4 more guilty of protesting

Four more people have been found guilty of the heinous crime of protesting near Parliament.

On the SOCPA offences there were three 12-month conditional discharges of which two had to pay £150 costs, and the third (Mr. Simpson who had not presented evidence) only £50 costs. Because of the unspent conditional discharge, the fourth defendant had to pay £100 fine for the previous public order offence, £100 for the new SOCPA offence, plus the £150 costs (ouch!!). For the obstruction offence, Maria had to pay an additional £100 fine.

Bastards! Hanging’s too good for ‘em!

Mysteriously, one of those arrested and put in a police van then disappeared from the record. Police claim to have no knowledge of him. What was his 'get out' card? Possible explanations might be that he was some sort of 'agent provocateur' - he was standing very near the megaphone throughout the half an hour or so leading up to the arrests. Alternatively, he was in some other way in cahoots with the police.

The next SOCPA case will be heard next week on the 18th at Bow Street, and 'Picnicker Mark' will be defending himself in court. After that, the arrestees from Sunday 7th August will be in court from the 23rd and on 22nd Feb., lone demonstrator Barbara Tucker (who held up a banner 'I am not the serious organised criminal' outside parliament just before Xmas) will appear in court. In the meantime, it is likely that today's defendants will be appealing against their convictions.

According to the Parliament Protest blog, the judge didn’t rule on how the Human Rights Act applied to the act. Hopefully, the defendant’s will manage to get it declared incompatible and the “Designated Area” quashed on appeal.

UPDATE: Bloggerheads have more on the guy who was whisked away; he's the spitting image of Detective Seargent John Pickersgill., who works for the Metorpolitan Police, i.e. (non-City of) London police!

I've put Bloggerheads' wanted poster on the right-hand side if anyone has more info.