Police might do this to me, that they could wish to ... destroy me,' he says. 'What that selective video didn't show was the consequences - when this suspect continued to withstand arrest.

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

'There was only one 999 call made about what was happening there and it came from a member of the public who was worried about me. They contacted us to say that there was an officer having a hard time, who looked as if he required back up.'

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Lorne adds: 'Dorset Police didn't even think it was required to call that individual as a witness in my disciplinary hearing. I had to insist on it. It paints a really various image to what happened and I thank goodness that witness was there, because otherwise I 'd think I was freaking.'

This is an exceptionally uncomfortable - and divisive - case. There is no concern that Lorne made judgment errors in his handling of that arrest on January 27, 2024.

He admitted as much throughout the misbehavior hearing and repeats that belief today. 'I must not have actually used the language I did. I'm embarrassed and saddened that I did that, and that it's out there for everyone to see. But the essence of what took place was, regrettably necessary. That was an arrest that needed to be made and I made a judgment call.

'Could I have done it in a different way? Of course, however eventually I took a knife off the streets. Another police force has this slogan, 'Take a knife; Save a Life'. My force stated, 'Take a knife; Get your P45'.'

Did he be worthy of to lose his career? 'I don't believe that's one for me to respond to,' he says, however his spouse has no qualms. 'No, he did not,' Denise says securely.

'They headed out to string him up. Once they decided that they were choosing gross misbehavior, they went trying to find things to support that. I sat there and could not believe what they were doing.

'They have damaged a great man and taken a great policeman off the streets. I still can't believe this. This whole thing feels like such an infraction.'

There has been outrage about Lorne's termination, notably from those who were as soon as in the ranks of Dorset Police.

Former Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Martyn Underhill told Radio Solent today: 'This officer overreacted, utilized bad language - that has to do with it. We're becoming too woke. I think Dorset Police have got this massively wrong. Do I think he was worthy of to lose his task? Absolutely not.'

It is especially ravaging for Lorne that it was associates who first complained about his handling of that arrest. He will not comment on their participation, however it is understood that the 2 junior officers who experienced it had actually only been in the job for 6 months.

It is likewise comprehended that while, initially, it did not look as if misconduct charges were likely, the choice was taken to instigate them. Lorne was informed of this by Superintendent Ricky Dhanda, head of Professional Standards.

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

His route into the authorities force was a little unusual. He grew up in Torquay however transferred to close-by Bournemouth to go to university, where he studied law.

An eager sportsman and martial arts specialist, he met Denise - who would go on to be a world champion Muay Thai fighter - and they established a sports academy together.

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

He fulfilled Lorne in 2013 and was impressed by his drive and devotion on a youth project. He encouraged him to join the police - first as a neighborhood assistance officer, then as a PC. Denise agreed that he had actually 'discovered his place' in the authorities.

Undoubtedly, it was a career at which Lorne stood out. In 2021, he was called neighborhood officer of the year, after having been twice awarded commendations.

In 2017, he saved someone in a medical emergency then, in 2023, he plunged into the Avon, ripping off his stab vest to get in the water, ultimately holding an elderly female up.

He says it did strike him that he was, technically, breaking all the rules and 'could deal with murder charges' if his efforts to get the female to cling to a life ring went wrong.

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

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

Fellow officers 'who had actually held the ropes as I entered' were likewise commended but, bizarrely, when it pertained to the invites for the ceremony, Lorne didn't receive one.

'I 'd been put on restricted tasks by then [after the incident with the teenager] and informed my superiors were going to 'hold onto' my own till after the misconduct proceedings.' He was furious, and deeply injured. 'The other officers weren't going to go without me and I did eventually go, but it felt quite like being the child at the party you weren't welcomed 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 offender, last seen driving an e-scooter, who was suspected of assaulting an elderly male and a teenage boy.

Staff at a regional McDonald's had actually been scared enough to close their doors before calling for aid. Earlier that day, authorities officers had been alerted that there had actually been a big gang fight and potential suspects were still at large.

There was no factor for Lorne to take that call - the oncoming shift could have handled it - but he says he volunteered, 'since that's what you do'.

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

This part is not controversial. The misbehavior hearing found no fault with the force utilized to take the suspect to the floor. It was the tussle that followed that was considered troublesome.

Did PC Castle lose control? He stresses how laden that circumstance was. 'As an authorities officer, you enter into the unknown and there is a fear there.' He points out that his bosses released a damning declaration which consistently referred to the suspect as a 15-year-old kid.

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

'And I did not know he was 15 - to ride an e-scooter you have to be 16. Even if I had understood, should I have kept back because of his age? That is doing an injustice to every household who have actually lost somebody since they were stabbed by a teenager. No, I did not understand that he had a knife, however it was my task to do a risk evaluation and I need to state my assessment was spot on.'

The knife that fell from the suspect's waistband was small but possibly deadly, especially at close quarters, he points out.

'Do you understand just how much area you need for a machete to be fatal? Quite a lot, due to the fact that it needs a swing. A knife like this? With a small movement you can be discussing 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 grievance from the suspect.'

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

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

He won't criticise the junior officers who raised the grievance, aside from to refer me to that witness who called 999. 'He believed 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 exact same thing, which is keeping our neighborhood safe. That's all I have actually ever attempted to do and I have actually been publicly damaged for it.' Lorne describes having to turn over his badge as 'the worst moment in my life'.

He states he is nearly afraid to stroll the streets he as soon as patrolled now. 'Dorset Police have put a target on my head. I do not even know if we can stay here, as a family, which is heartbreaking due to the fact that this is our community.'

The only benefit is the swell of assistance from those who believe he has been wronged. A GoFundMe account, established by Chris Amey, the man who encouraged him to join the police, was last night standing at ₤ 95,000. 'I'm simply humbled, but so grateful. It indicates I can pay the mortgage, in the meantime anyhow.'

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

18-year-old was stabbed to death by another teenager in Bournemouth. 'As the mum of Cameron Hamilton, who was killed 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 sob - for himself and his family, yes, however also for those people he assured to serve.

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