A 25-year-old Bristol student was arrested in a dawn raid at his house and locked in a police cell for 12 hours after video evidence emerged of him stroking a police horse at an anti-tuition fees demonstration.
Paul Saville, a final-year student at the University of the West of England, says he was questioned about an alleged public order offense after the BBC screened footage shot by a protester on Nov. 24 that showed him stroking a police horse seconds before a firework was set off, causing the horses to panic.
Avon and Somerset police allege he was involved in a conspiracy to distract the mounted officer, while a “friend” in the crowd threw the firework.
The criminology and sociology student says he was arrested at his home on Dec. 18 at 5;30am and locked in a cell, refused access to a solicitor and denied a pen and paper, a telephone call and two of his three meals, while he waited to be questioned about charges of affray and conspiracy to commit affray.
Police also searched his apartment and Saville said his laptop, hard drive, notebooks, mobile phone and coat where also removed by police as part of the investigation.
Saville has been arrested three times before, the last late last year, after being caught writing slogans such as: “Liberty. The right to question it. The right to ask: ‘Are we free?’” in water--soluble chalk on Bristol pavements. After each of those arrests, police dropped charges and Saville said he was awarded compensation totaling £3,250 (US$5,000).
“They came for me at five in the morning and it’s obviously quite disorientating because I was then put in a cell to stew. I didn’t know why I was there and I didn’t understand the charge of affray and when I asked for a solicitor, they said I’d have one when I was interviewed. I had a panic attack, but when I pressed the button again and again, no one came,” Saville told the Observer.
“Their first line of questioning was to ask, ‘Is this you in the video?’ I said that it was me. I’ve got nothing to hide. My face was covered that day, but I think I’m right to be concerned about the surveillance state and forward intelligence teams,” Saville said about the 30-minute police interview.
“Then they went on to the firework, and asked whether I’d thrown it. I said: ‘How can you throw a firework when you’re stroking a horse? You can’t light it with one hand.’ So they dropped that line of questioning. Then they suggested I was stroking police horse to distract police while a ‘friend’ threw the firework, but that isn’t true either,” he said.
“A 25-year-old man was arrested at his home at 5:35am on Saturday Dec. 18 on suspicion of affray,” a spokesperson for the Avon and Somerset police said.
No further comment was given.
Saville remains on bail until Jan. 26. The maximum sentence for affray is three years in prison.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the