R168 & Anor, Re Application for Judicial Review (Suspension of police constable)

Ronan Lavery KC and Richard Smyth (instructed by Edwards & Co, Solicitors) for the applicants Brett Lockhart KC and Philip Henry (instructed by the Crown Solicitor�s Office) for the respondent

[2]������� The applicants were represented by Mr Lavery KC and Mr Smyth; and the respondent was represented by Mr Lockhart KC and Mr Henry.� I am grateful to all counsel for their assistance by way of their written and oral submissions.

[6]������� It is not the function of this court on an application for judicial review to make detailed factual findings about precisely what happened when the applicants engaged with those in attendance at the commemorative event.� I have, however, been provided with a range of affidavit evidence about this, as well as police radio call logs and footage recorded on the first applicant�s body-worn camera.� Both sides have made submissions on the detail of the factual picture to some degree.

[9]������� The radio logs suggest that the officers indicated they were going to �have a bit of engagement� with those in attendance if the sergeant was �happy enough.�� The sergeant said he thought that was best but that, if they met with �any resistance� to �just back off�, although it would be good to get some body-worn footage.� The event was initially considered to be some kind of �protest� and it is clear that, in the early stages, neither the officers nor the sergeant knew about the nature of the event.�

[13]����� What happened in the minutes after the first applicant indicated that he would seek to have a chat to the organiser/speaker lies at the heart of the action later taken against the applicants.� This culminated in the arrest of an individual, a Mr Sykes, who was both a bereaved relative of the Sean Graham attack and himself a survivor of the attack (having been shot during it).� The applicants� version of events at the time, as summarised in their radio transmissions, is summarised above.