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| Police had 'no power' to take 'kettled' woman's details | Police had 'no power' to take 'kettled' woman's details |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Police officers who took the personal details of a woman "kettled" during a trade union rally in 2011 acted unlawfully, the High Court has ruled. | Police officers who took the personal details of a woman "kettled" during a trade union rally in 2011 acted unlawfully, the High Court has ruled. |
| The court ordered the Metropolitan Police to delete records of Susannah Mengesha and film and photographs taken of her at the demo. | The court ordered the Metropolitan Police to delete records of Susannah Mengesha and film and photographs taken of her at the demo. |
| Her details were taken while she was contained by police while a legal observer during the London protest. | Her details were taken while she was contained by police while a legal observer during the London protest. |
| A judge ruled officers had no powers to film her or take her name and address. | A judge ruled officers had no powers to film her or take her name and address. |
| Ms Mengesha, a law graduate, was part of a group of protesters who were contained by police near London's Piccadilly Circus for two hours on 30 November 2011 at a trade union march against public sector pension cuts. | |
| Police said the "kettle" - which involves police forming a barrier around protesters to keep them within a fixed area - was "necessitated by a reasonably apprehended imminent breach of the peace". | |
| Before being allowed to leave, police filmed Ms Mengehsa and made her hand over personal information. | |
| The Met had argued they were entitled to obtain, and retain, the information for crime prevention purposes, but Lord Justice Moses said they had acted outside their powers. | |
| "The absence of any statutory power to obtain identification in the circumstances in this case establishes conclusively the unlawfulness of the police action in requiring (Ms Mengesha) to be filmed and give her name and address and date of birth before she was released from containment," he said. |