RAF Fairford protesters win legal battle against force
Gloucestershire Constabulary has apologised after a judge ruled its actions in preventing 149 protesters joining a demonstration against the Iraq War violated their rights.
Gloucestershire Constabulary has apologised after a judge ruled its actions in preventing 149 protesters joining a demonstration against the Iraq War violated their rights.
The protestors, who were travelling onboard coaches heading from London, were planning to join a rally outside RAF Fairford in March 2003.
The base had been used by coalition forces to launch raids on Iraq two days previously.
On-route, the coaches were stopped by police in Lechlade, Gloucestershire, and returned to London under police escort.
The protesters were not allowed to stop at any point on the way back for the toilet or food and drink, causing some to use plastic containers to relieve themselves.
The ruling, taking on 12 test cases, saw the protesters awarded basic and aggravated damages of between £4,200 and £5,100, depending on personal circumstances.
The remaining claimants will now be putting forward proposals to settle their individual cases.
Judge David Mitchell, in his judgment, said it was unfathomable the police had held the doors of the coach closed from the outside because there were insufficient officers at the scene. He added it is quite clear from footage filmed by the protesters that the protesters inside were saying that these actions were unlawful and they were being prevented from exercising their right to peaceful protest.
Those statements are entirely accurate, he added.
Judge Mitchell stated this was an interference with the right of ordinary citizens to go about their business and also found whatever may have been the polices concerns about three coaches of protestors must surely have been allayed within minutes of the arrival of these coaches at Lechlade.
I have also found that the protesters were cooperative, he added.
Judge Mitchell went on to say the protestors had been held in humiliating circumstances and the police had acted in an oppressive manner.
While the police were rightly concerned about the protest at RAF Fairford, the vast majority of the protesters were decent hardworking people who had never been in trouble with the police.
Therefore, Judge Mitchell argued the police officers dealing with this situation on the ground must have realised that they were not dealing with practised, hard-line anarchists.
Saimo Chahal, head of Bindmans LLP Civil Liberties and Social Welfare Department, which represented the demonstrators, said: In March 2003, approximately 159 committed protesters set out from London to protest against the war on Iraq, a war many now consider to have been unlawful. Few could have thought that their own civil rights to protest and liberty were about to be violated on a huge scale and less still that their journey to secure justice from the police force responsible would take a decade to resolve.
The police flouted the law and showed scant regard for the democratic process. Those are not my words but what the judge found.
Jesse Schust, one of the lead claimants, said: When I think of the day we were illegally detained by the police, it still upsets me. When the police decide to overstep their own laws, you really dont have any protection.
I hope this judgment will serve to discourage the police from taking such measures in future. It has taken ten years to reach this vindication of our rights. There are some coach passengers who have passed away in this decade and I wish they were here to celebrate this important moment.
Chief Constable Suzette Davenport, of Gloucestershire Constabulary, said: The policing of protests has moved on significantly since 2003, both locally and nationally, and the lessons we have learnt have contributed to how protests are managed nationally.
On behalf of Gloucestershire Constabulary I apologise to those who intended to protest peacefully and anyone who suffered any discomfort while on coaches for a long period of time.