Football fan wins battle against police
Thursday, 11 June 2009 4:59 PM
By politics.co.uk staff
A Stoke City supporter has won £2,750 compensation following an unlawful police action.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) used section 27 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act to round up more than 80 Stoke City fans prior to their club's Premier League tie with Manchester United match at Old Trafford on Saturday, November 14th, 2008.
Even though Stoke's fans had been well-behaved - the pub landlord made no complaints and has since invited them back - supporters were detained for up to four hours and forcibly transported by the police back to Stoke-on-Trent on coaches, missing the game.
Deprived of toilet facilities on the coach, Lyndon Edwards and his fellow supporters were instructed to urinate into cups, which spilled over the floor of the bus so that they had to sit with urine sloshing around their feet for the 40-mile journey back.
"I am very pleased that the GMP has conceded they were in the wrong and satisfied with the compensation awarded," Mr Edwards said.
"Hopefully the forthcoming judicial review will have a positive outcome for football supporters too and prevent section 27 from being used in this manner again."
He contacted the Football Supporters' Federation (FSF) to complain about his treatment at the hands of the GMP once he had been returned home.
The FSF teamed up with civil-rights organisation Liberty and took GMP's use of section 27 to judicial review. GMP have conceded that the legislation was never intended to be used on large groups of people.
Its original purpose was to target individuals or small groups displaying drunken behaviour - something the police showed no evidence for in this case.
James Welch, Liberty's legal director, said: "This is yet another example of overly broad powers being used inappropriately. If you give the police powers that are not tightly defined, it leaves open the possibility of abuse."
Stoke City offered to underwrite £20,000 of Lyndon's legal costs during the case.
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