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Ratcliffe power station

890 bytes removed, 14:18, 19 July 2011

SW: →‎Allegations of police suppression of evidence: - add section

On May 24, 2011, ''The Guardian'' reported that the twenty environmental activists convicted of "conspiring to shut down" Ratcliffe are to launch an appeal after allegations that police suppressed potentially crucial evidence from an undercover officer. The 20 were found guilty of plotting to break into Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station following a three-week criminal trial and police operation costing £700,000. But their convictions were thrown into doubt after revelations that they had been infiltrated by Mark Kennedy, a police spy who was alleged to have played a central role in the organising the plot. Revelations about Kennedy in the ''Guardian'' earlier in 2011 led to four inquiries amid admissions from police chiefs and ministers that the infiltration of protest groups has gone "badly wrong". In response, an independent review looked into the convictions, and the conclusion prompted Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, to telephone the activists' barrister offering to provide assistance in overturning the convictions.

Mike Schwarz, the group's lawyer said: "We shall follow the DPP's response to the appeal with interest. We take the view that it is now incumbent on the crown - having assiduously and in such underhand and unaccountable ways gained so much personal information about the protest movement - to make amends. The crown should account fully and publicly to the court of appeal." In one inquiry, the Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating the allegation that the police deliberately withheld evidence from court. In a joint statement, the activists said: "Our case continues to demonstrate the state's consistency in putting the interests of unlimited growth and unfettered capitalism before the rights and needs of people and planet. Our story began with the largest pre-emptive arrest of activists the UK has ever seen back in April 2009, and has since seen a random selection of us dragged through costly legal processes. The resulting consequence was 20 of us being convicted and sentenced for a crime we did not commit."<ref>Matthew Taylor, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/24/ratcliffe-protesters-appeal-undercover-evidence "Ratcliffe power station activists launch appeal over undercover evidence"] Guardian, May 24, 2011.</ref>

In July 2011, the convictions of the 20 protesters for trying to shut down the UK's second largest power station was quashed by the Court of Appeal. The ruling came after it was revealed the group had been infiltrated by undercover police officer Mark Kennedy, who was said to have spent seven years working undercover in the green movement across Europe. The case was heard by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, sitting with two other judges. Lord Judge said the convictions were unsafe "because of significant non-disclosure" of material "which would have been supportive of the defence case."<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14203873 "Ratcliffe power station protesters cleared on appeal"] BBC, July 19, 2011.</ref>

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