Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Pauline Campbell Not Guilty

John Moore | 27.09.2007 08:26 | Social Struggles

Around 15 protesters demonstrated in the morning to support Pauline Cambell and protest at the attempts to criminalise her for highlighting deaths at the hand of the State. The case finally concluded in the early evening with a not guilty verdict. The attempt to criminalise a grieving mother had failed.

Pauline Campbell, bereaved mother and campaigner highlighting the death of women in prisons arrived at North Avon Magistrates' Court on the morning of the 26th September to face criminal charges.

Pauline did not arrive alone. 15 demonstrators were waiting to show their support for her and to protest at the clearly political decision to fit her up on an ill fitting charge. As well as the demonstrators there were journalists and TV crews and Pauline both explained her case to them and highlighted the far more important issue of women's deaths and in particular the plight of the children whose mothers had died.

The court case started with a video of Pauline's demo at Eastwood Park Prison following the death of mother of five Caroline Powell. This showed the police arrive, accuse Pauline of aggravated trespass, ask her to leave the 'private' property of the prison and move on to 'public property'. Pauline did this. The police then read her a pre-prepared statement warning her if she returned to the private property at any time in the following three months she may be arrested. The video then showed a prison van try and enter the 'private road' Pauline moved swiftly into its path and within 30 seconds had been arrested. The police then dragged her to a police car.

We then heard the police evidence, it became apparent that their operation was pre-planned and they even admitted that the arrest had been pre-allocated to a probationary office. Much of their evidence was evasive and a couple of them seemed to be suffering from poor memories. The highlight was the arresting officer. Asked by Pauline's lawyer why he had arrested her he told the court that the main road was blocked as a result of Pauline 'stopping' the prison van. When asked if he was certain he said he was. He was then asked if 'not even eight cars and a motor cycle?' could get through. Unfortunately for the poor officer he had not been in court earlier when in an exchange the courts attention had been drawn to the video clearly showing eight cars and a motorbike going past the stationary van.

Pauline had originally been charged with aggravated trespass. The reason it had been changed to obstructing the highway became clear as the crowns case unfolded. The local council's highway expert tried to explain exactly where the division was between the public highway and the prison's private road. It turned out that Pauline was on the highway when arrested and therefore the original charge relating to trespass was nonsense. However working on the old police/CPS basis that where someone is clearly not guilty of a charge then that is not evidence of their innocence but of them not being charged with the right crime they decided to use Pauline's watertight defence....she was on the public highway...against her and charged her with obstructing the highway! (It's worth pointing out that she was arrested approx 30 seconds after stopping the van - less than the time a traffic light is on red)

Throughout this Pauline sat quietly. Pauline is a deeply committed woman driven by the death of her own daughter to campaign to highlight the scandal of the mass imprisonment of vulnerable women, the failure of prisons to carry out their duty of care and the unnecessary deaths that result. This committed and principled women had to watch whilst attempt were made to label her a criminal. Throughout the hearing she had in front of her a picture of the five young children of Caroline Powell.

Pauline's evidence was calm, assertive and she used the opportunity to draw the court's attention to the reason she was demonstrating. The CPS cross examination was particularly disgusting and unprincipled accusing Pauline of attention seeking and 'playing up to the cameras’.

Pauline was very fortunate, although she had been refused legal aid Peter Thornton QC had agreed to represent her in court for free. Throughout the trial he had delicately picked at the threads of the case against Pauline and he brought this all together with an amazing final submission. Whilst the judge tried to follow the links between one precedent after another the CPS lawyer quickly gave up. The police still in court were given a free lecture on the law which I hope they appreciate. All that was left was for the CPS lawyer to make her submission but it was clear her heart was not in it. This level of legal argument just didn't happen in Magistrates Court.

We were then left waiting whilst the District Judge deliberated. When he returned he gave a long judgement. To prove the case of 'obstructing the highway' it is necessary to show it is wilful, i.e. its deliberate. Given that the police had told Pauline she was not on the highway he was unable to conclude beyond doubt that she was willfully obstructing the highway and he therefore dismissed the charges.

Pauline has been put through this trial for political reasons. The state paid for a judge, 2 cps staff, one council official and four police officers to attend this court hearing. Thousands of pounds of public money has been spent trying to criminalise Pauline. Without the skill and knowledge of a top QC they may have succeeded. Pauline has had to live with the cloud of a criminal record over her head and the process has clearly taken its toil on her. However she remains determined to stand up for what she knows is right. this case was an attempt to bully her into giving up. Her campaigning continues.

By the end of the case there were still 13 supporters of Pauline's in court. The demo before was also important. Pauline has shown great courage please show your support by posting a comment below.

John Moore
- e-mail: nomoreprison@aol.com
- Homepage: http://www.alternatives2prison.ik.com

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech