I’m thinking of joining a protest, what do I need to be concerned about?

If you’re thinking of joining a protest and it turns violent this is not enough for you to be guilty of any offence. However, you need to be really careful should you be a part of a protest which becomes violent. The best legal advice would be that should a protest you are attending turn violent, you should leave as soon as you are able to. You should not do anything which might be interpreted as participation. You don’t need to throw anything or be violent to another person. Shouting encouragement, for example, is a way in which you could end up being caught under the law of joint enterprise, making you liable for the acts of others who are throwing articles or being violent.

However, should you engage in activities that would normally be lower level crimes such as criminal damage or threatening behaviour, there can be very serious consequences if you are part of a wider protest, much more serious than if you were engaging in that behaviour as an individual. Where you are part of a protest group and engage in this sort of behaviour you are likely to be charged with violent disorder.

Violent Disorder

Violent disorder requires there to be a group of at least 3 people using or threatening unlawful violence such that a person of reasonable firmness (who need not actually be present) was in fear for their personal safety. There is no requirement that the 3 use or threaten violence simultaneously and there is no requirement that the group have a common purpose so situations where people are fighting in rival groups is covered. The maximum sentence is 5 years.

Riots

You will have seen that the protests which turn violent are often called riots. The offence of riot still exists but in our experience is very rarely used by the police and prosecution. For riot there needs to be at least 12 people present using or threatening unlawful violence and they need to share a common purpose. Riot is therefore more difficult to prove, which is why the prosecution usually prefer the offence of violent disorder. Riot has a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.

Joint Enterprise

Rather than treat everyone’s behaviours individually at a protest the police and Crown Prosecution Service will treat them as acting in joint enterprise, meaning one crime that everyone is together committing. It may even be the case that you are held liable for acts after you have left the protest. In the past the courts have held that where a protester crosses the line and commits a criminal offence, he is liable for act committed later as he must bear responsibility for the escalating violence.

It’s important to note that the sentence you receive for violent disorder, because it is a joint enterprise, is based on the overall harm caused; so if a police officer is injured or extensive property damage is caused you will be sentenced for that even if you did not directly cause the injury or carry out the property damage. You can throw a bottle as part of a violent disorder and have it smash harmlessly on the ground but you’re then liable for everything else that results from other people’s actions at the protest.

Recent experience

We have many decades of experience of dealing with large scale violent disorder offence and there has been a sharp increase in how offenders are treated recently as opposed to years ago. If you are charged with an offence of violent disorder as part of a protest then the likelihood is that, even without any previous convictions, you will not be given bail and you will be remanded  into custody at your first appearance at Magistrates’ Court as the prosecution will say you are at risk of committing further offences if given bail. Sentences are often in the range of 1-3 years, even for first time offenders.

Our firms’ experience of representing clients charged with such offences is decades long going back to the Shields Ferry riots in 2000 when a fight between rival football gangs resulted in sentences of four years for the ringleaders and some of the 26 others involved receiving reasonably short custodial sentences and some community orders. Were this offence to come before the courts today then it is unlikely anyone would be spared jail and the sentences imposed would be significantly longer.

The next major incident in Newcastle was the disorder in April 2013 following Newcastle United v Sunderland in a derby game at St James’ Park.  this featured in the infamous ‘horse puncher’ Barry Rogerson who received a one year custodial sentence. Others convicted at the time again received custodial sentences almost exclusively. Again, it is undoubtedly the case that were that case to come before the courts today, sentences would be longer.

The most recent major incident in Newcastle was the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in 2021 which saw both BLM protestors and counter protestors charged with violent disorder. The difference between this incident and those mentioned above is that the judge was required to sentence using sentencing guidelines issued in 2020, which provide for much stiffer sentences for offences involving large scale disorder.

We represented clients on both sides of the protests and the courts made no distinction based on the ideology of those present, they looked only at the actions of the protestors. Everyone convicted of the offence, some of whom did not do very much but were said to part of a joint enterprise, received a custodial sentence ranging from two to three and half years in custody.

It’s important to note that very few people are arrested at the actual time of the offending. All the police attending will have body warn cameras and there will be undercover plain clothes officers dispersed through to covertly record the protest. Footage filmed by others is also often put on social media and recovered by the police.  Afterwards the police will comb through the footage, most often looking for people throwing projectiles or assaulting emergency workers and will then look to identify individuals and arrest them. So even if you have already been to a protest recently and not yet been arrested, you may well be if you are identified by the police. Once arrested we are most often seeing clients charged and refused police bail put before the court the following morning and, to prevent further offending, remanded to prison until either they are tried or sentenced.