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Top judge rules for Parliament protester
Brian Haw has ‘right to privacy’ at his home in square
BRITAIN’S most senior judge has ruled that police conditions allowing for repeated searches of Brian Haw’s peace camp under anti-terror legislation is illegal.
Mr Haw has claimed repeatedly that police harass him with nightly searches of his peace camp by counter-terror officers looking for explosives.
They are searching his camp under the Serious Organised Crimes and Police Act, (Socpa).
But Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips, sitting in the High Court on Monday, upheld an earlier decision that Mr Haw had a right to privacy in his home in Parliament Square.
He said police conditions imposed under Socpa were “unworkable” and a “breach of human rights”.
The Director of Public Prosecutions had appealed against a decision by District Judge Quentin Purdy.
Mr Haw, 57, who has held a continuous vigil outside Parliament for more than six years, had appeared in front of Justice Purdy in Westminster Magistrates’ Court in January accused of breaching the conditions.
But Mr Purdy dismissed the latest charge saying Mr Haw had “no case to answer”.
He said Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair should not have delegated powers to Superintendent Peter Terry, who oversaw the dawn raid on Mr Haw’s display in May last year.
On Friday Lord Phillips said the case presented “an important issue of law”.
But he also warned Mr Haw not to aggravate police officers.
Mr Terry had reported: “whenever I do speak to Brian Haw, he stands and shouts at me”.
Lord Phillips said: “Mr Haw has chosen for his demonstration a site that is particularly sensitive. He would be well-advised to co-operate with the police.”
Mr Haw, was charged in May last year after police seized 90 per cent of his placards and banners from his protest area.
The raid came after he had been told by officers the demonstration spot he was permitted to hold had to be within an area 3 metres wide by 3 metres high and 1 metre deep – which officers believed that he had breached. |
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