Section 14 - Guilty: 06/01/20

Charge
Outcome
Court date

Court:

 

City of London Magistrates, C 3

Hearing date:

 

Monday 6 January 2020

Bench (DJ or JPs)

 

DJ Sternberg

Charged with:

 

Section 14, Oxford Circus, 17 April 2019

Represented by:

 

Kelly’s

Please outline key points prosecution and defence case(s).

 

  Prosecution: the usual. Sup McMillan explained his reasons for imposing S14 and the Marble Arch condition. PC Wilmot’s statement read out. Bodyworn of arrest shown, uncontested.

  Defence: in cross-ex., Sargent worked to pick holes in proportionality, and ECHR articles on which McM based his decision. Said he could have imposed less restrictive conditions, and gave undue weight to Arts 5, 8 and 1, protocol 1 (rights of the public to move freely). He sought to apply for Sect 8 disclosure of logs to verify officer’s thought processes at the time (refused by judge).

  Necessity: Defendant took the stand to explain her realization, after joining XR, that things were far worse than she’d thought. Felt she had no choice, and that action was vindicated by raised public awareness after April and Parliament’s declaration of Climate Emergency.

Was defence evidence submitted in writing?

 

As with other defendants here, the infrastructure was failing. Judge had not seen preparatory materials or statements from either side. Barrister admitted he’d come to case late; no defence skeleton had been sent by Kelly’s it seems. 

Did defence witness(es) give evidence in person? Were they cross-examined?

 

Yes, with questions from her barrister

 

No

What was the verdict?

 

Guilty

What was the sentence?

 

£80 fine

What costs were awarded?

 

£775, as asked by Crown, and 30 surcharge (it used to be 20) = £885 payable in 28 days

Please add anything else relevant.

 

It was notable that people are now getting fined, rather than given conditional discharge. Other courtrooms reported same. Also the decision to try all 3 cases in Court 3 serially rather than ‘together’, as often happened last year: they cannot share costs.