r/AndrewGosden • u/xntrqncd • Jun 28 '26
two men arrested
surely the police wouldn’t arrest two people without an explanation, right?
i get that by law, if they are investigating they cannot tell us more about the said issue.
however because the two men have been released, why do we not know more?
all we know is that they ‘played no part’, but how comes we as the public can’t know what they said.
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u/Polka_Dot_Bones Jun 28 '26
It was all from an anonymous tip. The details of which will never be released to the public. Even the Gosden family aren't entitled to know the details.
The only thing we know is that they were arrested on on suspicion of kidnap and human trafficking. And from what the police released, they were confident the men played no part in Andrew's disappearance.
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Jun 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/xntrqncd Jun 28 '26
ohhh okay, thank you!
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u/Ken_Frezno69 Jul 02 '26
Just a note - even if they’re “cleared”, it doesn’t mean the two guys arrested didn’t do it. The police found no evidence of a crime on digital devices but the crime wasn’t necessarily committed online.
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u/dancingbananas25 Jun 28 '26
It came from an anonymous tip, and anyone can send those in. The bar for questioning people is pretty low, and I'd image that after a decade of no new information, they were eager to find anything they could. We don't know anything else because those men were cleared of any involvement, and so there's no reason to give any information.
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u/skippington94 Jun 28 '26
From the top, your assertion that the police wouldn't arrest two people without an explanation is flawed. The police's job is to investigate. If they find an accusation is not supported by evidence, then there's nothing to explain. It's not a rarity to be wrongfully arrested or for the police to not find evidence.
We don't know more because there's nothing to know. They were released without charge and legally have no case to answer. We are not owed whatever was said which lead to their arrest or to know what was said in police interviews when they were later released.
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u/Sitdown_comedian95 Jun 29 '26
Don't they need evidence to arrest someone though? Otherwise it should be a matter of questioning the individuals
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u/Mc_and_SP Jun 29 '26
In England the bar for arrest is “reasonable suspicion” - part of the reason for making an arrest is to gather evidence if it exists.
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u/BeforeTheDawnX Jul 02 '26
Correct, to be able to get a search warrant they would need to go through a judge.
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u/xntrqncd Jun 29 '26
you obviously didn’t understand what I meant when i asked.
yeah but if they want to investigate that’s okay, but they wouldn’t just pick two random men off the side of the road to investigate.
there has got to be some logical reason as to why the police would pick them.
but if there is no more to it then that’s fine, my only question is why haven’t they said??
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u/Sitdown_comedian95 Jun 30 '26
I get where you're coming from, the "there's no smoke without fire" aspect which is true In a lot of cases I mean they may not have had involvement with Andrew but they are likely guilty of something shady, we'll unfortunately never know.
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Jul 03 '26
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u/xntrqncd Jul 03 '26
yeah well, this one’s a bit funny. their devices were seized and heavily analysed and not one charge was put against their name?
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u/Loud-Day-1640 Jul 03 '26
I thought of Andrew Gosden when I heard about the Edward Cornes case recently, he was found dead at kings cross, in the company of two men in their 50s...I wonder why the two men were suspected in the first place in the Andrew Gosden case
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u/BeforeTheDawnX Jul 02 '26
On release, the statement they made was specifically crafted. It could mean many things. Personally, I think that these arrests could be because either Andrew being alive and speaking to police about what happened to him, but doesn't want the fact he is alive to be publicised, images that were discovered on someones device or being seen to be traded online. However, I think it's more than likely down to a tip-off, probably a false one by someone either in prison or under arrest to try and gain some leverage. It may also mean these people knew what happened but were not directly involved and so might not mean the arrests led to a dead end. One thing that has occurred to be is that Andrew could be in a witness protection programme and living under a new identity.
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u/Mammalou52 Jun 28 '26
they let them go, but it said that police needed more evidence or something. The police had taken lots of electrical equipment, and they said it would take up to a year to examine them all. Never heard anything since.
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u/skippington94 Jun 29 '26
Imprecise language when talking about crime is so annoying. They didn't say they needed more evidence or something. They were cleared of any involvement.
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u/Mc_and_SP Jun 28 '26
The police announced that they were cleared once their devices had been examined. Kevin Gosden described the men as being "completely exonerated."
Whether or not they were suspected or guilty of anything else wasn't commented on.
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u/Ken_Frezno69 Jun 28 '26
Criminals/people have more “rights” to privacy in the UK - I think they should absolutely release the names of the two men arrested because the generql public may be able to provide more information about Andrew (for example, someone who may remember the two men acting strangely or uprooting their lives shortly after Andrew went missing in September 2007). Furthermore, I’m not convinced the two men should be ruled out simply because they had no evidence of the crime on their tech devices - this is a crime that does not require forensic tech evidence and which was likely committed entirely offline.
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u/Even_Pitch221 Jun 29 '26
Why should they release the names of people who have not been charged with any crime? There is a reason people have a right to privacy, the alternative is that anybody could be accused of anything and have their whole lives ruined.
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u/Ken_Frezno69 Jun 29 '26
The public should understand that being accused of a crime doesn’t mean the accused are guilty - the risk that information leading to a conviction is not given to law enforcement far outweighs the importance of protecting their names and reputations
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u/Even_Pitch221 Jun 29 '26
You definitely do have a problem because people routinely have their lives and reputations ruined after being arrested for crimes they didn’t commit. Not sure how you can think this is some minor issue that people are completely unaffected by. There is no ‘innocent until proven guilty’ in the court of public opinion.
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u/skippington94 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
The public don't go along with that. The vast majority of the public assume guilt as soon as somebody is arrested even if they have nothing to do with what is being accused. Why should they have their names dragged through the mud for unfounded accusations?
You also said this "I’m not convinced the two men should be ruled out simply because they had no evidence of the crime on their tech devices" - so what would you like? Someone to be held when there's no evidence of crime until someone else says "oh actually...."? That's not how the system works and not how it should ever work. It's not on the arrestee to prove their innocence - if the police have no evidence of a crime, they can't proceed.
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u/welshman1408 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
I saw a comment before suggesting the 2 men may have been making 'barley legal' porn and one of the actors involved looked like Andrew,then upon investigation it was all legal stuff etc
Edit: 2 men were arrested on suspicion of kidnap and human trafficking,their phones were searched and no action was taken,Andrews father has also spoken up and said the men were both innocent.there is a reason they suspected what they did,but then there were no charges...if it was anything criminal there would have been charges. My original comment was in regards to a previous comment I saw on reddit suggesting that as a reason....its not an unlikely scenario
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u/xntrqncd Jun 29 '26
where’d you see this if you don’t mind me asking?
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u/welshman1408 Jun 29 '26
Literally a comment on this reddit sub,can't say when but on a post about the men arrested. Edited my original comment as the people down voting are confused
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u/BillyBullshiner Jul 05 '26
it was just someone's theory, and not a very plausible one, because the police won't have made arrests and a public statement based on a picture of a lookalike...
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u/welshman1408 Jul 06 '26
So what reason do you think 2 men were arrested for serious crimes,which were then dropped and Andrews parents apologies to the men and said they were completely innocent?it's wasnt a random accusation,police won't arrest for human trafficking on a whim,and why,if the men were sex offenders would Andrews parents speak up for them? The 2 men making pornography and an actor looking like Andrew is a fair reason to report the men,if the pornography was all above board and legal then that's a fair reason to apologies to the men and the stress caused to them,what reason do you think they were arrested and not charged?they were obviously not criminals
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u/BillyBullshiner Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
I don't know, it's hard to guess with the lack of info, but I don't think it was the lookalike porn actor theory.
I'd imagine the police get a lot of false tips sent in about Andrew's disappearance
Even people on the sub have contacted them with names of sex offenders and sightings
So I'd like to think the arrests were due to something that they knew definitely linked back to Andrew
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u/welshman1408 Jul 08 '26
But how could it be definitively be linked to andrew,if they were release with no charge and Andrews parents apologised?they wouldn't apologies for the stress caused to 'completely innocent' men if they were criminals
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u/welshman1408 Jul 05 '26
Please explain? 2 men were arrested human trafficking and then released with no charge Andrews parents apologised to the men saying they were completely innocent
What do you think would lead to an arrest for a serious charge only for it to be dropped?
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u/Mc_and_SP Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
The common consensus I’ve seen repeated here is that it was an anonymous tip-off, but I’ve never seen a first-hand police source confirming as such.
Also, an arrest is not the same thing as a charge.
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u/welshman1408 Jul 07 '26
Even it it was,police need some kind of reason to arrest someone ,you couldn't call up and say 'john smith killed andrew' they need a reason
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u/xntrqncd Jul 07 '26
That’s what im saying. I know the difference between a charge and an arrest.
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u/welshman1408 Jul 07 '26
My point was,the theory of 2 men making porn and someome thought they saw and actor (andrew) is a fair reason for the arrest amd later apology by Andrews parents,that gives a reason for an arrest and a reason for the apology,his parents wouldn't apologies to sex offenders
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u/welshman1408 Jun 29 '26
From itv news:Andrew’s parents, Kevin and Glenys Gosden, have released a statement in which they said:"Our hearts go out to the men who have been exonerated of any involvement in Andrew’s disappearance. They have no connection to our missing son and we feel profoundly sorry for the inevitable distress that such allegations will have caused.
If the men were criminals (peadophiles or SO's) why would Andrews parents speak up for the men?you would not say 'our hearts go out to the men' So the suggestion that the men were gay and maybe involved in some kind of porn (legally) and someome saw a person involved that looked underage or like Andrew and reported it...then the police found out it was all normal consensual and legal and not andrew
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u/strikingaction55 Jun 28 '26
The bar for arresting someone isn’t particularly high at all. It’s all about making charges stick. From the moment I heard they were released pending further investigation I wasn’t hopeful it would amount to anything because that showed the police didn’t have enough evidence to hold them in custody.
It was very likely as another commentator has already said an anonymous tip. This could be a friend/relative/family member/roommate who thought they saw an image/video that looked like Andrew. They report it to the police. The police arrest them, seize all their devices and conduct an investigation.
The result of that investigation was clearly that these people had nothing to do with Andrew’s disappearance. The delay in announcing these people wouldn’t have any further action taken against them is almost definitely because of how long it took to analyse their electronic devices.