'Shouted me down'

Press, 8 April 1978, Page 19

'Shouted me down'

Traffic Officer McLeod had said. “Get out. I’m ordering you out,” and was “sort of dancing round alongside the driver’s seat.”

He thought Mr McLeod assumed he had “sneaked away” and was escaping. He tried to explain to him

that he (the traffic officer) had made a mistake, and that the witness was

authorised to leave, and that the ticket was being posted to him.

“1 intended to explain.” Mr Jones said. “1 barely got a word out. He .completely shouted me down.” Traffic officer McLeod had said he did not have a seat belt on, which was true. Mr McLeod then paused, heard the initial part of his explanation, and shouted at him to get off the road. He did so. He felt Mr McLead had made a reasonable error, and an understandable one. Witness was merely trying to explain at that stage. Mr Jones said he asked Traffic Officer Ruane to tell Mr McLeod that he had given him permission to leave. Mr Ruane did not reply, but looked at Mr McLeod, and nodded to him. "He never said a single word throughout any of this.” Mr Janes said. “He just stood and watched in a very helpless way. He seemed to be in awe of Officer McLeod.” Mr McLeod had then started to smirk and “adopt this sort of smug attitude.” He had smiled,

saying, “We have got plenty of time. And a radio programme, we will see about that.”

“When it became apparent to me the situation I was in, and clearly Officer Ruane would not intervene and explain to Mr .McLeod that I had permission to leave, I lost my temper,” Mr Jones said.

“I lost, my temper at Ruane, not ’at McLeod, though I was certainly angry at McLeod’s attitude.

“He seemed to be enjoying the situation, whereas Ruane was bewildered.” Mr Jones said he started to return to his car. He told Mr McLeod that if he would not tell him why he was detaining him then he was leaving. Mr McLeod ordered him to stay where he was.

Mr McLeod said he could do what he liked, and “What was I going to do about it?” At this point witness had asked for Mr McLeod’s name. Mr McLeod had said that if he tried to drive away, he would take the kevs.

Mr Jones said he then walked round ta the front of the car and asked Miss Hail to get into the driver’s seat.

Mr Jones agreed that in the course of his narrative on the Radio Windy broadcast he had used words such as “flaccid white face,” and “fat-bel-lied.”

Mr Jones said that in the alleged incident he had

experienced a gross illustration of the sort of thing that was frequently talked about on his programme, and which he had always mocked.

He had frequently found himself in the role of supporting the police and the traffic authorities.

“The word ‘pig’ was often used about the police. I took offence to that, and still do in respect of the police and traffic authorities.” Cross-examined by Mr D. Castle, Mr Jones agreed that. one. of. the contrasts in his evidence with that given for Mr McLeod was “an explicit denial by you that you threatened "to broadcast the case of any traffic officer on the Radio Windy programme.”

Mr Castle: That is a fabrication by these two officers? — Yes. You had behaved reasonably throughout, had you not? — I had, indeed.

During further crossexamination, Mr Jones denied that he had a personal animosity towards Traffic Officer McLeod.