SOCPA Raid Charges Dropped

Netcu Watch | 11.07.2007 00:20 | SOCPA | Animal Liberation | Repression

On the 20th February 2007 dawn raids were executed at four addresses in Yorkshire involving over a hundred police officers from Humberside and West Yorkshire Police,. The aim being to arrest four people for what the media and police agencies dubbed animal rights extremism.

[1] The defendants, aged from 17 to 55, were alleged to have breached Section .145 of the Serious Organized Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) and were accused of interfering with contractual relationships so as to harm an animal research organization, namely vivisection breeders B&K Universal.

The raids were conducted using extreme force and involved kicking the doors through of the accused, including a teenager, without warning before proceeding to arrest them and search the premises, causing disruption and removing property deemed to be useful in the investigation. How this covered legitimate music CD's and DVD's is anyone's guess, but maybe the police just like listening to one of the Hull-accused's Girls Aloud CD down in the station!

Arrested and manhandelled, the accused were taken to police stations in Hull and one was handcuffed for over an hour and a half whilst being driven to the other side of the county. It is thought that it had taken months of surveillance preparation to conduct the operation.

They were held in custody and interviewed for over 14 hours, before being bailed without charge to re-attend Hull police stations. Four and a half months later, the charges were dropped and the accused are now pursuing legal action against Humberside Police and have requested a full apology from the leader of the Operation, Christine Kelk, [2] and the media who printed articles about the case [1]

Ref:

[1]

20/02/07 - T&A, Bradford