by TheJusticeofthePeace @ 19.
Nov. 2010. – 05:29:49
Since I was appointed, only when my court sittings have been exceptionally interesting for one reason or another have I kept personal notes of events. Sometimes it`s the typical and sometimes the atypical events which trigger a memory of a sitting that at the time I did not or forgot to note. Earlier this week a witness swore whilst giving evidence. That doesn`t happen often but it was the trigger, which Hercule Poirot might have said, fired the little grey cells. The tale follows.
It was a an apparently simple case of criminal damage and an offence under sect V Public Order Act. Conan {Gender: Masculine Usage: Irish Means "little wolf" or "little hound" from Gaelic cú "wolf, hound" combined with a diminutive suffix. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the author who wrote the Sherlock Holmes mystery stories.} was built like Arnold`s first cinematic creation but wasn`t a destroyer although he was a damager having had had a previous conviction for using his spray paint where he shouldn`t have. This time he had been caught in the act by a PCSO and a P.C. He was as expected unrepresented but at about twenty three years old he seemed able to express himself verbally in front of us in his educated Dublin accent as well as he had artistically in front of a wall. He had pleaded guilty [which of course we did not initially know at the time] to the criminal damage previously but denied the sect V.
The PCSO duly gave evidence of taking the spray paint can from Conan`s hand after a bit of resistance and that the accompanying P.C. made the arrest. And then he surprised all except the defendant and the prosecutor by quoting what was said at this stage in the arrest by the P.C. “Hand over the fucking paint to my PCSO or I`ll fucking have you on assault as well you fucking can of shit!” At this point the PCSO told the court that the defendant had started shouting “Gestapo” to attract attention from the few people nearby who had “slowed their steps to watch”. The defendant did not have much to cross examine; he agreed largely with what had been said but asked if the PCSO did not think it reasonable for him to have shouted causing the very minor disturbance considering the words of the P.C. The PCSO did not think it reasonable. On his behalf our legal adviser asked the PCSO if the P.C.`s words were in his [PCSO] statement and received confirmation. P.C. Johnson would not have been selected for Robert Peel`s first force of “Peelers”. He was about five foot five and seemed years from becoming a customer for Gilette. CPS duly took him through the incident including the swearing and [he had recorded his own words in his own notebook] when asked why he had used such language told us that he was concerned for their safety and wanted to emphasis to such a large offender that he, P.C. Johnson, was in charge and he had the power and authority; not an offender the size of a heavyweight boxer. He denied, when questioned, considering both at the time and now on reflection that his swearing could have exacerbated the situation.
After hearing from the defendant who gave the impression he almost considered himself Banksy`s apprentice it took us a short time only to decide that Conan was not guilty of causing harassment alarm or distress by his words or behaviour. He was fined at the level of one week`s wages plus compensation, costs etc for criminal damage with the usual allowance for an early guilty plea. Our pronouncement, included in the court file, made clear mention of what we thought about the diminutive P.C.`s manner when conducting an arrest.