TRESPASS
15.1 Civil Trespass
If you enter a building – say a laboratory premises - without the consent
of the occupier, then you will probably be trespassing. Until the offence of
“aggravated trespass” was created in 1994, trespass in the UK was
a civil matter only. But even then the police could arrest you for breach of
the peace for refusing to leave private premises, or on suspicion of burglary,
as trespass is one of its essential components.
Points to Note
•If the premises are open to the public – eg a shop or a bank –
then you have an implied license i.e. permission to enter, and you are not trespassing.
Similarly in the case of somebody’s home, you have an implied permission
to walk up their driveway and to knock on the front door. However if you are
asked to leave by the occupier of the house or shop and you refuse, then you
become a trespasser.
•The police have been know to demand peoples’ details where they are
trespassing, so that they can hand them over to the occupier. They have no right
to demand them for this purpose and you do not have to comply with such a request.
•A landowner may use reasonable force to move you from his premises, and
anyone – including the police - may assist him with this.
15.2 Aggravated Trespass
Section 68 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (CJA) defines the
offence as follows:
A person commits aggravated trespass if he trespasses on land with the intention
of disrupting, or intimidating those taking part in, lawful activity taking
place on that or adjacent land.
Points to Note
•The offence was introduced in 1994 to deal with the problem caused to
bloodsports enthusiasts by hunt saboteurs. However it has been widely used against
other animal rights activists and road protestors as well.
•Section 59 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill has amended Section 68 of
the CJA, so that now aggravated trespass can occur inside as well as outside
buildings. This amendment was introduced after intensive lobbying of the government
by the police and the pharmaceutical industry to give them new powers to deal
with office occupations by animal rights activists and others. Previously the
police only had the power to remove such protestors from the building or to
arrest them for breach of the peace – now they have a specific power of
arrest to deal with the trespass itself.
•The law states that you cannot commit the offence from a public highway,
but you may commit the offence from a public footpath or bridleway. This is
because the right to use such footpaths and bridleways generally extends only
to the right of passage along them. Any other act can amount to trespass.
•Aggravated trespass carries a maximum sentence of three months imprisonment
or a fine. It is not an “arrestable offence”, but the act confers
a statutory power of arrest on an officer in uniform who suspects you of committing
the offence.
•The Crown Prosecution Service have not been keen on the offence, as they
have to show that the accused intended the offence – often difficult to
prove in law. The police used it extensively at the start of the Newchurch campaign
and failed to secure a single conviction! However now that the power can be
used to deal with office occupations, protestors can expect it to be used far
more widely.
•Intending something to happen is not the same as wanting it to happen.
If the prosecution can show, for example, that you knew that an occupation would
disrupt activity within the office, then this will be enough to show that you
intended it, regardless of whether you in fact wanted or desired the disruption.
•ð You cannot be prosecuted for aggravated trespass where no actual
activity is taking place to disrupt. The High Court has ruled that Section 68
CJA created a public order offence designed to deal with people disrupting persons
actually engaged in lawful activity. Section 68 cannot, therefore, be used against
activists, for example, who set off unattended badger traps, thus preventing
the badger from entering the trap.
15.3 Burglary
Section 9(1)(a) of the Theft Act 1968 states:
A person is guilty of burglary if he enters a building as a trespasser with
intent to either:
i) steal
ii) inflict GBH on someone
iii) rape someone or
iv) inflict criminal damage
Points to Note
•This is therefore a much wider offence than many people realise. To justify
an arrest, all the police need to say is that they reasonably suspected that
you entered as trespasser with intent to inflict criminal damage. They do not
have to suspect “breaking and entry” which would be a separate offence
of criminal damage.
•The police now have far greater powers to deal with aggravated trespass
than they did before as this can now be used to deal with activity disrupted
inside as well as outside buildings. However there will be occasions where no-one
is actually present when the trespass occurs, and in these cases the police
might use Section 9 (1) (a) when they have little or nothing else to justify
an arrest.
•Burglary is an “arrestable offence” under Section 24 PACE, and
therefore carries all the additional powers conferred by that. Of course you
are unlikely to get charged with burglary unless you actually do steal, or cause
criminal damage etc. You may well be able to sue the police for wrongful arrest
and unlawful imprisonment afterwards, if the police cannot give adequate reasons
for believing that you were intending to inflict criminal damage etc.
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