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Lynda Stewart was seriously hurt in the CS attack at Gilders when like the others standing outside the farm gates, she had CS gas sprayed into her face at close range by 'wild' police officers in 1995. In the years since she has had to have three operations, two to remove tumours from her mouth and a third from her eyelid. During one operation she suffered a stroke and is told to expect further complications. She has been offered £10,000 but has rejected it. Case pending.
At a demonstration against Hillgrove Cat Farm, ten year old Daniel was arrested for violent disorder after throwing a stone. His arm was grabbed by a policewoman and he was taken away in a van along with his mother. They were held for seven hours by the police, kept in a cell and treated very aggressively. Daniel was in tears a lot of the time and no regard was given to his tender years, He was stripped of his top. When interviewed he admitted to throwing a stone because 'farmer brown is a big poo'. Under cross examination the policewoman who arrested Daniel admitted that the arrest was wrong. The police appealed against Daniel being awarded £1,500 and Daniel lost his case for wrongful arrest.
In 2004 a hunt Saboteur won £5,500 pay out from Wiltshire Police following wrongful arrest at pheasant shoot. The arrest took place at Ham, near Hungerford, and the saboteur was one of a group of 11 protestors who located a pheasant shoot and used non-violent direct action to prevent further shooting. The remaining 10 protestors are currently in consultation with the solicitors
Pat Belcher (64), was awarded £3,000 after she was wrongfully arrested for Obstruction at Coventry Airport during a live export demonstration there in 1995. She sued for unlawful arrest, unlawful detention and assault.
Serena Rowlands was paid £1,500 by Cheshire Police for wrongful arrest public order offences outside the Cheshire Forest Hunt ball in the county in 1997.
John Vetterlein (49) was awarded £1,500 and £3,000 legal costs by Hampshire Police for Police Assualt, Unlawful Arrest & False Imprisonment for demonstrating outside McDonalds in Southampton in 1992.
1996- Neil Bartlett (23) was awarded £1,500 after charges of conspiracy to committ GBH were dropped by Sussex Police after 3 months.
Ros Kavenagh was awarded £2,500 by Essex Police after they arrested her unlawfully at a hunt meet in the county. The next time she attended a meet in the area they reported their unlawful and violent actions and were subsequently forced to award her a further £5,000* Madelaine Buckler was awarded £1,250 by Thames Valley Police following her unlawful detention over an allegation of 'Harassment' at the Hill Grove cat farm in 1999.
Jane Wild was awarded £1,500 in an out of court settlement after an unlawful arrest for allegedly obstructing police and causing 'Harassment, Alarm and Distress' to people watching a hunt in January 1998.
Three saboteurs received £500 each for, variously, Unlawful Arrest, Detention and Assault in an out of court settlement with Essex Police after they were arrested for various public order offences at a hunt meet in the county during the cub hunting season at the end of 1993. One was for refusing to give his personal details within earshot of hunt terrier-men, a misdemeanor for which he was raised off the ground by his throat by a police officer until he passed out.
July 1999, Paul Webb was awarded £5,000 out of court by the Metropolitan Police following a series of arrests for Obstruction while attempting to leaflet outside Philip Hockley's fur shop in London. Only once were charges brought and then video evidence clearly exonerated the accused.
Kerry Wyler (24) was awarded £3,000 in 2001 after a series of arrests to 'Prevent a Breach of the Peace' that led nowhere due to there being no case to answer, for leafleting outside the same shop.
Richard England was awarded £1,000 by Thames Valley Police following an arrest for 'Harassment' at the Hill Grove cat farm in Oxford in 1999. He was never charged and a further £1,000 was awarded follwing an arrest for Conspiracy to Cause Criminal Damage for which he was never charged.
Jane Wild, Denise Friend, James Wickens and Cyd Standing were awarded £1,500 each in an out of court settlement by Sussex Police after being wrongly arrested for Aggravated Trespass, which succeeded in preventing them from monitoring hunt violence in 1998. Robert Anderson received £2,000 because the police assaulted him. A total of £8,000.
* Melanie Bates was awarded £2,750 by Avon and Somerset Police in an out of court settlement for an unlawful arrest to 'Prevent a Breach of the Peace' as she attempted to give out leaflets outside a cancer research shop in 1999.
Brent Reid was awarded £3,500 after Warwickshire Police at Coventry Airport assaulted him and then charged him with Threatening Behaviour and Police Assault. The charges were later dropped and proceedings begun.
A hunt rider who deliberately rode his horse over a female saboteur breaking her elbow and causing severe bruising in January 1993 found himself with a bill of £2,500 in damages after Sarah Lloyd took him through the civil courts and won four years later.
