Richard Horton began his career with a short spell in accountancy before joining the police. Serving in the east side of Lancashire he performed several duties before becoming a Detective, a role he dedicated himself to for more than twenty years. Moving back into uniform towards the end of his career he was a response Sergeant overseeing a team of young and eager police officers. 

But that isn’t the real story. Richard wrote an anonymous blog called The Night Jack in which he described the realities of policing. He won the Orwell prize for writing and donated his prize to police charities. You would have thought that would be a reason to celebrate, however The Times newspaper hacked into Richard’s emails and outed him as the author. Disciplinary action followed by his employer. Richard took the newspaper to court and eventually won his case. 

Richard looks back philosophically on events and we discover that it still hasn’t  dampened his love of writing.

The Thin Blue Line podcast in partnership with Policing TV, the leading policing media channel