The plaintiff appealed against the dismissal of her claims for trespass and breach of duty by the defendant’s officers. In divorce proceedings, she had been ordered to return certain household goods to her husband, but had failed yet to do so. The husband attended the property with a solicitor and two police officers without prior notice. The plaintiff was not present at first but returned as goods were being removed. She was angry, but the officer told her to allow the goods to be taken and for matters to be sorted out later between solicitors. The power of entry into private premises for a breach of peace was preserved. When an officer acts to prevent a breach of the peace his apprehension ‘must relate to the near future’.
Neill LJ said: ‘I am satisfied that Parliament in section 17(6) has now recognised that there is a power to enter premises to prevent a breach of the peace as a form of preventive justice. I can see no satisfactory basis for restricting that power to particular classes of premises such as those where public meetings are held. If the police reasonably believe that a breach of the peace is likely to take place on private premises, they have power to enter those premises to prevent it. The apprehension must of course be genuine and it must relate to the near future.’
Neill, Hoffmann, Waite LJJ
Ind Summary 21-Feb-1994, [1994] EWCA Civ 2, [1994] 4 All ER 553
Bailii
Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 17-6, Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 17
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Thomas v Sawkins KBD 1935
Police may enter private property to keep peace
Police officers went to a hall where a public meeting which had been extensively advertised was about to take place; the police sergeant in charge of the party was refused admission to the hall but insisted on entering and remaining there during the . .
Cited – McGowan v Chief Constable of Kingston Upon Hull 21-Oct-1967
The defendant police officers had gone into a house where a child was being held in a man’s arms. The police officers said that they had reason to think that a breach of the peace might occur between the man and his mistress. The question arose as . .
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.
Torts – Other, Police
Leading Case
Updated: 09 November 2021; Ref: scu.83567