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Arrest Report - AR activist arrested in his own home, some data with cops

A Friend | 06.12.2011 15:37 | Animal Liberation

People in the South West will be familiar with long time animal rights activist Peter Scott, often known as 'scotty'. Peter was at home today helping to care for his three companion dogs when he was arrested.

There is no reason to speculate here what any charges might be but other activists should be aware that Peter was working on his laptop at the time of the arrest and so some data was not protected, the police (we think illegally) were seen copying data from the computer onto a mobile hard-drive unit. The records he was working on were financial contributor lists to a number of campaigns that he has helped with together with email details that have been used in requesting donations. There is no reason to panic but people should beware of this development and consider changing emails etc.

In a blatant disregard for the feeling of the three dogs who were clearly upset and distressed at what was happening to Peter they were locked in a room for 90 minutes during the arrest however they are now staying with me and are feeling better.

A Friend

Comments

Hide the following 12 comments

Pass on our best wishes

06.12.2011 15:59

I've known Scotty for 10 years, great guy and NEVER involved with anything illegal proving this is a bogus police charge to try and dissuade him from his hunt monitoring work. Glad to hear the 'boys' are well looked after, thanks for doing that.

Tell him we love him, we are thinking about him and our emails are already deleted so he need not worry. :-)

Annie

Where is he ?

06.12.2011 16:13

Is he at a station, back home, with friends ? Can you give any updates ?

ACAB

@ ACAB - why do you need to know ?

06.12.2011 16:24

Why do you need to know that ? We can guess his friends or family will provide what we need to know when we need to know it. In the meanwhile why not focus on providing support ?

Do not need to know

Computer security

06.12.2011 17:11

If the laptop was open when they burst in on him and he was logged in then more or less everything was compromised. Even if they return the computer the cops will have copied everything. This is one of those ways where no security software or physical actions can have helped and he was just unlucky.
This would be a good time to give others (not via Indy or online) information on what was compromised and who is going to be affected.

Techie

Very worrying

06.12.2011 17:18

We know Peter and appreciate the hard work he has been doing in the region for hunt monitoring. As another person here has said Peter only ever involved himself with the fluffy side of the work so any suggestion that he was doing anything illegal is ridiculous. This is clearly and obviously a political arrest designed to gain access to the computer records and fundraising that Peter has been doing.

We are seeking some legal advice.

Sab
mail e-mail: bristolhuntsabs@hotmail.co.uk

Muppet - thats why I was asking

06.12.2011 17:19

How can I provide 'support' if I don't know where he is or what's happening ?

Some people !

ACAB

Linked ?

06.12.2011 17:49

I know that Scotty was heavily involved with some actions in support of SHAC at an AstraZeneca owned plant in Avlon near Bristol. We have seen a number of instances where the police following complaints from HLS or their suppliers will target who they perceive as the 'softer target' members of a group.

SHAC activists in the area who are worried are welcome to contact us through the usual channels for advice and help.

SHAC person

Peter back home now

06.12.2011 18:10

Peter just got back and is of course very upset, his partner, David collected the dogs from me and said that the police knew "masses of information" and he feels disgusted at the spying they have been the victims off.

Peter's laptop has been retained by the police together with some paper records of donations made by people over the last five years. He said they had close up pictures of Peter when he was doing Legal Monitoring at a number of events and in some of them even his notes in his hand can be read. Some of these pictures were taken from above suggesting a police drone or spyplane has been used.

They are going to a solicitor tomorrow to understand what will happen next although Peter has been told he can expect to see some jail time (as the police put it).

A Friend

Cops spy drone

06.12.2011 18:29

The up high pictures were probably taken with one of these

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2009/08/436590.html

Another Sab

This thread reeks of disinformation

06.12.2011 19:07

Do not believe everything, or indeed anything you read on the internet

I doubt its true

computer 'evidence'

06.12.2011 20:13

I heard a radio programme about computer security and, from the cops point of view, the 'progress' made in spying via computers, getting info off it etc. However, an invited expert mentioned that the moment a computer is taken away and tampered with, any evidence garthered as a result is open to challenge because it could have been uploaded or altered. There was something about files being able to be uploaded externally, i guess like viruses? You can tell I'm no expert! But the point is, this guy said he would be surprised if it wasn't successfully challenged in court some day.
Perhaps that day will come soon.

anon

Rubbish report... all disinfo

07.12.2011 02:42

This report is all dis-informaton. It is only up here to try to prevent people making donations to AR causes. Notice the constant references to financial info and the scarce details about everything else.

Remember donating is not an offence and for those who are not able to directly help animals it is a good thing to do.

Yet another poor attempt at disinformation. If someone is paying these idiots to post this then they should be asking for their money back.

BS Sniffer