Unlawful detention by police

R (Laporte) v Chief Constable of Gloucestershire Constabulary CA TLR 13 December

Although the police had acted lawfully in stopping coaches carrying passengers from London to an anti-war demonstration in Gloucestershire because they expected that some passengers were likely to commit breaches of the peace at the demonstration, the police acted unlawfully in forcibly returning the coaches and their occupants to London. Once the coaches had embarked on the return journey, while the passengers could move about the coaches, they were unable to leave them, even to relieve themselves, until after the two-and-a-half-hour journey back to London had been completed. The passengers were virtually prisoners on the coach for the length of the journey The question arose of whether that action was justifiable as falling within the ambit of action reasonably taken to prevent a breach of the peace. If the action were to be regarded as justified, that would constitute a significant extension of the previously established principles. Such action should be very much a matter of last resort and there were less intrusive possible alternative courses of action in this case. The actions in forcibly returning the coaches were disproportionate and not justifiable in common law.