Press Releases & Updates 2001

After a truly pathetic prosecution case - with lost exhibits, useless witnesses and questions over the validity of police statements, Andrea Needham, Helen Harris and Ganesh were all fined £50 and ordered to pay £100 court costs. In her absence, Helen John was also given the same verdict, fine and costs.

One positive outcome of this case however, was the Stipendary Magistrate’s agreement that there was no case to answer on a further charge of breaking the section 14 order (directions/restrictions for/on lawful assembly, under the 1986 Public Order Act), a charge which - out of all 40+ arrestees from the May 2000 blockades - only Andrea Needham received. The magistrate said he threw out the case because he felt the prosecution had brought insufficient evidence to prove that Andrea had received a copy of the order. He also seemed unhappy that she was the only person to be charged with an offence which stipulates that at least 20 other people be present (why weren’t they charged too?). He further agreed with the defendants that even though he had read the ICJ decision, he was essentially "working to a script" on the charge of obstruction because he didn’t believe that within English domestic law, this kind of "crime prevention" provides a legal defence for obstruction. Unsurprisingly, he took relatively short time in reaching a guilty verdict on all four activists.

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