Last June I allegedly obstructed the highway in Parliament Square, during a wider protest against the crime of MGM. My legal defence rested on a number of issues including the reasonableness of my short protest, given that I was protesting about the CPS/police not prosecuting the people carrying out MGM. I wasn’t charged with obstruction on the day, but a couple of weeks later, obviously the CPS wished to serve me a lesson. Hmm, how might that be working out?
I was initially found guilty at Hammersmith Magistrates’ Court, and appealed to Isleworth Crown Court, where my appeal against the conviction was dismissed. In both trials the CPS barristers and the judges failed, in our view, to engage substantively with my defence, and both declined to comment on the key issue of the illegality of MGM.
After the Isleworth trial Ian, our legal advisor, developed the legal arguments (I added one or two of my own) for seeking a leave to appeal to the High Court in The Strand, London:
I am delighted to report that leave to appeal to the High Court has just been granted by the (male) judge at Isleworth Crown Court, so the case will be heard at some point. We’ll obviously report the date when we have it. There won’t be a jury at the trial, but there will be three judges, so we’re optimistic that our legal defence will receive more thorough consideration. If that appeal is dismissed, we plan to appeal to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.
We will win this battle, a key battle in the war to end MGM in the UK.
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