Today (Tuesday 19th March) Karen Rumbol and I went to RAF Welford with the
aim of visiting the peace camp there and watching movements inside the base.
We parked near the entrance to Welford Park at around 15.45 and walked up
the private lane running north-east to the base (the 'Welford Drier' route).
We reached the perimeter fence and had walked along the private lane
outside the fence to about half way to the M4 slip road when a police car
drove up to us inside the fence. Two MOD police officers got out - one of
them, Brandon, knows me reasonably well - and greeted us. Just a couple of
moments later a green four wheel drive vehicle came along the road outside
the fence which we were walking along and stopped. The driver told us that
we shouldn't be on the road and asked us to return back to the Welford road.
I asked him if he was the estate manager for the surrounding farmland and
he confirmed this. A short discussion ensued but he would not change his
mind and allow us to continue walking. I asked him whether we were stopping
him going about his lawful business and he said no - he repeated this when I
asked him again. I asked him where his land ended and he said "All the land
round here - all the land round the base" but refused to specify where the
boundary was. Eventually Karen and I told him that we had no argument with
him and would therefore agree to leave the land and return to the public
highway. While this discussion was taking place the two MDP police
officers had been watching and listening but did not intervene in the
discussion.

Karen and I walked back down towards the public road but after just a couple
of seconds a mounted police officer from Thames Valley Police galloped up to
the fence inside the base and spoke to us. He said that he was warning us
under section 69 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and that
we should leave the area immediately. If we had not left the area within
one hour we would be arrested. He asked me for my name and I told him that
I was declining to provide it, but that the two MOD police officers would be
able to tell him.

We continued back towards the road and when we were about 3-400 meters away
from the fence a green landrover drove down the hill after us and stopped
beside us. It contained two police officers from the Thames Valley Police
mounted police unit - 3166 and 410. The time according to the watch of one
of the police officers was 16.05. They told us that they wanted to search
us under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act. I asked them why they wanted to
search us and they said that there had been a peace camp at the base the day
before "and you are also of that ilk". I asked whether a copy of the
section 44 notice was available for inspection anywhere and officer 3166 (I
later discovered his name to be PC Winks) told me that it probably was, but
he did not know where. I asked him what he expected to find if he searched
me and he replied by saying that someone had been arrested at the peace camp
yesterday under the Terrorism Act as they had been in possession of a map of
the Welford base showing the location of police patrols. He mentioned that
the camp had now been evicted and the campers were no longer in the area. I
told him that I did not believe he had any reasonable grounds to search me
but that I was happy to co-operate with a search as I had nothing to hide.

A van with about 5 or 6 more Thames Valley Police officers then arrived
(registration number T739 AFC)and the searches began. Officer 3166 searched
me, observed by officer 410 and another officer from the van, 3602, who
completed a record of search form as the search took place. All these
officers were reasonably polite and courteous to me. A female police
officer searched Karen (I didn't note her number but I have a recollection
that her name flash gave her first name as Iona). The searches were
witnessed by officers 686 and 3119 who were sitting in the police van. All
the officers I spoke to seemed to know my first name.

PC Winks searched a polythene bag of biscuits I was carrying and then looked
into a small rucksack I was carrying and emptied it of the contents. He
asked whether a wooly hat inside was a balaclava and asked whether I had
taken any photos of the base on two cameras he found. I answered no to both
questions. He then packed the bag again with some help from me and began to
pat down my clothing. He then asked to look into my wallet but did not
check through my credit cards for my name. While the search was taking
place officer 3602 was filling in the search record form. He completed my
name as Peter Burn, although I had told him I was declining to give my name
or address, and put down my occupation as U/E (unemployed) without asking me
to verify this. When I asked him what grounds he had for writing this down
on the form he said to me "you wouldn't be here now if you had a job".

While I was being body-searched a second officer started taking stuff out of
my rucksack again at the same time as he was talking into his mobile phone.
I asked him what he was doing and told him to leave my stuff alone. PC
Winks asked me to stop interrupting his telephone conversation. After this
officer had finished talking to me he told PC Winks to check my banners to
see what was written on them. I told them that they said 'Hands Off Iraq',
'Sabotage the War Effort', and that the third one had the peace and anarchy
symbols on it. They checked to see whether this was the case, and then the
officer said he would be seizing the banners, an Olympus Mu camera, a Fuji
digital camera, and a roll of film (unexposed) under section 19 of PACE. I
asked him why and he told me he had the power to do this and that he had
just been instructed to do this by Superintendent Trotman at Newbury Police
Station, to whom he had been speaking on his phone. I said I did not think
he had the lawful authority to do this and asked him how I could contact
Superintendent Trotman. He gave me the phone number of the Thames Valley
Police switchboard locally (01635 31000) and although I tried immediately
and several times later in the afternoon to contact Superintendent Trotman I
was told he was not available on each occasion.

PC Winks made a note of the items he had taken from me in his notebook but
refused to give me a receipt for them. He signed the list he had made in
his notebook and asked me to countersign the list, so I wrote 'taken from me
without my consent and unlawfully' under the list and then signed it. I
requested that the items be placed in a bag with an unbreakable seal but was
told that they would not be. When I asked what would happen to them I was
told they would be taken to the mobile police station at the M4 exit near
RAF Welford and then taken to Newbury Police Station. If I wanted them back
I should contact Newbury Police Station.

The police officers then drove away and Karen and I walked back to Karen's
car. We drove round to Boxford and then walked up a bridleway near the base
from where there is a good view of the base. We looked over to the gate of
the base through our binoculars and saw a police officer watching us through
his binoculars. He did not return our wave. After watching for about 20
minutes we returned to the car and drove back to Reading.