Protesters who blocked a coach from taking asylum seekers from a London hotel to the Bibby Stockholm barge have been cleared of criminal charges.
Oliver Smith, 32, Murray Kemp, 29, Kerrica Kendall, 27, Beatrice Davidson, 22, and Jacob Gower, 23, were found not guilty of wilfully obstructing a highway at Stratford Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Police arrested the demonstrators in May after a crowd surrounded a coach outside the Best Western Hotel on Peckham Road, in south London which was due to take asylum seekers to the Bibby Stockholm in Portland, Dorset.
District Judge Sushil Kumar dismissed the case against the five protesters after the prosecution failed to present any evidence against them, due to Met Police officers who were meant to testify in the case failing to arrive at court on time.
He said: “The Crown offers no evidence towards the defendants,” before announcing a ‘not guilty’ verdict against the five demonstrators. Mr Kumar added that he would release a longer written statement on the verdict after the hearing.
Supporters of the defendants gathered outside the court cheered as the five protesters left the building on High Street, Stratford. Speaking outside the court after being cleared, one of the defendants, Beatrice Davidson said she had no regrets.
She said: “The whole thing feels like a screwed-up geography field trip. We were driven around in a police carrier for an hour after they arrested us.
“They had too many people to interview and they had no idea what the evidence was.
“The resources they used to arrest us and for this whole process doesn’t make sense. If I thought I did something bad I would be stressing, but I have no regrets at all.”
Another of the defendants, Kerrica Kendall, added: “What we did shows what happens when the community comes together. We love asylum seekers and migrants.”
A number of asylum seekers were due to be removed from the Best Western hotel in Peckham when the coach pulled up outside the building at around 8am on May 2. But soon after it arrived demonstrators surrounded the vehicle, preventing it from moving.
The coach eventually left the area without any asylum seekers on board around seven hours later at 3pm after police began removing protesters.
The Bibby Stockholm, which is moored off Portland in Dorset, has been used to house asylum seekers since August 2023. In December 2023, 27-year-old Albanian asylum seeker Leonard Farruku was found dead on the barge. He is thought to have taken his own life.
In July, the Home Office said it would not renew the contract for the vessel beyond January 2025. Hundreds of men have since been moved off the barge.
Strict restrictions in place at Stratford Magistrates’ Court meant only five members of the public were allowed into the courtroom to watch the trial. Security frisked members of the press and public and asked them to take their shoes off before allowing them entry to the room. The five people sitting in the public gallery also had to hand in their phones.