Richard England was awarded £3,250 by Thames Valley Police following an arrest in 1998 for being on a footpath - interpreted as Obstruction - which was later dropped.
Dorset Police were forced into a corner after wrongfully arresting six hunt saboteurs in 1992 for sitting in a car that was attacked by hunt supporters on an allegation that they planted a bomb outside a hunt supporters shop! No charges were brought because, as one of the arrested commented 'we didn't do anything!' Civil Proceedings were begun and £14,000 was eventually paid out in restitution to the six.
Thames Valley Police were forced to pay out a total of £12,00 and costs to nine people they arrested when they over reacted spectaculary to the appearance of hunt saboteurs at a meet of the Old Berkley Beagles in the Autum of 1980. They arrested around 20 people with the help of a veritable army of police officers, including their chopper, which spent the day chasing people around fields and woods to arrest them to 'Prevent a Breach of the Peace'. But the court found in the citizens favour and costs were awarded against the police estimated at a quarter of a million pounds!
Tim Walker was awarded £1,000 after suing Hampshire Police when they withdrew their allegation he caused hunt supporters to feel Harassment, Alarm and Distress in 1991.
Julie Burgess was awarded £1,000 after an unlawful arrest for 'Riot' after Cheshire Police arrested her as she went to a police station to check on the welfare of a friend, because they noticed mud on her boots. She explained she lived in an animal sanctuary and that it was the middle of winter but she was held and charged and remanded, but later the charges were dropped. This happened a few days after her partner Mike Hill was killed by the Cheshire Beagles Hunt in 1991.
Robert Constable was awarded £2,000 by Kent Police after they illegally arrested him for 'Obstruction' while attending a protest against the Wye College Beagle Hunt hunt ball at Dover Town Hall in February 1997. He was detained, charged and bailed before the CPS dropped the charge due to lack of evidence.
Richard England and Joyce Tonks (57) were awarded £1,000 each by Hereford Police following an unlawful arrest for allegedly obstructing them in the course of their duty during a protest at the Consort beagle kennels at Ross on Wye in 1997. Unbeknown to the arresting officer the verbal abuse her spouted was being recorded.
Six people were awarded £8,000 each after being arrested after an inspection of London Zoo's vivisection laboratories in 1991.
They were taken to Paddington Green police station, strip searched and detained under the Vagrancy Act of 1824 = £40,000.
Serena Rowlands was awarded £1,500 by Cheshire Police for wrongful arrest for Criminal Damage to the gates of the Ciba Geigy vivisection laboratory at Wilmslow in 1998.*
Richard England and Greg Avery were paid £1,600 each following an unlawful arrest for breaching Thames Valley Police 'Section 14' order not to protest at the Hill Grove cat farm in Oxford in July 1998.
John Marriott (32) for being unlawfully arrested, imprisoned, assaulted and subjected to a malicious prosecution by Kent Police in 1996, following a demonstration against live exports at Dover Docks, was offered £5,000 four years later after stubborn resistance from the police, just two weeks later before the civil case was due to reach trial.
Pat Belcher (65) was awarded £500 by Kent Police after instigating proceedings after they assaulted her during a demonstration against live exports at Dover Docks in 1996.
John Vetterlein (54) was awarded £900 for a violent CS attack by Gloustershire Police in May 1997 at Gilder's Export Yard.
Christopher Kneath (50) was awarded £2,000 in an out of court settlement by Sussex Police afer he was arrested on an allegation of causing 'Harassment, Alarm, and Distress' when standing on a pavement at Shoreham Harbour in 1995 during the live export protests there. Found guilty by magistrates he appealed, won and was paid out for wongful arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. The payment included costs for damage to his glasses, broken during his arrest.
Trevor Love (41) was awarded £1,500 by Kent Police for a wrongful arrest and 22 hours detention for a wild allegation of 'Threatening Behaviour' while protesting at Dover Docks in 1996
Brent Reid was awarded £3,500 after Warwickshire Police at Coventry Airport in 1995 assaulted him and then charged him , with Threatening Behaviour and Police Assault. The charges were later dropped and proceedings begun.
Andrew Caines was awarded £3,000 by the same police force after officers ambushed him walking down a lane from Coventry Airport dragged him into the back of a police van and charged him with 'Obstruction' which they later dropped.
Six people were awarded £1,000 each after they were arrested at a demonstration at a Birmingham Boots store July 1991.
October 1999 Michael Peterkin was awarded £3,500 for Unlawful Arrest, False Imprisonment and Assault and Battery following arrest in 1995 while walking on a country lane half a mile from a hunt meet in Cheshire. Karl Garside accepted £1,500 out of court and ten other cases are pending.
