Marie Dinou - First Person in UK to be prosecuted under Coronavirus Act
A 41-year-old woman from York, who is the first person in Britain to be prosecuted under the Coronavirus Act 2020, has had her conviction quashed after it was found by legal experts that the British Transport Police (BTP), the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), and North Tyneside magistrates court, had bungled the case because she had been found guilty, using the wrong legislation.
Marie Dinou, from York, was arrested by BTP last Saturday after being found "loitering between platforms" at Newcastle Central Station and charged with failing to comply with the requirements of the Coronavirus Act 2020. She was the first person in Britain to be prosecuted for allegedly breaching Britain's coronavirus lockdown. On Monday, at North Tyneside magistrates' court, she was fined £800 after she was found guilty of "failing to provide identity or reasons for travel to police, and failing to comply with requirements under the Coronavirus Act."
According to the charge sheet, Ms Dinou, was prosecuted under Schedule 21 of the Coronavirus Act 2020. This clause is intended to force people to self-isolate or be tested for coronavirus, if they're suspected to have the virus and are endangering the public by being out of the house. But the prosecution began to unravel when BTP later confirmed that they didn't believe Ms Dinou was ill at the time of her arrest, nor did they ask her to self-isolate, or to be screened.
Legal experts, including Kirsty Brimelow QC, Chairwoman of the Bar Human Rights Committee, quickly established that the case had been bungled by BTP, the CPS, and the magistrates court, because Ms Dinou had been found guilty using the wrong legislation. Her conviction was then quashed and BTP later apologised. Ms Brimelow told 'The Times':
"Powers under the Coronavirus Act do not relate to a direction to provide identity or reason for a journey. So it seems that she (Ms Dinou), has been prosecuted and convicted for an offence which does not exist under this act."
Critics have warned that Ms Dinou's case demonstrates how the police may try to treat anyone out during the lockdown as suspect, who are 'potentially infectious', to carry out arrests. Silkie Carlow, of 'Big Brother Watch', has accused police forces of going to far. He said:
"The Coronavirus Act gives the police huge powers to police, to arbitrarily fine, detain and punish, anyone in this country. The new law defines 'potentially infectious persons so loosely, as to be meaningless and capture the entire British public...These emergency powers are the most draconian ever seen in peacetime Britain...These breath-taking powers can even be used to detain and isolate our children."
Police officers now have the powers to fine parents £60 for failing to stop a child going out.
The failed prosecution of Ms Dinou, is yet another blow for the police, who have been accused of being over-zealous and desirous of nudging the UK towards a police state. The 'National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), have issued guidance which states that under the act, police officers have no powers to 'stop and account' or force someone to explain themselves. The guidance spells out that officers can remove a youngster from the streets and anyone with them if they refuse to go home. It also says that checks on every vehicle are 'disproportionate' and the public should not be punished for travelling a reasonable distance to exercise.
Despite the NPCC urging officers "to make sensible decisions and use enforcement as a last resort", police forces in areas such as North Yorkshire, Devon and Cornwall, have put road blocks into place or deployed high visibility patrols, to quiz motorists about their plans. Derbyshire Police, were also heavily criticised for using drones to spy on fell walkers in the Peak District.
Yesterday, the 'Independent' reported that police in the Isle of Man, had taken into custody a person "for failing to adhere to the new legislation requiring him to self-isolate." It is believed that the person arrested, had recently returned to the Isle of Man, following a trip to Spain.
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5 comments:
The British police are stopping people in the street, putting up road blocks to question drivers about their intentions, and flying drones about on the moors, to spy on fell walkers. And yet, passenger arrivals at Heathrow Airport, are walking onto the streets of Britain without any screening whatsoever, for coronavirus, or quarantine measures, even if they've arrived from a high-risk country. This is crazy and scary.
How do you think the Bubonic Plague arrived in England during the 14th century, or the epidemic of Asiatic cholera in the 1830s, people brought it in from outside the country. Dickens's novel, 'Little Dorrit, begins when travellers who have disembarked from a ship, are put in quarantine, in Marseilles, to check they haven't got cholera.
Screening began in January in other airports around the world, but in the UK, it was simply ruled out as being ineffective. Public Health England said: "airports have been provided with leaflets and posters." This is like applying a sticking plaster to a gaping wound.
What is the point of telling people to stay at home, if people are still flying around the world carrying the virus with them, and spreading it about? Air travel should have been curtailed long ago.
Total cock up!
Excellent
I’m still not going to get excited about all this. We are not dealing with a heroic ‘freedom fighter’ here. This is a story about someone who behaved unwisely and in a way that had the potential to bring harm to other people. The fact that the police et al messed up the prosecution does not change this. In a liberal democracy we should determine our course of action not by whether it is legal, but whether it is sensible and reasonable. I hold the robust view about freedom of expression; that liberty is having the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. But I would find it difficult to find any defence for someone who shouted ‘Fire’ in a crowded cinema.
Ms Dinou posed no risk to anybody at Newcastle train station. She was charged under Schedule 21 of the Coronavirus Act 2020, which is intended to force people to self-isolate or be tested for coronavirus if they're suspected to have the virus and are endangering the public by being out of the house.
But the police admitted that they didn't believe she was ill at the time of her arrest, nor did they ask her to self-isolate, or to be screened, which this particular law requires and therefore, they had no right to arrest her under this act.
It's rather obvious that Mr May seems to think lightly of legality and the rule of law, preferring that our actions be dictated by what he thinks is 'sensible' and 'reasonable'. That's exactly what some police officers think, that the law is an encumbrance. This kind of thinking could lead us down a slippery slope. I'm just glad I haven't got Les May on my defence team.
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