The plaintiff walked the streets of Swanlinbar, Co Cavan, wearing an orange lily, an action which was ‘calculated and tended to provoke animosity between different classes of Her Majesty’s subjects’, according to the defendant’s pleadings. Several followed the plaintiff ‘and in consequence thereof caused very great noise and disturbance . . and threatened the plaintiff with personal violence for wearing said emblem.’ The defendant, a sub-inspector of Constabulary, requested the plaintiff to remove the emblem. When she refused he ‘gently and quietly, and necessarily and unavoidably’ removed the emblem. The plaintiff sued him for trespass. The plaintiff demurred.
Held: The court considered the duty of a police officer when faced with what he thought was an imminent breach of the peace: ‘With respect to a constable, I agree that his primary duty is to preserve the peace; and he may for that purpose interfere, and, in the case of an affray, arrest the wrongdoer; or, if a breach of the peace is imminent, may, if necessary, arrest those who are about to commit it, if it cannot otherwise be prevented.’
Hayes J: ‘It would seem absurd to hold that a constable may arrest a person whom he finds committing a breach of the peace, but that he must not interfere with the individual who has wantonly provoked him to do so.’
Judges:
Fitzgerald J, O’Brien and Hayes JJ
Citations:
(1864) 17 ICLR 1
Cited by:
Cited – Laporte, Regina (on the application of ) v Chief Constable of Gloucestershire HL 13-Dec-2006
The claimants had been in coaches being driven to take part in a demonstration at an air base. The defendant police officers stopped the coaches en route, and, without allowing any number of the claimants to get off, returned the coaches to London. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Police
Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.247472