No age limit on law, says Met Police chief as 83-year-old arrested at protest

The protest started at about 1.10pm and officers were seen taking people away shortly after 1.30pm.

Reverend Sue Parfitt, 83, who was sat in a camp chair with placards at her feet, appeared to have been taken away by officers.

A woman seen lying on the ground in handcuffs was lifted by officers and put in a police van.

Dignity 

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley was asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg whether it was a good use of police time after the priest was pictured being taken away from the demonstration.

He said: “The law doesn’t have an age limit, whether you’re 18 or 80.

“If you’re supporting proscribed organisations, then the law is going to be enforced.

“Officers, you could see, did it with great care and tried to preserve that person’s dignity, but they’re breaking a serious law.

“Palestine Action have over the last 18 months, I have to be careful what I say, because there’s cases coming to trial, but some really serious criminal offences that they’re accused of. There are millions of pounds worth of damage on multiple occasions. There are assaults, there are weapons used.

“It is not about protest. This is about an organisation committing serious criminality and obviously the Home Secretary was persuaded by the papers on her desk to proscribe them, that law has come into force, and if people want to defy that law, then we have to enforce it.”

Appeal

Palestine Action lost a late-night Court of Appeal challenge on Friday which sought to stop the protest group being banned, less than two hours before the new legislation came into force at midnight.

The designation as a terror group means that membership of, or support for, Palestine Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

A group had earlier said it was set to gather in Parliament Square on Saturday holding signs supporting Palestine Action, according to campaign group Defend Our Juries.

In a letter to the Home Secretary, protesters said: “We do not wish to go to prison or to be branded with a terrorism conviction, but we refuse to be cowed into silence by your order.”

The move to ban the organisation was announced after two Voyager aircraft were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20, an incident claimed by Palestine Action, which police said caused around £7 million of damage.

Vandalism

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced plans to proscribe Palestine Action on June 23, stating that the vandalism of the two planes was “disgraceful” and that the group had a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage”.

MPs in the Commons voted 385 to 26, majority 359, in favour of proscribing the group on Wednesday, before the House of Lords backed the move without a vote on Thursday.

Four people – Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, Jony Cink, 24, Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 36, and Lewis Chiaramello, 22 – have all been charged in connection with the incident at RAF Brize Norton.

They appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday after being charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom, and conspiracy to commit criminal damage, under the Criminal Law Act 1977.