Devon police officer pleads not guilty to rape charge
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
35 minutes ago
- Times
At least 200 arrests at Palestine Action protest outside parliament
Police have arrested at least 200 protesters gathered in central London to support Palestine Action, the activist group banned as a terrorist organisation. More than 500 people flooded Parliament Square in Westminster as Big Ben struck 1pm to hold up handwritten placards stating: 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.' Rows of officers filed into the square to handcuff protesters within a minute of the silent vigil commencing. The first arrests were near the statues of Millicent Fawcett, the feminist campaigner, and Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian independence leader. Officers were met with chants of 'Shame on you' and 'genocide police' as they moved in. Many elderly activists quietly sat in the centre of the square to await their fate while a group of bystanders started singing the hymn 'We shall overcome'. Defend Our Juries, which organised Saturday's protest, claimed that as many as 700 people had turned out to risk arrest. However, this figure could not be corroborated by police. Among the protesters was La Pethick, 89, a retired psychotherapist from near Hastings, Sussex. She said she was 'apprehensive' about being detained but had the 'full support' of her five grandchildren. 'We are having our right to peaceful protest being taken away,' Pethick said. 'We have a common fear that there is a genocide going on [in Gaza] against international law.' Claudia Cotton, 89, a retired social worker who lives in London, is a Jewish refugee from Stuttgart who left Germany with her parents in 1939. Around her shoulders was a red keffiyeh scarf and she held a handwritten sign that read: 'I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.' She said: 'I am prepared to be arrested. In fact, I think it's a good thing because it shows how ordinary people are willing to go to prison to oppose when governments are doing evil things.' Cotton said it was her first time being arrested. 'Words fail me how the British government can do nothing when thousands of civilians are being killed.' The arrest of one protester required 12 officers as he was led away to a police van. Other demonstrators had to be lifted by four officers as they turned 'floppy' when they were confronted. Moazzam Begg, 57, the former Guantanamo Bay inmate, was arrested just before 2.30pm, holding a pro-Palestine Action placard in one hand and a yellow rose in another. He was surrounded by supporters of Cage, the controversial advocacy group that previously described Mohammed Emwazi, the Isis executioner known as Jihadi John, as 'a beautiful young man'. Just before he was detained, Begg said: 'This isn't about Palestine Action. This isn't about being arrested. It's about the children of Gaza, it's about the men of Gaza, it's about the women of Gaza and it's about a genocidal state.' He described being held as 'an honour'. Unlike previous protests since the ban of Palestine Action, which were dominated by middle-class white activists, Saturday's demonstration featured a small contingent of Muslim participants. One group of Muslim women who were not holding incriminating placards walked around the square thanking those who were risking arrest. By 2.30pm officers had formed a cordon around 200-300 activists sitting in the centre of Parliament Square as a police helicopter circled overhead. The restriction, under Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act, allows everyone inside to be detained. The police entered the cordon to arrest activists one by one. Journalists were blocked from entering. The Metropolitan Police has just over 500 cells at its disposal, many of which will already be occupied. However, officers can take the details of a suspect at the scene of a crime and order them to attend a police station in a practice known as 'street bail'. Bianca Jagger, the human rights campaigner and former wife of Sir Mick Jagger, attended the event but held a different placard which is unlikely to lead to her being detained. 'Matter of conscience' Some of those taking part in the demonstration have been held at previous protests against the Home Office ban, which came into effect on July 5. They include Dr Alice Clack, 49, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, who remains on bail after being arrested at a smaller protest in Parliament Square on July 19. Clack, the granddaughter of a Jewish refugee who came to Britain on the Kindertransport, said she was attending Saturday's protest as a 'matter of conscience'. She added: 'In Gaza, we are witnessing not just the indiscriminate use of force against civilians, but also the targeting of hospitals and clinics, and the killing and intimidation of medical staff.' It was, she said, a 'gross abuse of state power' for the government to label Palestine Action a terrorist organisation. The direct action group has waged a campaign of attacks for many months on defence companies in Britain that it accuses of being complicit in Israel's military operations in Gaza. It was proscribed by Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and caused £7 million damage by spraying red paint into the engines of two Voyager aircraft. • A history of Palestine Action: from birth to ban The Home Office insisted on Saturday morning that it was not seeking to criminalise dissent over Gaza. A spokeswoman said: 'The home secretary has been clear that the proscription of Palestine Action is not about Palestine, nor does it affect the freedom to protest on Palestinian rights. It only applies to the specific and narrow organisation whose activities do not reflect or represent the thousands of people across the country who continue to exercise their fundamental rights to protest on different issues. 'Freedom to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy and we protect it fiercely.' The mass protest in Parliament Square against the ban coincides with a march to Downing Street by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. That event, which several thousand people were expected to attend, departed from Russell Square at noon and ended with a rally in Whitehall. The simultaneous demonstrations will stretch the Met. As well as deploying hundreds of its officers, it has called in at least 110 police from other forces under 'mutual aid' rules. They include officers from constabularies in South Wales, Greater Manchester, Humberside, Cheshire and Durham. Welsh police at the demonstration TOBY SHEPHEARD FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES Groups behind the protest Defend Our Juries, a civil liberties campaign group, has previously backed climate change activists at court trials. One of its key figures is Tim Crosland, an Oxford-educated barrister who was disbarred in 2023 for disclosing an embargoed Supreme Court ruling on a third runway at Heathrow before it was officially meant to be published. Crosland, 55, previously worked as a lawyer at the National Crime Agency, described as Britain's equivalent of the FBI. The protest has also been promoted by the advocacy group Cage. Begg, one of its senior directors, has said the ban on Palestine Action 'must be opposed', adding: 'The government is criminalising the people of Britain for standing up against the biggest genocide of the 21st century as it is livestreamed from Gaza.' More than 200 people, including an 83-year-old retired priest from Bristol, have been arrested at smaller demonstrations. Most of them have been detained under section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000. This relates to 'wearing clothing or carrying or displaying articles in public in such a way as to arouse reasonable suspicion that the individual is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation'. On Thursday, the first of these suspects, including two pensioners, both 71, were formally charged. The Met said case files on 26 other individuals arrested at the same protest in Westminster on July 5 would be sent to the Crown Prosecution Service soon. Ade Adelekan, a deputy assistant commissioner at the Met, said: 'What sets this protest apart from others is participants are coming out not just to express a view, but with the aim of being arrested in very large numbers to place a strain on the police and the wider criminal justice system.' The highest number of arrests previously made by the Met at the same protest is thought to be 339 at the poll tax riots in 1990. The force detained 306 people in one day during Extinction Rebellion demonstrations in London in October 2019. Saturday's mass protest had the blessing of Huda Ammori, 31, a co-founder of Palestine Action. On July 30, a High Court judge granted her leave to bring a full judicial review of the Home Office ban. The case will be heard in November. The Home Office said: 'The decision to proscribe was based on strong security advice and the unanimous recommendation by the expert cross-government proscription review group. This followed serious attacks the group has committed, involving violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage. It also followed an assessment from the Joint Terrorism Assessment Centre that Palestine Action prepares for terrorism, as well as worrying information referencing plans and ideas for further attacks, the details of which cannot yet be publicly reported due to ongoing legal proceedings.'
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Belfast anti-racism rally: Woman wearing Palestine Action t-shirt arrested
A 62-year-old woman has been arrested during an anti-racism rally in Belfast city said she was detained in Linenhall Street on Saturday afternoon on suspicion of possession of an article that indicates support for a proscribed woman was wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "We are all Palestine Action".Palestine Action became a proscribed organisation in July under the Terrorism Act, making membership of or support for the group a criminal offence. Two men were also cautioned for the same offence. Police say they arrested a 43-year-old man for disorderly rights organisation Amnesty said he was from a "small anti-immigration counter protest".In London on Saturday, at least 200 people in London were arrested at a demonstration in support of Palestine of people simultaneously unveiled handwritten signs with the same message "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action".MPs voted to proscribe the group after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in June, spraying two Voyager aircraft with red paint and causing £7m worth of damage. Palestine Action said it was behind the incident.A Home Office spokesperson said the decision to proscribe the group was based on "strong security advice" following "serious attacks the group had committed, involving violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage".
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Dispersal order issued for Ilkeston over anti-social behaviour
Police have issued a dispersal order for Ilkeston town centre after reports of anti-social gives police the power to ask people to leave the area if there are concerns about their order was announced on Saturday afternoon and will remain in force until 17:00 BST on Sunday, Derbyshire Police under 16 who is involved in anti-social behaviour in the area while the order is in place will be taken back to their homes, the force added. Anyone who fails to comply with the order can be arrested, fined up to £2,500 and/or receive a three-month prison a statement, Derbyshire Police said: "We are aware of how anti-social behaviour can impact on the local community and we hope that with the dispersal order in place we can tackle the ongoing issues robustly."
