Black Flag 215 index
Gandalf Three, the state nil
On 23rd July 1998 the Gandalf Three had their conviction for
conspiracy to incite persons unknown to commit criminal damage
contrary to section 1 (1) and (3) of the Criminal Damage Act"
quashed by Court of Appeal.
It was ruled by the court that the original charge was badly worded
as it said "Criminal Damage" but quoted the section of the act that
refers to Arson and where a charge of arson is made the specific
word arson may be used.
The Court also ruled that because the original trial judge did not
tell the jury they had to be sure we had incited people to carry out
arson as well as criminal damage there had been a fundamental
misdirection. The convictions were quashed unconditionally.
Hopefully this will hasten the collapse of the charges that continue
against Robin Webb and Paul Rogers.
This is a real victory for the three defendants but because the
convictions were quashed on a technicality suing the police is not a
real option. The court did, however, not rule that reporting direct
action cannot be an offence. The absurdity of this is that if, for
example, we reported that on 8/8/98 the words "Scum" and "Class
War" were painted on the London HQ of the Countryside Alliance this
could, in the terms of the original charges be incitement. So
everyone's learnt their lesson then.