Animal rights protester loses High Court battle
A prominent animal rights activist from Northampton who clashed with police at an Oxford University protest has lost his High Court battle for disciplinary action to be taken against officers he claimed were caught calling him names on tape.
Mel Broughton, of Semilong Road, Northampton, and Joanna Robertson, of Shaftesbury Road, Reading, were arrested following a tense sit-down protest staged by activists in June 2006 against the building of an animal testing laboratory in Oxford.
They were both eventually acquitted of public order charges – but during their Bicester Magistrates' Court trial, evidence of police officers calling them names and saying how much they wanted to prosecute them emerged, said top judge Mr Justice Calvert-Smith.
Mr Broughton and Ms Robertson, who said the comments had been caught on tape in the aftermath of the protest, complained to Thames Valley Police and then to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), but both agreed no disciplinary action should be taken.
Barrister Leslie Thomas yesterday urged Mr Justice Calvert Smith to give the pair permission to mount a full judicial review challenge to the IPCC's decision, arguing that the officers concerned had breached their code of conduct.
"We say there was more than enough evidence of not treating the public with respect or courtesy and clear evidence of general conduct bringing the force into disrepute," said Mr Thomas.
"Therefore, we say that not to bring disciplinary proceedings on the basis that there is no compelling evidence makes a nonsense of the code."
However, IPCC lawyers told the judge it was primarily a "matter for the police force" to decide whether disciplinary action was justified and pointed out that the incident was three years ago.
Refusing the pair permission to seek judicial review of the IPCC's decision, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said that, although the comments heard on the tape may have been "unsuitable", they were clearly "jocular", rather than "malicious".
"I have considered this application on its merits. This decision was certainly within the scope of reasonable decisions made by the various bodies, but in particular the IPCC," the judge concluded, declaring the activists' complaints unarguable.
Mr Broughton has previously been at the forefront of several high-profile animal rights protests and has been involved in demonstrations since the age of 15. He is a leading figure in animal rights group Speak, which was set up in 2004 to campaign against the animal testing laboratory.
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