– a bit of rhetoric from Judge Maclaren Webster, when he overturned the convictions of Richard and Margaret by Salisbury Magistrates for being at the 10th anniversary demo at the stones on June 1st 1995. (They were then re-convicted by the Appeal Court before being cleared by the Lords ruling on assemblies.) Section 14A refers to the Public Order Act 1986 as amended by the CJA.
“Each case turns upon its own facts and this one is a particular example of that. It will, perhaps, be sadly rare when no form of criminal conduct other than that which it is sought to catch by Section 14A will have been committed. It will also, perhaps, be sadly rare to find that tolerance, reason, patience and a degree of mutual respect and understanding characterises the relationships between Poiice and those assembled. Perhaps when it comes to the tenth Anniversary of the tenth
Anniversary of the Battle of Beanfield it will be remembered that thanks to those characteristics I have sought to identify which amount to nothing more or less than realising the humanity of all those present, the lst June 1995 was indeed a significant day in the development of the maintenance of Public Order around that great Monument.”
