G20 protesters to challenge 'kettling' tactics

Solicitors acting on behalf of protesters caught up in clashes at the G20 demonstrations will launch a legal challenge today.

Experts will bring a judicial review of police tactics such as "kettling" to contain people and the excessive use of force.

Activists who staged the Bishopsgate climate camp want an explanation of how the Metropolitan Police handled the controversial City of London events in April.

They have also demanded that senior officers provide a legal basis for the practice of containing protesters in one place for extended periods of time.

But activists admitted they have only one confirmed litigant, Chris Abbott, for their High Court bid.

Mr Abbott, 30, from Reading, said he was punched in the face and struck repeatedly by riot shields when officers charged without warning.

The £50,000 legal action also faces a financial black hole as activists have only raised £11,000 so far. The gap may be filled by taxpayer-funded legal aid.

Management consultant Frances Wright, 40, who worked as a legal observer at the climate camp, said the challenge may set a legal precedent.

She said: "We want to create some legal precedent with a legal review. We are not in it to get money, we just want to make a difference to case law.

"The police talk about accountability for their actions before the law and this is part of that process, a judicial review."

John Halford, of Bindmans solicitors, said: "There is something unreal about a police operation, which had as one of its avowed aims facilitating peaceful protest, leading to hundreds of peaceful people being penned in for several hours, scores of assaults by police officers and a fatality.

"More unreal still is the institutional position taken by police in response to this claim: that nothing whatever went wrong and that everything was authorised by law.

"The events of April 1 suggest that the police have no meaningful understanding of the limits of their powers, much less their proper role, and that the courts will need to explain it to them in the clearest of terms."

Several reviews and inquiries were already under way after a barrage of complaints of police brutality during the demonstrations.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is probing several allegations of violence by police and claims the media were misled.

The most high-profile complaint followed the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson after he was hit with a baton and pushed to the ground.

HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Denis O'Connor will reveal the preliminary findings of his review of public order tactics next week.

Protesters have also brought a second judicial review linked to the actions of police at a camp at the Kingsnorth power station in Kent last year.

They were challenging the blanket use of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act to search everyone who attended.