Your home may be your castle after all - as far as the police are concerned, at least

In an interesting and important judgment, the Divisional Court has allowed an appeal against a conviction for assaulting an officer in the course of the execution of his duty.

Briefly, shouting and screaming was heard from a house and, after seeing and speaking to the occupants, who were not harmed and did not wish to allow them in, officers forced entry into the property under section 17 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which permits them to do so for the purpose

of saving life or limb or preventing serious damage to property

The court stated that the stress on seriousness demonstrated that

Parliament intended that the right of entry by force without any warrant should be limited to cases where there was an apprehension that something serious was otherwise likely to occur, or perhaps had occurred, within the house

A proposition with which I think we would all agree (the emphasis is added and is my own).

Absent such possibilities for immediate harm in the case in question, the court held that police were wrong to force their way into the home, so could not properly be said to be acting "in the course of the execution of their duties" - and that the conviction the householder received for headbutting and spitting on them when they came in was therefore a wrongful conviction.

The points I would seek to make is this. How can the (rightly) rigid culture of restriction on effecting entry without a warrant by constables be squared with the ease with which entry without a warrant can be effected by so many council officials?

By Alex Deane

Comments

[Mrs J,Harrison]

I am a 72 year old pensioner and after being a tenant for donkeys years with various councils and housing associations, I am now with Wakefield H/A I have been told that as I am a new tenant, I am on probation and have to have 4 visits by the housing officer. Triouble is, I am profoundly deaf and cannot hear the door, I do not wear my aids in the house because I find it to noisy, however, the officer concerned will only do what I can only describe as a stealth visit, i.e. she refuses to say when she will be coming. I now have had a snotty letter telling me that I am refusing to let this woman in and I am in breach of my tenancy and could be evicted? also, I have had a water meter for the past 10 years and I am told that I cannot have one fitted without permission and not for the first 12 months? they are charging me £7pw for water and I have never paid more than £6 per month with a meter? I feel I am being victimized here. I have other grumbles too regarding the intercom which is fitted here but which I cannot hear, no matter how many times I write to them about my deafness, (since birth) they always send me a phone num,ber to ring? is there anything I can do about this?

[Purlieu]

Perhaps this ?
http://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/

[Jimbo]

"it is a serious matter for a citizen to have his house entered against his will and by force by police officers" so said Mr Justice Collins in the case Alex cites above. However, it is not advisable to headbutt the police or anyone else nor to spit at them. Asserting that your home is your castle is as much a minefield as making a citizen's arrest: both can go very, very wrong and lead to a lot of trouble.

Re DNA and fingerprints: has the claimant SHAHEED SYED got them back?

[LeChiffre]

Good luck, Mrs J. Harrison. Try:

Wakefield Citizens Advice Bureau
Ground Floor
27 King Street
WAKEFIELD
West Yorkshire
WF1 2SR

More details here:
http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/bureau_detail.htm?serialnumber=100721

[Alex Deane]

Mrs Harrison,

I've dropped your local newspaper a line - we'll see what they have to say!

Jimbo - of course - you are right - I would never advocate that people behaved as the appellant did in that case, notwithstanding his successful appeal!