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Notes
This case gives some guidance as to what can constitute "lawful activity" if you are charged with aggravated trespass. The defendant had climbed a tree on the site of the Newbury bypass, in order to obstruct the work of the contractors. He was charged with aggravated trespass, and in his defence he argued that the contractors were not engaged in lawful activity. This was founded on the fact that one of the chain saw operators was not wearing gloves, which amounted to an infringement of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The judge ruled that this did not make the activity of the contractors unlawful, and distinguished between the fundamental activity of the contractors in felling the trees, and the manner in which the activity was carried out. Although there may have been an infringement in the law in the way in which the trees were being felled, the fundamental activity in building the bypass was lawful. Furthermore this was the activity which the protestors were seeking to prevent.
This case shows the limitations of arguing that the activity you were seeking to disrupt was unlawful in a case like this. You would have to do more than show that one or two laws had been broken in the way the activity was carried out, and argue that the activity was in itself unlawful.
For example, it would not be enough to show that workers in an animal testing laboratory had broken the law by using cruelty towards animals, if the laboratory was licensed to perform legal experiments. On the other hand, someone extracting peat without planning permission would be engaged in fundamentally unlawful activity and you could not be convicted of aggravated trespass for disrupting them.
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