Posted Tuesday, August 25, 1998

Police Vendetta against Former U.K. Right-wing Leader Colin Jordan

The Yorkshire Post, August 12, 1998 Police team ransacked home, says activist Brian Dooks   THE former leader of the Right-wing British Movement, Colin Jordan, has applied for a summons against a detective sergeant in North Yorkshire Police alleging he led a team who acted illegally in a raid on his remote home in Nidderdale. Special Branch officers executed a search warrant at Thorgarth, Greenhow Hill near Pateley Bridge, on August 4, which allowed them to seize "literature, publications, printing materials and broadcast material, including audio and video tapes." But Mr Jordan, 75, who was awarded £14,000 damages and costs against North Yorkshire Police following a similar raid in 1991, claims most of the property seized was outside the bounds of the warrant and therefore illegally taken. He claims seven officers 'ransacked his home from top to bottom" and left with the rear of a large police van full of items. Mr Jordan said: "The overwhelming majority were utterly irrelevant to any conceivable charge and thus taken simply to harass and inconvenience." Mr Jordan has applied to Harrogate magistrates for a summons against Det Sgt David Dobson, of headquarters CID, requiring the officer to return all items which are not reasonably likely to be required as exhibits or evidence for any possible prosecution.

2. Mr Jordan is also asking the magistrates to order that he should be allowed to inspect and identify the seized property and have a list drawn up and agreed by himself and the police. He has made several requests for the property he alleges was unlawfully seized to be returned, but North Yorkshire Police have retained all the items. Consequently Mr Jordan has made an application to the magistrates under the Police (Property) Act 1897. He claims the Police and Criminal Evidence Act limits any search to the extent required for the purposes under which the warrant was issued and that the relevancy of material seized has to be established before it can be removed. Mr Jordan's application to the magistrates said: "Relevancy has to be determined on site at the place of search as a prerequisite for seizure and removal. Without this, seizure and removal to any place for the determination there as to relevancy, is emphatically unlawful." The application has now been sent to the clerk to the Harrogate magistrates. North Yorkshire Police spokeswoman Margaret Kirk said the superintendent dealing with the matter was away and in his absence the force had no comment. Following the June 1991 raid, the Crown Prosecution Service decided to take no action against Mr Jordan and in 1994 North Yorkshire police paid him £14,000 damages and costs. © The Yorkshire Post, 1998

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