MR JUSTICE NICKLIN Approved Judgment
MBR Acres Ltd -v- Curtin
as possible, without unruly demonstrators kicking cars or doing something off their own bat. There’s a joint enterprise here between the police [and] the protestors… even though it’s slower, it’s better than driving through a mob”. 190. Ms Bolton put to Mr Curtin that the staff could not simply pass by the protest, he (and others) had held them up and they had to endure the protest. Mr Curtin answered: “ For a temporary and relatively tiny amount of time ”. 191. My findings in relation to the pleaded 12 August 2021 incident are: (1) Mr Curtin (with others) obstructed the vehicles leaving the Wyton Site from gaining access to the highway. As such, Mr Curtin interfered with the First Claimant’s common law right of access to the highway by being part of a group of protestors who stood around and at times in front of the vehicles as they attempted to leave the Wyton Site. The obstruction was short-lived; being measured in a few minutes. It will have caused only minor inconvenience. (2) To the extent that there was any obstruction of the highway in this incident, it did not amount to a public nuisance. The obstruction was temporary and, applying the test of what amounts to “public nuisance” (set out in [93] above), it affected only a limited number of private individuals rather than the public generally. The only people affected by the obstruction were the employees of the First Claimant who were delayed leaving the Wyton Site for a few minutes. 15 August 2021 192. The events that took place on 15 August 2021, although significant in relation to the claim against “Persons Unknown”, were not relied upon by the Claimants to advance any specific claim against Mr Curtin. Mr Curtin had relied upon this incident as demonstrating his role in attempting to calm the demonstrators and to ensure that they kept their protest within lawful bounds. By the 15 August 2021, Mr Curtin accepted, it was generally known amongst the protestors that the Claimants were intending to apply for an interim injunction. 193. As usual, there is video evidence available to demonstrate what happened on 15 August 2021. It was an event of a different order and scale from the ‘rituals’, as Mr Curtin called them. A large demonstration had been arranged for 15 August 2021, organised by Free the MBR Beagles (see Interim Injunction Judgment [22(10)]. It lasted most of the day, finishing at between 4-5pm. At its height, it was estimated to have been attended by around 250 demonstrators. There was a suggestion that up to 5 people had been arrested by the police (see Interim Injunction Judgment [17(17)]). 194. The number of people in attendance at this protest meant that, at times, the carriageway outside the Wyton Site was blocked and became impassable; indeed, for some period it may have been closed by the police. The morning arrival of the staff in the usual convoy of vehicles was being managed by the police, who had held back the vehicles some distance from the Wyton Site. Mr Curtin’s evidence was that his intention was to facilitate the arrival of the staff at the Wyton Site. In one section of the recordings, Mr Curtin can be heard asking other protestors to show discipline. Ms Bolton put it to him that he was doing so because of the impending injunction application. Mr Curtin disagreed that was the sole reason, but accepted that it was a factor:
117
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator