MY FAVOURITE CASE: Andrew Robinson, barrister:The aftermath of what became known as the 'Battle of Orgreave' in the UK showcased how defence lawyers can become the last bastion of their clients' civil rights
What is your favourite case?
The Orgreave trial of 1985. During the Margaret Thatcher era, the British government decided to close down the coal mining industry. As a result, thousands of miners lost their jobs and many went on strike. During the strike more than 10,000 miners were arrested and, out of that, 8,392 were charged with everything from breach of the peace to unlawful assembly and riot.
Orgreave was a South Yorkshire facility owned by British Steel which supplied coke to steelworks in Scunthorpe. On June 18th, 1984, miners gathered for a picket at Orgreave. It was a sunny day; they were all standing around in T-shirts and bare chests. The police turned up with riot gear, batons and dogs, and a bloody confrontation ensued during which mounted police charged at the miners.
The trial was based on the events of that day. The authorities wanted life imprisonment for 15 of the miners arrested at the riot. They said it was the most important trial of public order that century.
What happened at the trial?
Michael Mansfield QC defended three of the 95 miners charged with rioting at Orgreave. Their solicitor was Gareth Peirce, who defended the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six, where Mansfield was also the barrister.
Brian Walsh QC, prosecuting, made the opening speech in court in Sheffield standing beside an axe, ball bearings, a metal bar and a mallet and said they were a tiny sample of the arsenal of weapons with which these men had equipped the pickets. He said they charged forward against the police “in a quite terrifying display of violence which lasted several hours . . . They were sick minds who organised this”.
Bernard Jackson, one of the defendants, disagreed with this position. He said the government and the media had selectively chosen from the start of the strike to show the miners as the aggressors, but in fact these were working class people just trying to protest peacefully.
Assistant chief constable of South Yorkshire, Anthony Clement, got into the box and said that in 33 years of policing, he had never seen anything like it. He said the miners provoked his men, that the use of horses was justified and that deploying the riot police was necessary after a push came to the police cordon. He said there was a hail of missiles being hurled at police, indeed that “the sky was black with missiles”.
Over the week, Mansfield asked Clement about what happened and he talked about his version of events. Imagine it: the defence barrister letting him talk about how badly behaved and violent the miners were and how the police were attacked. Mansfield gave him just enough rope to hang himself with, and then produced an official police video.
The first tape was recorded from the roof of a building beyond the picket lines and it totally contradicted what Clement had said. There was no picket at 7.30am, no action, nothing.
The second tape showed the picket. It was still very peaceful – the odd plastic bottle floating through the air, the miners hanging around talking and smoking. The sky was not black with missiles. There was a short push against the police, and then the horses cantered straight at the protesters.
The video showed there was no barrage of stones; it showed police charging into the crowd of unarmed miners with short shields. The miners were trying to carry away their bleeding and injured comrades. It was shocking.
Clement had said the miners were rioting and attacking them, knowing it hadn’t happened. The police had lost their temper, violently attacked the miners, hospitalising and arresting many of them. They wanted life imprisonment for 15 miners who were doing nothing but engaging in a peaceful protest.
In the end the trial collapsed and about half a million pounds was paid in damages to 39 miners, but not a single one of the police were disciplined or charged with assault.
Why is this your favourite case?
There are times when a state can trample on people’s basic rights. This was a situation where the government, the media and the police acted in a terrible way to try to take away human rights. In this case the defence lawyers were the last bastion of rights – they managed to vindicate those rights.
The Orgreave case is an example of lawyers managing to uphold and vindicate their clients’ basic civil rights. It is still relevant today. Corruption continues, so we need to make sure the courts remain independent of all political interference.
ANDREW ROBINSONpresents The Brief which returns to Near FM on October 11th at 7pm