Breaking: Police make arrests outside Woolwich Crown Court as defence barristers walk away

For a third time over the last week the Met police have made arrests outside Woolwich Crown Court of people holding signs communicating the principle of jury equity. The group of six people arrested on 29 April were sitting peacefully displaying the signs:

Jurors have an absolute right to acquit according to their conscience.

And:

Even without legal defence jurors can still acquit on conscience.

Meanwhile inside Woolwich Crown Court, there has been a shocking development in the Filton case. Five of the six defence barristers have left the trial following judicial rulings which cannot be reported until the end of the trial.

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said today:

In recent years we have seen judicial rulings that banned climate campaigners from saying the words ‘fuel poverty’ and ‘climate change’ in their trials.

Today we understand a judicial ruling has been given that goes even further, and as a response the legal professionals representing five of the six defendants on trial in the Filton case have no choice but to leave the trial because they have been left with literally nothing they can say in closing arguments.

We should all be alarmed to hear that the legal process has been so corrupted that, today we have lawyers in the UK walking away from a trial because it is impossible for them to do their job of defending their clients.

The trial of the first six defendants from the group known as the ‘Filton24’ has reached the stage of closing arguments. Five of the six defendants will now be giving their own closing speeches as they have no legal representation.

In her closing address to the jury today, defendant Charlotte Head said:

Sadly, despite how unbelievably kind and smart and wise my barristers are, after some decisions made by the court, I no longer feel like they are permitted to represent me in a way that does us all justice. So I’ve had to represent myself.

I recently found out that it wasn’t until 1898 that a person who was charged with a crime in the UK could speak to the jury under oath during their trial…

Under those conditions, me and my co-defendants would have had to sit quietly in the dock and await our fate, unable to tell you in our own words who we were and why we were sitting before you.

I was unsurprised to learn that, in 1898, when the first person was allowed to answer the charges they faced from the witness box and testify to their own defence, many people, including prosecutors and judges, were worried about what would happen.

Not because they feared that the defendants would lie but because they feared the jury sympathising more with normal people than the elites of the legal profession.

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A long time has passed since then but it might be said that some prosecutors and judges still share that fear. A fear of the jury’s ability to be compassionate, to question the motives and integrity of the state, and to act as a barrier to the outcomes they want to achieve – namely to convict defendants…

They are frightened that you will listen to us, the defendants, when we talk to you and afraid of the power you hold as a jury. It’s entirely possible you may be one of the last juries to get to make decisions in a case like this before even that right is taken away from ordinary people.

17 arrests outside Woolwich Crown Court

Today’s arrests outside Woolwich Crown Court bring the total number of people arrested outside the court this week to 17.

Today’s arrests were made under the charge of Aggravated Trespass whereas the previous 11 arrests related to an alleged breach of Section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986.

It is understood that the change in the police’s approach to their powers of arrest may be because neither today’s, nor the two previous actions outside Woolwich Crown Court were in breach of the terms stated by the police as justification for the Section 14 being in place, namely, to prevent noisy demonstrations taking place within a one mile radius of the court.

This week’s sign-holding actions, as with all Defend Our Juries sign-holding actions, were held as a silent vigil. The grounds for arrest this week appear to be a cynical attempt to bypass the terms of the High Court ruling in Warner.

Featured image supplied

By The Canary

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