A campaigner from Brighton has lost his bid to have his details removed from a police database of political protesters.
John Catt, 91, was at the Supreme Court today to fight the Metropolitan Police’s appeal against an earlier ruling which found in his favour.
Mr Catt, of Shepherds Croft, Withdean, said that he was a peaceful protester, not involved in any criminality. As such, his inclusion on the National Domestic Extremism Database breached his right to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
But Supreme Court judges today (Wednesday 4 March) allowed the police appeal by a majority of four to one.
The court heard that Mr Catt had been included on the database after taking part in Smash EDO demonstrations. The Court of Appeal had accepted that he had not taken part in any of the disorder associated with some of those protests.
The Court of Appeal ruling said that his original inclusion was lawful but the continuing retention of his details was not.
James Welch, legal director at human rights group Liberty, said: “Today’s judgment is deeply disappointing. The freedom to protest peacefully is a fundamental right, not something we get to exercise only in exchange for handing over another vital right – the right to privacy.
“Mr Catt is no ‘domestic extremist’. He has committed no crime. Yet today’s decision gives police the green light to obtain and store his and others’ information on an industrial scale.”
