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.