Upto 30 people were awarded compensation of a £1,000 upwards for Kidnapping, Assault, Wrongful Arrest and Malicious Prosecution following a demonstration at Gilder's live animal export yard in Gloustershire in 1995 when police officers waded into a small group of chatting protestors with cans of CS gas (one was seen to reload after her emptied his can in people's faces. Sylvia O'Brien received £10,000 after she was repeatedly sprayed in her face, hair, and mouth while handcuffed and in custody at the site (even though she hadn't even been arrested). She was dragged around on her back while cuffed and unable to breath or see, then sprayed again as she begged for help. A variety of charges were laid, then changed repeatedly and then dropped completely 18 months later.
Trevor Love (40) was awarded £1,500 by Kent Police after being wrongfully arrested for failing to comply with a 'Section 14' order not to demonstrate against live exports in banned area of Dover in 1995. Conviction overturned after judicial review.
Aubrey Thomas was awarded £500 by Hampshire Police after a certain PC Cutts was found to have told him to 'fuck off' at a hunt meet in the county in 1990.
Chris Randle (25) was awarded £750 by Sussex Police following 19 hours in a police cell in 1991 for allegedly obstructing a police officer and using Threatening Behavious near to a hunt. Convictions were overturned on appeal.
Leicestershire Police arrested a young man for walking along a public footpath near to a meet of the prestigious Cottesmore Hunt in 1991. A year later he was awarded £500 in an out of court settlement plus costs.
Angela Hamp was paid £1,250 in an out of court settlement by Cambridgeshire Police after she was arrested unlawfully and subjected to an uneccessarily aggressive police interview following the rescue of beagle puppies from a lab supplier in the county in 1990.
Neil Lea (37) was awarded £1,500 after being unlawfully arrested for causing 'Harassment, Alarm and Distress for peacefully demonstrating at Coventry Airport in 1995.
Pat Belcher (63) was arrested while leafleting outside McDonalds in Birmingham in 1995. She was charged with Obstruction which was later dropped. She instigated proceedings and was later paid £1,000 for Unlawful Arrest and Wrongful Imprisonment.
Serena Rowlands was paid £1,000 after an arrest for alleged Police Assault at the Waterloo Cup hare massacre near Liverpool. Unbeknown to the police Granada TV were filming the non assault and the case was thrown out of court after the video evidence actually showed it was the police man with his fingers shoved up his alleged assailants nose rather than her winding him as he alleged.
Again TVP were found to be creating their own rules after arresting and imprisoning overnight 11 anti-hunt activists who had dared to hold a banner at a demonstration at the Oxford County Show. The following morning after 18 hours in custody they refused to be bound over by magistratesto keep the peace as they hadn't done anything wrong and two months later they were vindicated when the CPS dropped the case. A week before the civil action was due to reach the court in November 1991 the police backed down (as is fairly standard operating procedure it appears) and paid out £22,000 to the victims and legal costs in the region of £30,000. Money to burn.
Brendan McNally was picked out of a crowd gathered outside Builth Wells magistrates court in mid Wales in a public protest in relation to a gang of badger baiters on trial inside. He was arrested for Obstruction, held over night and then refused legal assistance the following day and was duly convicted and fined £100. He appealed to Swansea Crown Court and was eventually awarded £5,000 for Malicious Prosecution and False Imprisonment.
Angela Petro (53) was awarded £10,000 and legal costs in May 1998 after a series of arrests within close proximity at Dover. These included breaching a 'Section 14' order not to protest in a designated exclusion zone while she was looking after an injured sheep within the exclusion zone. And for breaching bail conditions she wasn't even under. Ans 'Bestting' an empty farm lairage while demonstrating there. On one occassion the arresting officer was caught on film threatening to break her wrists. Part of the police pay out was for injuries caused to her wrists.
Around nine people were awarded £900 each for a wrongfull arrest on a charge of 'Besetting' a live animal lairage in Kent at the height of the live export protests in 1994. (A total of £8,100).
Chris Randle (32) was awarded £450 after being arrested on the word of a pro-hunt police officer on an allegation of Criminal Damage in 1994. Video evidence taken ironically by a hunt supporter was recovered and proved the innocence of the accused 5 hours later.
Two people were awarded £300 compensation each after they were arrested on suspicion of attending a demonstration at hunt kennels in Cheshire in 1991 where windows were broken, held for 2 hours in a police van and released without charge.
Fox Protection Group member Philip Elston was awarded £500 plus costs after being illegally arrested at a meet of the Western Hunt in the first hunt related case in the county under the newly introduced 1994 Criminal Justice Act which was designed to stifle protest further but which better served to boost the coffers of innocent pro-animal campaigners over coming years.
