Protester receives Olympics asbo

London man who opposed construction of basketball venue believed to be first to receive wide-ranging ban from Olympics

The Guardian, 17 April 2012

An activist who took part in a protest against the construction of an Olympic facility says he has been handed a court order banning him from approaching any Olympic venue, activity or official.

The interim antisocial behaviour order (asbo) given to Simon Moore, 29, is believed to be the first pre-emptive Olympic asbo requested by Scotland Yard to prevent protests at the Games. It also bars Moore from going near events to mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee, the trooping of the colour and the state opening of parliament.

Perhaps the most restrictive clause decrees that “trespassing on, or without the permission of the owner to interfere with, any building or land” would also contravene the asbo. Since breaching the order can result in jail, this section effectively criminalises all trespass, generally a civil matter.

Moore was among a group of residents and people associated with the Occupy movement who attempted to stop the construction of a basketball practice facility on Leyton Marsh, a green space near the Olympic park in east London. Protesters and their tents were removed from the site last week after the landowners won a court order.

Moore, who lives in west London but formerly spent time at the Occupy protest camp near St Paul’s Cathedral in central London, said he was charged with a public order offence after refusing a police officer’s order to leave the site. He admitted the offence in court and was briefly jailed.

On leaving Thamesmead prison in south-east London on Saturday, Moore said he was met by an officer from Scotland Yard’s public order division, CO11, who handed him an envelope containing the asbo, approved by Westminster magistrates court.

 

Read the full article here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/17/protester-receives-olympic-asbo

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