Police In Tangles

The prosecution tied itself in tangles (their star witness viewed the scene while blinded by spotlights and under a barrage of stones), and lacked any concrete evidence. But the magistrate. Mr Patterson, entirely discounted all defence submissions and found all 12 defendants guilty of unlawful assembly and wilful damage.

The prosecution's case was that damage to property had occurred at the demonstration and that the defendants had been arrested shortly afterwards at a police roadblock. The defendants claimed that the majority of the damage had been caused by people that had driven away shortly before the main group. Police witnesses denied the possibility of an unknown car escaping.