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Busker's Guitar UNLAWFULLY SEIZED by British Transport Police

Niall Murphy | 04.02.2007 14:57 | Culture | Repression | Social Struggles | London | South Coast

On 7 September 2006 Train Busker Niall Murphy has guitar seized unlawfully by British Transport Police. Court case is due on 16 Feb 2007 where Niall plans to plead not guilty and prove that the BTP misused their authority by not only wrongfully seizing his guitar but also issuing a statement full of lies and fabrication.

Hello. I'm Niall Murphy. For a while now I have been a train busker on the London Underground, and having had reservations about the 'Carling Live' licensing scheme to turn us into corporate sanitised buskers who fill the pitches with bland, beige muzak, I have continued to busk unlicensed, carraige to carraige.

On 7 September 2007, Constable Anthony Monk of the British Transport Police and his accomplice sidekick whom I only know as PC Cammack intercepted me at Victoria Station to take my details down and subsequently unlawfully seize my guitar.

With the benevolence of a friend, I had a new guitar within the next 2 days, and with the benevolence of another friend I acquired a web page with the details of the Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Chapter 60 Section 19 - General power of seizure. Copy & paste the following link and see for yourself:

 http://www.webtribe.net/~shg/Pace%2019_23.htm

As you can see it clearly states that police only have the power of seizure if they have reasonable grounds for believing that it is necessary to seize an item in order to prevent it being concealed, lost, damaged, altered or destroyed. As I was not trying to conceal, lose, damage alter or destroy my guitar during the police intercepting me, they clearly broke the law.

As well as this they lied on their witness statement to the court about which song I sang, lied saying that they introduced themselves by name and number to me, and lied that i received money as I went round in an attempt to collect it. The truth is I was ignored by everyone in the carraige, except one woman who interrupted me to give me a small donation upon leaving the train at Sloane Square prior to my collection time.

I Urgently need people to give me legal advice, come and attend the hearing with me as journalists and even help with any financial support if that's not too much to ask. I would like this to be as high profile as possible despite the fact that if i'm successful I run the risk of future victimisation from the BTP. Feel free to phone me on 07754 777858.

Thank you.
Niall.

Niall Murphy
- e-mail: opaquelens@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/opaquelens * www.myspace.com/niallmurphymusic

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

What song did you sing

04.02.2007 16:15

and what did they say it was.Music is a very powerful political weapon they are terrified of,John Lennon for one.

musicguy


Deep Purple - Somebody Stole My Guitar

04.02.2007 20:39

Remind me to tell you

bout the old silver miner

name of hard rock Pete

had his house built on a slope

They say one of his legs

lived in Calico

Ther's a rumour going round

that the other lived in hope

So I walked in the room

and I stopped

I turned around

and looked over my shoulder

And a voice close beside me said

You'd better watch your head

the party's over



It wasn't long before

the waitress came over and said

Can I freshen up your drink

and have you heard of these boys

and if you feel included

to buy some cowboy boots

Well it's not that bad

we can talk above the noise

So I sucked on my beer

Shut my eyes

and tried to listen to the words

I know I missed the meaning

but the message

was something I'd already heard



Johnny Ringo's voice

is getting deeper

not a fan