Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

It's a Fair Cop: Inspector's Honesty Scunners G8 Case in Glasgow

CH | 20.10.2005 18:59 | G8 2005 | Globalisation | Repression | London

A South Yorkshire police inspector caused a G8 trial to collapse yesterday when he admitted he was unable to identify the accused as the man he arrested. The Not Guilty verdict, was the highlight of a busy morning for G8 defendants at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

In total, there were 3 cases involving 5 defendants heard at the Sheriff Court in Glasgow yesterday (Wednesday 19th October). All were related to arrests in Glasgow: two at the Boogie on the Bridge and a third case arising from police harassment of London activists. Charges ranged from the catch-all (Breach of the Peace) through the fair-enough (Resisting Arrest) to the spurious and intimidating (Police Assault). As well as the defendants and their witnesses, there was a strong turnout to a demonstration outside. Banners reading "Solidarity With G8 Defendants" and "G8: Real Criminals" were held up by the roadside in bitter cold and stiff wind.

The first case to be called was that of the "Sharky's Three," arrested after the police's game of "Follow the Leader" with the Wombles turned unpleasant on Thursday 7th July. The accused had been part of a larger group offering court support to people arrested for (but never charged with) "Conspiracy to Breach the Peace" and had been prevented from crossing from the court to the city centre by a police cordon. Wanting to stay out of trouble they'd settled in Sharky's pub on Ballater Street for a quiet drink. After an hour two police entered on the pretext of a routine licensee check but proceeded to abuse the folk sat inside. When one of them followed them outside to get the officers' numbers for a harassment claim the police attempted to make an arrest and there was a scuffle during which the 3 police vans parked around the corner seized the opportunity to appear to not be wasting everyone's time and money. The trial itself was short. A Glasgow man's plea of Not Guilty was accepted, a Reading man pled Guilty to Breach of the Peace in return for Resisting Arrest to be dropped and a London man pled guilty to two charges in return for the third being dropped. Fines of £200 and £400 were imposed.

The next trial called, of the Bristol fairy accused of assaulting a policewoman with a feather duster, was also very short. The assault charge was dropped and her plea of Guilty to Breach of the Peace resulted in her being Admonished. This is equivalent to "no punishment", although as she pointed out afterwards, that interpretation doesn't take into account the stress, travel expenses, forfeited holiday allowance and three days in custody that was incurred. By accepting the plea bargain, the prosecution were able to avoid cross-examination of the arresting officer, WPC Bellingham. Several defence witnesses were present to testify that they had seen her push the defendant several times and her ill-tempered performance in court last week at the trial of the clown not guilty of "de-arresting" the fairy suggests that she has had a lucky escape, though a separate complaint about her behaviour has apparently not been ruled out.

After a short adjournment the final G8 case of the day got underway at about 12:30. To my knowledge, this was the first case where the prosecution had gone to the trouble and expense of transporting police from south of the border to testify. According to legal sources this is because of a recent edict from the crown office that local Procurators Fiscal are not to drop any more cases. In this case the result was that a Constable and Inspector were brought up from South Yorkshire to testify in the case of a Nottingham man accused of sitting in Govan Road.

The first officer, PC Leadbetter, testified that he had been part of a "Police Support Unit" (riot squad) that had spent the day driving about the country before ending up at the Boogie on the Bridge. There they were deployed to replace "unprotected" Strathclyde officers forming a cordon around 200 demonstrators. There was music and dancing and it was never made clear what the reason for deploying Riot Police was. The officer identified the accused as having been sat in a group of four people who refused to move with the cordon. The line was opened, the cordon moved forward and they were left outside it and were then arrested. The next officer, also in neatly pressed uniform, gave testimony that failed to correlate with Leadbetter's on crucial details. He was very clear that the group of 4 was sat not on the road but on a grass verge next to the road, weakening the case that a breach of the peace was caused by their blocking the road. More importantly though he failed to realise that Scots Law requires two people to identify the accused with the person committing the offence. When asked if he could see that person in the court today, he admitted that he would be unlikely to remember him with any certainty. At this point questioning was ended and the Sheriff told the defendant that he had no case to answer and was free to go. Applause broke out from the public gallery and the defendant was out of the dock before the policeman had quite realised what had happened.

So at the end of the session the defendants were mostly pleased with how the day had went. The plea bargaining had left a slightly bitter taste in some mouths but was accepted as a necessary evil when faced with the seriousness of some the charges, no matter how spurious. It was pointed out that the only convictions had been of those people who pled guilty. No-one thus far has been found guilty on the evidence presented before the Glasgow court, pointing to the essential weakness of the Crown's cases and, perhaps, the arbitrariness of the original arrests.

There will be more cases however. The order that no more cases be dropped will mean more officers travelling up from far-flung bits of the UK to make trivial accusations against people who may also have to travel large distances for no good reason. The next G8 cases in Glasgow Sheriff Court are on Tuesday 25th October. They include Criminal Damage to a Police Cell (with a pencil) and another case of sitting in Govan Road. The defendants would welcome people coming along to support them then or on any other day, if you would like to help but have questions please email  july2005solidarity@yahoo.co.uk.

See also:
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/317577.html
 http://scotland.indymedia.org/feature/display/1643/index.php

CH

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Slight Correction — CH
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech