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Prosecution stamps feet and refuses to admit defeat in Fitwatch trial

Fitwatch | 09.03.2008 22:43 | Climate Camp 2007 | Policing | Repression | London

The Fitwatch climate camp trial came to an abrupt halt on Thursday after the senior CPS lawyer sulked about losing an application to an unrepresented defendant and decided to take the District Judge's decision to Judicial Review.

The application, to amend the charge of obstruct police to obstructing a cameraman assisting the police, was one of several the prosecution were planning to throw at the defence on the day.

The defence successfully argued this to be a change in charge, not an amendment, and that given the case had been running for over six months, it was too late to change the charge.

The defence further submitted that given the prosecution wanted to change the charge, they were accepting there was no case to answer on the original charges. However, instead of gracefully admitted defeat, they sulked.

Meanwhile the defence were presented with a bundle of further statements, including an analysis of a DVD which has never been served and, courtesy of DS Hodgson at New Scotland Yard, forty pages of the Fitwatch blog. The defendant could not understand why she was being presented with forty pages of a blog when there was no evidence presented to say she was associated with it in any manner.

The lengths they are going to and the money they are throwing at this case shows they are taking us seriously. They are desperate to secure a Fitwatch conviction and seem to prepared to go to extreme lengths to get one.

Let's keep up the pressure and show we will not back down.

Fitwatch
- e-mail: defycops(at)yahoo.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.fitwatch.blogspot.com