Guilty verdict against Hain

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33002, 23 August 1972, Page 13

Guilty verdict against Hain

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter —Copyright > LONDON, August 22. The young British campaigner against apartheid, Peter Hain, has been found guilty of conspiring to disrupt the 1969 Davis Cup tennis match between Britain and South Africa.

South African-born, Hain, who is 22, was fined a total of £2OO. He had denied a number of charges brought against him under a private prosecution by a London barrister. Hain, a student who is chairman of the Young Liberals, was the publicity spokesman for the Stop the ’7O Tour Committee that successfully campaigned for the cancellation of a South African cricket tour of Britain in 1970.

The judge directed that Hain should be found not guilty of three other charges alleging conspiracy to disrupt other sporting events involving South African teams, after the jury had failed to reach a verdict on these.

The jury was out for nearly seven hours and a half before the verdict was announced.

Hain, who conducted his own defence, was also ordered to pay £5O towards the cost of the action.

Judge Bernard Gillis emphasised throughout his summing-up that racialism in sport was not the subject the jury should be concerned with; it should decide whether Hain had broken the law.

Legal experts have been following the case closely because of its potential im-

pact on future demonstrations against touring teams.

The trial, a rare example of a private prosecution going to the High Court, lasted a month.