SPEAK 15 Court Report

Monday 14th - Friday 18th May

The third week of the Encaenia ceremony trial at Bicester magistrates court will be remembered by the fifteen SPEAK supporters involved in the case as the week when amnesia seemed to effect Thames Valley police en masse.

We have now had to sit through police witnesses who have been caught on a recording which for once and all exposes what we always knew but could never prove: the real extent of the relationship between Thames Valley police and Oxford University. This week we had to sit and listen to serving TVP officers as they stretched credibility to limits even 'Rumpole of the Bailey' would have choked at. One of the defence advocates described proceedings as being like an 'out of body experience' and indeed the levels of selective amnesia displayed by officers of TVP would give any serious neuroscientist a lifetime’s research project.

Any notion that this case is not 100% political in its nature have now been dispelled the legal arguments taking place over the legalities of public order legislation are mere window dressing whilst the real motivations and decisions for trying to prosecute the SPEAK supporters are taken elsewhere.

As we wait for the fourth week of this trial to begin we have all had time to reflect on what we've seen and heard and for all of us its now more than ever apparent that our rights to protest and speak out are more directly linked to ending the suffering of animals like 'Felix' than they have ever been.

But we will not be silenced and we will never be defeated!