20-30 members of the No Borders demonstration walked to the police station to ascertain what was happening to him. Two people were arrested for failing to follow police instructions to move into a holding area for the assembling group. One of those arrested, Joe Hill, stated "I was in a cell adjacent to the asylum seeker, and for several hours could hear him screaming and banging the door, it was very distressing." The man was held overnight and taken to Croydon Magistrates' Court on Saturday morning. Legal support at the camp arranged for a lawyer to represent him and 2 people from prisoner support also attended court. Unfortunately the man was in too much of a distressed state to give proper instructions, and without the necessary information the magistrates decided "with regret" to remand him in custody until a court hearing next week.
The good news is that the Prosecution have dropped his charge from assault PC to s. 5 Public Order Act (a non-imprisonable offence).
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