25th March 2014
Caroline Lucas trial: Day two – morning evidence

The officer in charge of tactics at the policing operation for last year’s anti-fracking protests at Balcombe said this morning her main concern was keeping people safe.

Superintendent Jane Derrick told Brighton Magistrates Court that she had been advised that this might override the human rights of demonstrators to free speech and assembly.

Superintendent Derrick was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of Caroline Lucas and four other anti-fracking demonstrators arrested outside Cuadrilla’s oil exploration site. Miss Lucas, 53, of Brighton is on trial along with Josef Dobraszczyk, 22, of Bristol, Ruth Potts, 39, of Totnes, Ruth Jarman, 50, of Hook, and and Sheila Menon, 41, of London. They all deny obstructing the highway and failing to comply with a police condition imposed under Section 14 of the Public Order Act on August 19^th last year.

The court heard that on August 16th Superintendent Derrick asked the then deputy chief constable, Giles York, to designate an area for demonstrators opposed to Cuadrilla’s activities. The condition was to be in place during the Reclaim the Power climate camp that came to Balcombe from 16^th-21^st August.

Superintendent Derrick said Sussex Police had employed a human rights lawyers to advise them on the protests. She had several meetings with the adviser and they visited the protest camp that had grown up outside Cuadrilla’s site on the B2036.

“It was very clear to me that I should do everything could to facilitate protesters”, Superintendent Derrick said, “but I had an overriding duty to public safety. The human rights advice was that I may interfere with some of their [the demonstrators’] rights.”

This advice, along with open source intelligence, information from police protest liaison officers, a tactical plan and tactical advice from colleagues informed Superintendent Derrick’s briefing of DCC York. Superintendent Derrick said she did not remember referring directly to the tactical plan or the tactical advice in the briefing.

Jonathan Edwards, prosecuting, then took Superintendent Derrick through the events of August 19^th, the day that the group of anti-fracking campaigners were arrested. Mr Edwards asked the officer about entries she made in Sussex Police’s computerised logging system, Cleo, where she recorded discussions, observations and decisions. The entries below give the times and Superintendent’s explanations of what was happening at the scene.

11.06
“There was a large group of protesters making their way to the Cuadrilla site.”

11.11
“A number of individuals had locked themselves on to the entrance of the site. We had a discussion about how long we would allow that to go on because they were in breach of the Section 14 order. We would take steps to move them away from that area.”

Superintendent Derrick referred to a tiered response where protest liaison officers would negotiate with demonstrators. If they continued to refuse to comply they would be arrested.

11.39
“We are trying to impose the [Section 14] condition. People were free to walk away from that area but we were not containing people.”

12.20
“There were still a number of people locked on… I was very forthright in my views that we should try to negotiate…I tasked the protest liaison officers to talk to individuals and people in the vicinity and ask them what their intentions were. The protest liaison officers said they [demonstrators] wanted to be there for the whole day.”

“I made it very clear that I was willing to try to negotiate about how long they wanted to be there but being there for the whole day was unacceptable.”

13.08
“The road had been closed because of the number of people at the entrance and spilling out into the road.”

“By now we had articulated that the protest had been going on for two hours outside the emergency access gate. There were supplies waiting to come in. I went back to Gold (the operation’s gold commander) seeking to try to negotiate [with the demonstrators]. We agreed that at some point we will need to move people off.”

14.33
“Superintendent Derrick said she had a telephone conference with the bronze commanders to review the tactical plan. We had managed to impose conditions for a number of people but we still had people in the emergency access gate to deal with.”

Superintendent Derrick will continue to give evidence this afternoon.