Baton charge in ‘heat of riot’

Press, 8 May 1980, Page 3

Baton charge in ‘heat of riot’

NZPA' London h Evidence by senior police , officers and the production ] of unauthorised weapons f confiscated from police lockers dominated the third day c of the inquest into the death j of the former Napier teach- j er, Blair Peach, yesterday. < The police inspector who e ordered '■ his men to charge the demonstrators in South- I all in April last year yester- i day said he would, make the 1 same decision again in sim- i ilar circumstances. < Inspector ’ Douglas Hopkins, head of No. 3 unit of. t the Special Patrol Group, told the inquest in the Ham- < mersmith Coroner’s . Court 1 that his order — given in i the heat of a virtual riot — had had continuing con- j sequences he could not have 1 foreseen. ' ,; ' “I greatly regret the tragic i consequences of my action, * ■ he said. “It was my action and i mine alone. I was the senior officer present, I ordered my people down there (the j street in which Mr Peach re- I ceived his fatal injury). “I am sorry for Mrs Peach (Celia Stubbs) I am: sorry for all th? bad public- i ity on the Special Patrol Group . . . I am sorry for the effect it has had on the individual careers of some of my colleagues in the S.P.G., but I would do the same thing again.” If the crowd had not been dispersed then and there, a much larger and more dangerous confrontation would have developed later. Unauthorised weapons confiscated from S.P.G. lockers last June after a search by the internal investigation branch of the Metropolitan Police, C. 1.8. 2, were produced in court. The weapons, produced as evidence with a collection of debris found by ..the. police in the .area of the riot. the. next day, included six items taken from the locker of a Constable White, suspended from duty since last June. The items taken from his locker were two small crowbars; a small, metalweighted cosh found in the pocket of a parka; a leatherbound whip handle; a leather stock whip; and a heavy brass handle such as those used on some winches. A regulation, police-issue truncheon was also in his locker. Other weapons removed from lockers included nonregulation truncheons, two pocket knives,-: a sledgehammer and ; a . sledgehammer handle, crowbars, and long wooden clubs or staves, similar to truncheons. ~ The items’ were’ produced in court after Mr Hopkins

lad been closely questioned v about the use of unautho- r rised weapons —including a s large, heavy truncheon taken 1 from his own locker. c Earlier, Mr Hopkins had a described how the atmosphere at the anti-National I: Front demonstration had be- v come more “volatile” as the f evening went on. I Stones, bricks, and bottles c had been thrown sporad- \ ically at the police and he c had gone in an S.P.G. van to ,j retrieve two plastic milk e crates filled with “ammunition” from an alley where 1 they had been found. < :■ When he returned “It was t quite obvious the situation 1 had become a lot more vol-1 atile,” Mr Hopkins said. i The S.P.G. van had been I encircled by the crowd and he had driven through it at s quite a fast speed," coming i under a heavy barrage of s missiles, one of which had 1 broken the reinforced wind- i screen of the van. ■ The crowd had earlier shouted at policemen making 1 arrests, but there had never been any interference. 1 This time it was different. ■ Sending in his men, they made one arrest “and immediately we came under a heavy barrage of bricks and : bottles,” Mr Hopkins said. One constable went down, “obviously quite badly injured,” with what was later diagnosed .as a triple fracture of the jaw. Mr Hopkins had ordered his men to draw their truncheons and to take the big riot shields out of their van. The police confronted a core of demonstrators, about 100 to 150 people standing shoulder to shoulder across the road, two or three deep. Inspector Hopkins, hit on the leg by a brick, turned to his men. “I think I shouted ; ‘Go’ and ran down the road. 1 chasing the man who had thrown a brick at me,” he : said. , - v i Mr Hopkins insisted under i cross-examination that he I had seen nobody hit. with truncheons, but he said he ; saw quite a few people fall- • ing over. ■ He had caught the man he > was chasing and jabbed him - in the chest ‘and stomach f with his truncheon as the j man tried to escape. > Under cross-examination L by Mr Stephen Sedley, coun- . sei for the Peach family, Insnector Hopkins said the use j of weapons such as nick-axe - handles had been relatively a common practice when he - was with a crime squad in r London’s East End, before g being transferred to the " $ The light police trund cheons were of “ little use is against metal bars and othei

weapons wielded by criminals, and plain clothes crime squad men had used heavy, large weapons when staking out areas after a tip-off that a robbery would take place. Mr Hopkins denied strongly that anything like that would ever be used by the S.P.G. or any policeman in policing something like a demonstration — dealing with the public under the eyes of the press, in the presence of television cameras. If Mr Peach’s fatal injury had been caused by anything other than a police-issue truncheon, as a pathologist had claimed it must have been, it could not have been a policeman who inflicted it, Mr Hopkins said. The cosh found in Constable White’s parka — made from a heavy gauge spring, topped by lead and wrapped with tape — was shown to Mr Hopkins, with another lead-weighted “blackjack” which had been bought in the United States. It was “absolutely ridiculous” to suggest such a weapon could have been used surreptitiously by a police officer in the heat of _ the demonstration, Mr Hop- ■ kins said. I Unless any unauthorised weapon had looked almost I identical to a regulation truncheon, it would have been noticed. Mr Hopkins agreed it was unlawful for the police to use truncheons for anything other 'than defence and that police regulations prohibited their use for intimidation or for offensive purposes. Any officer hitting anyone with his truncheon was expected to make a specific report of its use, in addition , to the general report from [ senior officers on whether truncheons had been used, i “But we are talking about . a riot situation. It is possible an officer would not be • aware of what he had struck i with his truncheon — a wall ] or a person.” . A constable would be expected to report using his truncheon if he had knocked > someone down with it, but J not just to report that he i had his truncheon drawn • and mieht have hit someone. Mr Hopkins told counsel i for the Metropolitan Police, - Mr Brian Watling. that it - was the first time, in almost » 20 years as a policeman he » had ordered his men to draw 3 truncheons. e “The situation was very n bad and I had very few men. eWe were greatly oute numbered and I realised if it went wrong and . we started i- to lose men it could get e very nasty indeed,” Mr Hqp:r kins said.