Neil McIvor was awarded £500 by Cheshire Police for being unlawfully detained after a demonstration at hunt kennels in Cheshire in 1991, the aftermath of which saw draconian restrictions put on many anti hunt activists to prevent them from attending hunt meets in this and surrounding counties. Another received £600 for attending the same demonstration and being arrested for no lawful reason.
Three campaigners were paid £1,000 each after an unlawful arrest for allegedly being 'suspicion of posession of drugs' while protesting outside Manchester University Medical School in 1991.
Simon Wild received £75 from Hampshire Police after he sued them for the excessive force used by a certain PC Cutts to arrest him at a meet of the Aldershot Beagles in 1989.
Over 48 protestors were arrested after a demonstration at a mink farm in West Yorkshire in 1991 held for upto 50 hours before being charged with public order offences and then later having them dropped. Fifteen were given £1,500 in compensation after suing West Yorkshire Police. None of the people arrested were even linked to the farm they just happened to be nearby. One of the proprietors attempted to kill people when he drove his tractor with bailing spikes at protestors during the demo but only succeeded in driving over his own father and breaking his leg. He wasn't charged. The injured party himself had just attempted to throttle one of the smaller protestors before friends saved him. None of the farmers were charged with anything. A total of £25,500 was awarded.
Twenty eight hunt saboteurs were awarded £600 each plus costs after being mass arrested in vans en route to a meet of the Chiddingfold, Cowdry and Leconfield Hunt in Sussex in 1991 and charged with Action Likely to Cause a Breach of the Peace. The case was dropped after one court hearing. (A total of £16,200 was awarded in compensation).
Seven people were awarded between £2,500 and £4,000 in compensation totalling £22,000 after being arrested and held on allegation of 'Conspiracy to Cause Criminal Damage' at the 1994's Grand National at Aintree Racecourse.
Four anti-hunt activists arrested at a meet of the Ytene Mink Hunt in the summer of 1992 and detained for five hours, for Conduct Likely to Cause a Breach of the Peace (like hunting mink?) were finally awarded an out of court settlement totallying £4,250 in 1997. Emily McNamara was two years old at the time of her alleged offending, she and her babysitter Anne Llewelyn were playing "pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake" in the back of a van two miles from the hunt at the time they were arrested. We kid you not! Miles Cooper and Deborah Marsh were arrested on the same charge earlier in the day.
Joe Hashman and Wanda Harrup were awarded £6,000 costs by the European Court of Human RIghts after the court overturning a Dorchester Crown Court judgement that they be Bound Over to Keep the Peace despite having their conviction for 'Breach of the Peace' overturned in the same court. This followed their arrests at a meet of the Portman Hunt in 1991. The pair had been mimicking a huntsman's actions by blowing a hunting horn and calling hounds to distract them.
Grandmother Nancy Phipps (65) was 'compensated' after being forced out of bed at 4.00am one morning in 1991 along with the rest of her family, including her daughters, two year old grandson and poorly husband, on an allegation that they were involved in a plot to contaminate bottles of Lucozade. For the indignity of having to dress in her toilet in front of a WPC at 4.00am, then spending 16 hours in a cell with her family in different cells all around her, confused and afraid, she was awarded £3,000, her daughters Jill and Leslie got £3,000 and £4,500 respectively, husband Bob was awarded £3,000. Justin Timpson was awarded £3,500, and Gari Allen was awarded £2,500. (This is a total of £19,500 awarded in compensation).
Eight hunt saboteurs won £4,000 from Cheshire Police after a judge ruled they had been held in custody unlawfully in 1994. They were released without charge, but the judge ruled they were arrested lawfully to 'Prevent a Breach of the Peace' but held for too long, i.e. after the hunt they were seeking to prevent making a kill had packed themselves up.
Roger Yates received £4,000 in an out of court settlement with Thames Valley Police after one of their officers smashed his baton into the side of his temple, causing multiple fractures to his cheekbone resulting in nerve damage, during a demonstration at Hill Grove cat farm in Oxford in 1998.
Twenty-six saboteurs were arrested by Essex Police at a meet of the Essex Foxhounds in 1993, all randomly, some violently. Many were arrested with one offence and then charged with another, they were held over night then collectively charged with Violent Disorder and released that evening. The case collapsed. For those unable to get legal aid the cost of seeking some justice was too restrictive for them to proceed. A handful received payouts from the force of between £2000 and £3000, totalling over £30,000. Most of the pay-outs were for Wrongful Arrest, Unlawful Detention, Malicious Prosecution and Assault and were settled out of court.