BRITISH FASCISTS IN COURT

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21324, 17 November 1934, Page 15

BRITISH FASCISTS IN COURT

TRIAL OF LEADERS FOLLOWS RIOTOUS MEETING LONDON, November 15. Sir Oswald Mosley and three other Blackshirts, including William Joyce, director of Fascist propaganda, and Captain Budd, West Sussex district officer, were committed for trial on charges of permitting a riotous assembly. The charges were a sequel to a Fascist meeting at Worthing on October 9. Yesterday an assault charge against Sir Oswald Mosley arising out of the same affair was dismissed. All three pleaded not guilty. There were 70 witnesses, and the case occupied five days. The prosecution alleged that Blackshirts, under the leadership of the defendants, brutally attacked the crowd, which hooted and cheered when they left a pavilion in which Sir Oswald addressed his supporters. Sir Oswald, giving evidence in the assault case, aroused a strong protest when he said that the prosecution was the result of political influence and false police evidence. Nine other blackshirts were charged variously with assault, causing damage, inciting to violence, and committing a breach of the peace at Fascist meetings at Plymouth. The prosecution alleged that a meeting on October 5, addressed by Sir Oswald Mosley, developed into a free fight. Also that during an open-air meeting on October 11 the crowd heckled the speakers, who signalled to their colleagues to launch an attack. The victims are alleged to include an octogenarian and a cripple. It is also alleged that the assailants wore metal body protectors, and had their knuckles bound with tape.