THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE NICKLIN Approved Judgment
MBR Acres Ltd -v- Free the MBR Beagles
32. The Claimants have adduced in evidence a letter, dated 3 October 2022, to the First Claimant from the Managing Director of Impex. The material parts of this letter are: “I am writing on behalf of Impex. As the protestors and you know, Impex supplies services to MBR. We were previously listed as a supplier which was specifically protected by an injunction which the previous owner of your site (Harlan) had in 2012. Whilst I know you have got a new injunction, I understand the court has not yet permitted similar protections for suppliers as what Harlan had in 2012. I know you are planning to apply for similar protections for suppliers as what Harlan had which for the reasons set out below Impex would support. As you know, we operate from a set of premises where we do not post the name of the business at the site – i.e. the site is unmarked… Despite this, since January 2022, Impex has been severely targeted by the protestors targeting your business. The protestors have been able to work out that Impex works with MBR which is why I believe we are being targeted now. On 20 January 2022, I saw Free the MBR Beagles posted a video on its Facebook page with the title “IMPEX: WE ARE WATCHING”. In the video, there is a video of me with a van at Heathrow airport unloading items into a bonded warehouse. I made the delivery a couple of weeks before Christmas 2021. I understand from you that the protestors who have been seen on social media at our site are the same people who have been at your site such as Mel Broughton [Third Defendant], Lisa Jaffray [Twentieth Defendant] and Scott Paterson [Sixth Defendant]. They regularly hold ‘Free the MBR Beagles’ placards or place ‘Free the MBR Beagles’ posters on our premises. I have seen tweets from Michael Maher [Twelfth Defendant] recently saying ‘We must close down Scumpex weak link to MBR Acres. Come on Activists what you waiting for!’ Clearly we are being targeted because of the work we do for you. The protestors target the business but also my family and home. The conduct of the protestors is not legitimate protest. It is a campaign of harassment and intimidation. I have listed some examples of what they have done recently. Targeting of Impex’s premises • On 18 January 2022, protestors ‘locked on’ at the Impex site known as [location given]. When I visited the site that day, the Protester (shouting) called me a ‘cunt’ and ‘animal murderer’ and told me that I ‘should be ashamed’. Protestors climbed on the roof of the office building, with one protestor using a loudhailer to shout, ‘Shut down Impex!”. Protestors locked a motorcycle lock to the gate of the Impex Site so that no one could gain entry to the premises all day. During the day, there were about 20-25 protestors at the Impex Site. Because of all of this, Impex was not able to move its vans or conduct business that day. • Protests at our premises have continued routinely since then. The windows of the premises have been smashed in. We regularly find the gate is locked and we have to use an angle grinder to unlock the gates. When we drive out we find protestors trying to block the vans. We get hurled abuse at when the protestors are there.
408
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator