According to section 5 of the Criminal Law Act 1967, it is a criminal offence to “cause any wasteful employment of the police” The judgement regarding what defines wasteful is of course open to interpretation and I am not suggesting for one moment that Philip Hammond, Secretary of State for Defence and the Conservative MP for Runnymede and Weybridge will ever be prosecuted for this offence, but I wonder if a Jury would convict him if he was put on trial? His offence is not one that is unique to Philip and if he is guilty, then according to Amnesty International, so to are all of his recent predecessors: Liam Fox, Bob Ainsworth, John Hutton and Des Browne. However just like Mr Hammond, they have no need to prepare their defence for wasting Police Time, even though it seems likely that they have.

These offences are as a result of a trade exhibition that takes place every two years in London with the most recent occurrence in 2013 at the Exel Exhibition Centre. According to Amnesty, since 2005 there has been a breach of UK arms export control legislation at every Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEi) due to the equipment that has been displayed. Whilst the MOD has allowed illegal equipment to be displayed in a show that they sponsor, they have directed the Metropolitan Police to protect the show from demonstrators, some of whom have protested simply because of the breached laws in allowing the equipment to be sold under the rather neglectful gaze of our Government.

This morning at Stratford Magistrates Court Siobhan Grimes and Sylvia Boyes a 69 year old Quaker and grandmother from Keighley are due to stand trial. A third protestor Daniel Ashman, will be tried on 4 July. Unlike Mr Hammond and their predecessors, they cannot call upon the MOD and Cabinet Office to protect them, they have to rely on support from Parliamentarians such as the Green Party’s Caroline Lucas, Plaid Cymru’s Elfin Llwyd and Labour’s Linda Riordan. They also have the support of others like Rowan Williams and Mark Thomas (Comedian) plus many unnamed and unknown people like me.

During DSEi 2013, two companies were told to leave the fair after promoting illegal torture equipment, but they do not appear to have been charged. This was the sixth occasion on which companies were removed from DSEi for illegal activity. In each case, the removal has taken place only after exposure in the media and none of the companies have been prosecuted. There is more information about the events here. During the trial of the five protestors earlier this month which I wrote about here, a Ministry of Defence policeman admitted under cross-examination that the police at DSEi had been briefed about possible protests but not about possible illegal activity by arms dealers. Perhaps this does not amount to wasting Police Time but surely the MOD can recall that they have to eject exhibitors every time they hold this show for the last 12 years?