There is an interesting post on the EUReferendum blog.
This stop and search was presumably under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000,if it was not on Ministry Of Defence property.
The provisions of which were ruled illegal by the European Court of Human Rights on the 12th of January 2010.
In fact the British government had agreed to suspend section 44:
"3. Following the courts judgment in Gillan and Quinton the UK
government announced that it would suspend the use of S 44 stop and
search without reasonable suspicion.
Guidance was accordingly disseminated to chief constables to suspend use of this power."
Guidance was accordingly disseminated to chief constables to suspend use of this power."
Doctor North might like to seek legal clarification over this incident.
The noted Eurosceptic failed to notice the number plate of the police vehicle which stopped him.
He may notice the irony if this stop was indeed in violation of European law.
*Not neccessarily those shown in the above picture which is taken from the Ministry Of Defence website and used here only for illustrative purposes.
*Not neccessarily those shown in the above picture which is taken from the Ministry Of Defence website and used here only for illustrative purposes.
Dr North might like to thank his stars that he does live in a free country,instead of bleating about being checked out. Which I find reassuring in this day and age.
ReplyDeleteIndeed in many countries not only would his camera either have been confiscated or destroyed,but he might have found himself still being questioned. Still I suppose that to a self important person such as he,20 minutes is a waste of his obviously precious time.
So we should be grateful the police dont indulge in random murder?
ReplyDelete"The author was stopped and questioned by members of the Ministry Of Defence Police force*.
ReplyDelete"This stop and search was presumably under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000".
You presume wrong!
Notice the absence of a SEARCH.
S44 Terrorism Act 2000 gives a Constable in uniform the power to stop and search any individual without suspicion.
"Stopping and accounting" (i.e. questioning to account for a person's presence in a locality or recent activities etc) is a routine police task which has been around in common law since Robert Peel's day. And one that does not require any legal justification or special powers, (other than s163 of Road Traffic act 1988 if in a Motor Vehicle on a public road). All encounters where a person is Stop and Accounted have for some time been recorded on a Stop and account form.
Any subsequent search from a stop and account would require legal justification (such as reasonable suspicion) under the various legislation that provide a power of search i.e. s1 PACE 1984, s23 Misuse Drugs Act 1971 or even (the still extant) s43 Terrorism Act 2000.
MDP have full constabulary powers nationwide which are not confined to MOD Property or purely MOD matters.
So the MDP clearly haven’t been acting illegally have they.
Hello,
ReplyDeletethe following is the content of a post by the spammer albina N muro whose posts are being deleted because they all contain links to certain businesses but at least some of them contain interesting content like this:
"Following the courts judgment in Gillan and Quinton the UK
government announced that it would suspend the use of S 44 stop and
search without reasonable suspicion"
Grand Logistics.