An excellent article that highlights the civil liberties that were smashed to pieces in the recent police search of Cliff Richards house and the media circus surrounding it. As it says: Why was a search warrant granted? The law (the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act) requires police to satisfy a justice of the peace not only that there are reasonable grounds for believing an offence has been committed (if so, why had he not already been arrested?), but that there is material on the premises both relevant and of substantial value (to prove an indecent assault 25 years ago?). and This in itself is an interesting example of how historic English liberties – the rule against “general search warrants” achieved by John Wilkes in the 18th century – are now ignored. Although there is a section of the law headed “Search warrants – Safeguards” and a provision which requires police when applying for a warrant to actually identify the article they are looking for, this is routinely ignored. Here the police searched for five hours and took whatever they wanted. How would any of us feel, if on holiday, we suddenly saw a police search of your house on all the tv screens, with a photo of your goodself with allegations (with no proof) that the police are searching your house because they think that in the past you were a rapist/paedophile/terrorist (Irish/Islamic/Animal-rights)..................and then have members of the public using facebook to reiterate that they though you were.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 10:07:56 +0000
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