Police defend use OF ANTI-TERROR LAW
POLICE have defended their high-profile arrests of five people under the Terrorism Act after a man was found allegedly spraying graffiti in an underpass.
Gary Streeter, Tory MP for South West Devon, broadly supported the actions of police but voiced caution about 'massive powers' given to them anti-terror laws.
All five people were detained for a number of days under the Terrorism Act as police carried out a number of searches.
A 25-year-old, believed to be Andrew Sprague, was arrested on the evening of March 27 by an officer in North Street.
Three more people – two 20-year-old women and a 16-year-old schoolboy – were arrested after officers carried out a search of a property in Radnor Place, Greenbank.
On March 29 a 19-year-old foreign student was also arrested.
At the time it was suggested those arrested were planning to travel to London to protest along with thousands of others at the G20 summit.
All five have now been released, and will face no charges under the Terrorism Act. One of the women must answer police bail pending inquiries regarding a drugs offence.
The other woman was also on police bail pending what police have called 'other criminal matters'.
The schoolboy is on bail until May 'in connection with a separate criminal investigation', police say, while the 19-year-old was released with no further action to be taken.
Mr Sprague is also said to be on police bail until early May 'in connection with other offences'.
A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Constabulary said: "The safety of the public is our paramount concern and the action taken was proportionate considering the information that we had at the time of the arrests.
"As this was a complex inquiry into serious allegations involving a number of suspects and any searches we undertook had to be comprehensive before we could deem that those arrested were not to be a risk to the public," he said.
"Inevitably this resulted in those arrested being detained for longer periods of time than would normally be expected.
"We believe that the thorough nature of this large-scale investigation actually reduced any potential risk.
"We are still investigating this incident, and therefore cannot comment any further at this time."
MP Gary Streeter said the case had highlighted the fine line being trodden between protecting the public and protecting civil liberties.
"We want the police to err on the side of caution," he said.
"From time to time people will be arrested who are subsequently released, and we have to accept that.
"But this also shows how careful we should be with giving massive powers to police to detain people for long lengths of time.
"My default position is to support police but the law must be finely balanced so that civil liberties are firmly protected.
"It shows the tightrope we are all walking. We want to be protected but we don't want people to be detained without prosecution."
A spokeswoman for Liberty, an independent human rights organisation in England and Wales, said they were unable to comment as they had not been involved in the case.
The investigation was instigated when one of the men was arrested for spraying 'Antifa' on a wall in Plymouth city centre last Friday.
Antifa – short for Anti-Fascist – is an international campaign group against racism and the far right. The graffiti has since been removed.
4 Comments
by random rocks, Exeter
Friday, June 12 2009, 11:08PM
“It is rumoured that the people living next door to you are in possession of a large amount of immitation firearms and adapted explosives. They are also involved in drugs and are happy to spray graffiti on public property. They are affiliated with anarchist groups who are willing to use large scale violence to disrupt our country's right to freedom of speech. I think we should be considering all this when we look at proportionate response. Is this really what we would be encouraging our children to be thinking of as acceptable or a normal response to capatalism or protest? let's show a little intelligence at least. Let the police deal with any offences. at the end of the day I think suspicion of terrorism in this case would be a realistic approach to the facts presented to the authorities. Imagine some guy with learning difficulties called Nicky Riley being arrested in Exeter on Terrorism offences. Found in possession of a bag of nails a battery and some fertiliser - disgusting behaviour on behalf of the police!! it was just an art project, or perhaps prevention of a terrorist attack??
- Jude the EX”
by spiked liberty, Plymouth
Thursday, April 09 2009, 6:13PM
“why always the reference to a foreign studnt being arrested in every Herald report?
seems to me it is just to add scare mongering to the story”
by terry tibbs, looking down
Thursday, April 09 2009, 5:20PM
“D+C are a joke....a force full of "wannabes" they are looked upon as a country bumpkin police force and are the buts of a lot of in jokes through out the force...this is just fodder for the people and if i were in D+C id be very embarrassed to be. They have probably all gone to Manchester for some real action!!!!!!”
by Ken, Greenbank
Thursday, April 09 2009, 4:31PM
“Its rumoured the operation cost about £3/4m. Is that right and that a highly vetted terrorism judge was helicoptered down from London to rubber stamp extensions of detention time?”