Laporte v CC for Gloucestershire [2006] UKHL 55

The police stopped a coach of protesters 3 miles away from the site of an ongoing protest at an RAF base. The police, after searching the coach, believed that the protesters intended to cause a breach of the peace and escorted them back to London.

A claimant argued that this breached Articles 10 and 11 of ECHR. HL agreed, saying that although the duty to prevent breach of the peace was necessary, in this instance the action taken by the police was indiscriminate (not all the passengers were considered likely to breach the peace and there was little evidence that a breach of the pace was likely.

• Therefore the police’s action was unlawful.