2022

USING THE JUDICIARY

Since early 2021 CGAN pressed the criminal justice system to force the police act in accordance with the law and commence the criminal investigation.

We regularly wrote to the board members of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), held demonstrations outside the CPS HQ, the Magistrates Association, the High Court as well as New Scotland Yard.

We were also writing to judges and magistrates who heard climate protest cases. Where we heard the name of the judge and the court where a trial had taken place, we wrote to point out a terrible miscarriage of justice.

We explained that none of the climate protests in 2020 onwards would have happened if the police had acted on the legislation in 2019. We argued that had the police mounted a criminal investigation, government ministers would have changed their policies, rapidly decarbonising the economy and no one would have been compelled to protest.

CGAN believes it was due to the letters being sent to judges that The Met Police was eventually forced into the position where it had to explain in detail why it believed it could not commence a criminal investigation.

Three letters are provided here that demonstrate what we said to judges and how our thought process evolved over time.

On 30 August 2022 we wrote to District Judge Talwinder Kaur Buttar at Luton Magistrates Court.

On 15 December 2022 we wrote to Judge Alexander Milne at Southwark Crown Court.

On 19 February 2023 we wrote to District Judge Graham Wilkinson at Wolverhampton Magistrates Court.

On 10 August 2023, when CGAN had proven that The Met’s case was critically flawed, we posted letters to all judges who had heard climate protest related cases (where we had the name and court of a case).

We also sent judges the letter of 27 July to the Met Police that summarised the facts relating to our case and the evidence that The Met knew its position was unlawful.

We must wait to see how the judiciary will react.

Is the judiciary independent? Does the judiciary believe in the rule of law? Does the judiciary believe in the right to a fair trial? Will the judiciary turn a blind eye when it sees cases being brought to trial, where the protest action only occurred because The Police had refused to act on legislation enacted by Parliament (ICCA 2001)? Will the judiciary allow a trial to proceed where, to this day, The Met Police remain determined to ignore the law and pervert the course of justice?

We will soon know.

NEXT

CASE PROVEN