Court: |
City of London Magistrates’ – Court 3 |
Hearing date:
|
Wednesday, 9th June 2021 |
Bench (DJ or JPs)
|
DJ Ms Baraitsar |
Charged with:
|
S14 on 1/9/2020 in Parliament Square |
Represented by: |
Self |
Please outline key points in prosecution and defence cases.
|
Defendant tried to say he had arrived in Parliament Square to find the Gardens, where protest was allowed to happen, chock-a-block full. There was no way he could socially distance there. CPS showed the bwv to explain he never said that to the arresting officer. His defence was not only based on that, he also stipulated:
|
Was defence evidence submitted in writing? |
Yes |
Did defence witness(es) give evidence in person? Were they cross-examined? |
Yes Yes |
What was the verdict,
|
Guilty 12 mths c/d; £350 costs; £22 v/s to be paid in 14 days. “Necessity: it is not the object of this court to decide the health of the planet”. |
Please add anything else relevant.
|
A/C Rolfe insists she was told there were only 300-400 protesters whereas, in reality there were more than 1,000. Based on this, she reckoned Parliament Square Gardens was “large enough” to hold the protesters. The judge believed her. She continued with similar S14s for the rest of the rebellion in spite of the turnout being well over 1,400 every day. |
Charge
Outcome
Court date