HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

Oxford Indymedia

Fortnum and Mason 145 - 10 found guilty

Player of Games | 17.11.2011 18:10 | Policing | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles | Oxford

10 UkUncut protesters, including some from Oxford, have been found guilty of aggravated trespass for entering Fortnum & Mason's last March to highlight the luxury store's failure to pay fair taxes.

Inside F&M - (C) Amelia Gregory
Inside F&M - (C) Amelia Gregory


The protest took place on 26 March 2011, the same date as the March for the Alternative. Over 150 people entered Fortnum & Mason to highlight the £40 million of unpaid tax from Wittington Investments (F&M's parent company).

Despite a top copper describing the activists as “non-violent” and “sensible”, 145 of them were arrested immediately after they left the building. They were taken to police stations all over London, with many being denied access to independent legal advise.

Ten of the original 145 were found guilty of aggravated trespass after a 3-day trial. Each was given a £1,000 fine and a six-month conditional discharge (one was given a higher fine for breaching a previous order in relation to his activism).

District Judge Michael Snow decided that these 10 people had “the intention of each defendant, by his or her presence to encourage others. [And] that each defendant by his or her presence, encouraged others to commit the offence.” In other words, these 10 were responsible for what the other 135 people did – just by being there.

The 10 defendants made this defiant statement on leaving the court.

Today, the 10 of us who were on trial have been found guilty of taking part in a protest.

A protest that was dubbed ‘sensible’ by the senior police officer at the scene.

We were standing up, or more accurately sitting down, against our government making harsh cuts to public services, whilst letting companies like Fortnum and Masons get away with dodging a total of tens of billions of pounds of tax every year.

Then we are put on trial, whilst it’s clear the real criminals are the tax dodgers, the politicians and the bankers who caused this financial crisis and who continue to profit.

We are supposed to have a democratic right to protest yet people like us, exercising that right and expressing our discontent feel the force of the law and receive harsh and disproportionate sentences.

We have been convicted of Aggravated Trespass, an example of a law created in the 1990′s as an attack on our rights to protest and which is used in situations like this one to turn protesting into a crime.

We will, of course, continue to fight this and will be appealing the judgement.

As the government’s cuts continue to destroy the economy and people’s lives we will not be put off by these attempts at humiliating and punishing us.



Adam, one of those found guilty, blogged his reflection on Red Pepper -  http://www.redpepper.org.uk/fortnum-mason-trial-defendents-convicted/

The offical campaign to support the Fortum 145 is here  http://fortnum145.org/

Player of Games

Additions

Another blog

18.11.2011 13:20

Player of Games


Comments

Hide the following comment

when will she ever learn?

14.03.2012 12:01

(C) Amelia Gregory has put up a photo here that might implicate people (it's often not about showing people's faces, but about what they are doing - though sometimes it is just showing people are present).

From what I've heard, she does this often and is unwilling to listen to experienced sensible and polite opinions - be wary!

(photo of her here  http://www.ameliasmagazine.com/about-amelia-gregory-publisher-photographer-writer/)

please be careful


Publish your news
-->

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Oxford 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

IMCs


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