UK: Wapping protesters receive 90000 for assault
01 July 2003
Three trade unionists have been awarded nearly £90,000 by Edmonton County Court, after being wrongfully arrested, assaulted and maliciously prosecuted by the Metropolitan Police after a demonstration outside Rupert Murdoch's News International (NI) plant, at Wapping, east London, in January 1987.
The dispute, which lasted over a year, arose following the sacking of 6,000 printworkers, at a days notice, by NI - which publishes the Sun, News of the World, Today, Sunday Times and Times newspapers - and their clandestine replacement by members of the Electricians Union, the EEPTU. The printworkers unions, the NGA and SOGAT, backed their sacked members and called for the picketing of the plant and a boycott of their papers.
George Hickman, Martin Wheeler and Jeff Charlton, had travelled from the West Midlands to attend a demonstration outside the plant on the first anniversary of the dispute. During the demonstration, in which mounted police and police with riot shields and truncheons repeatedly charged demonstrators, the three men took shelter in a local public house which was later raided by the police. The court was told that during the raid the three men were forced into an alley were they were beaten and assaulted before being thrown into a police van where they were beaten once again. Mr Hickman was then falsely charged with assaulting a policeman, Mr Charlton with obstruction and Wheeler for being drunk and disorderly. All the charges against them were dismissed when they came to court in 1989. The three men began civil proceedings against the policemen which resulted in their award.
The six officers involved in the incident - PCs Ian Storrar, Nigel Pratt, Robert Goodger, Gavin Steff, Ivan Szubinb and Terence Chitty - were charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. When the case came to court in 1989 the charges were dismissed because of a delay in informing the officers that they were to be charged.
All six officers are still on active duty. PC Terence Chitty, is currently under investigation by Scotland Yard's Operation Jackpot enquiry into allegations of corruption at Stoke Newington police station. He has been accused of conspiracy to supply drugs planting drugs assault and fabricating evidence in at least nineteen cases.
One of the senior officers in charge of policing the Wapping dispute was Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner, Wyn Jones, who has been the subject of a two-year internal investigation for corruption, following allegations that he accepted free holidays from Conservative Party backer and businessman, Asil Nadir. A tribunal report, which cleared him of these allegations has, nonetheless, led Home Secretary, Michael Howard, to call for him to be sacked.
Guardian 25.6.93; Community Defence July 1993; Independent 25.6.93; Observer 27.6.93.