Two free in roof protester case

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/wales/south_east/8207380.stm

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Two property developers accused of assaulting and falsely imprisoning a rooftop protester have walked free from Cardiff Crown Court.

A judge decided it was unjust to try George Beatty and Ernest Wray because the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had dropped a case against Ricky Canty, 60.

Mr Canty was on the roof of the house in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, in protest at eviction by the previous landlord.

The protest ended when he fell through a hole, Mr Beatty and Mr Wray claimed.

Mr Canty said he was dragged from the roof by the developers, who are both from County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.

Earlier this year, a jury failed to reach verdicts on the two developers and a retrial was due to start this week.

This nearly bust us, it nearly made us bankrupt George Beatty

But Judge Keith Thomas said the CPS had mishandled the case by dropping a charge of criminal damage against Mr Canty.

He said the CPS lawyer who made that decision had abandoned his independence and shown "blatant bias" to Mr Canty.

He ordered that proceedings against Mr Beatty and Mr Wray be stayed because it would be contrary to natural justice to allow the prosecution to proceed.

A stay of proceedings is a ruling by the court halting further legal process in a trial.

The court can subsequently lift the stay and resume proceedings. However, a stay is sometimes used as a device to postpone proceedings indefinitely.

Police investigation

After the case, Mr Beatty said he was glad that justice had finally been done. But he said it had been a waste of public money in bringing the case and said the CPS had been "mad in the head".

"This nearly bust us. It nearly made us bankrupt," he said.

"It's stopped us doing business or buying anything else for the past 12 months."

Mr Canty now faces a police investigation over letters he allegedly wrote to lawyers and to a defence witness in the original trial threatening to sue them if evidence against him was repeated at a retrial.

Judge Keith Jones was told that police were planning to arrest him on suspicion of witness intimidation.

Mr Canty said he was not surprised by the decision.

For the past month, he has been protesting outside Cardiff civil justice centre about the loss of the Barry house.

He said he intended to continue that protest for the rest of his life.