Innocence of Bolton UAF Protestor upheld by Magistrates Court
Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 October 2010 17:29 Tuesday, 12 October 2010 17:21

Dane Kelly is a 24 year old student from Leeds. On 20th March he travelled with his housemates on a UAF coach to Bolton and, like over 55 other anti fascists and anti racists who were in Bolton on that day, the police arrested him.
Following his arrest, Dane became the second of the five anti EDL protestors from Bolton who have subsequently been charged - in Dane’s case of “using threatening and abusive words and behaviour against a police officer”.
During his trail yesterday Dane described how the police
"were pushing us back and telling us to move back but there was no where to go. There were middle aged people and families with children there, and an elderly man, a World War 2 veteran, was knocked to the ground by the polcie. people were panicking and I was worried for my friends. The police were arresting people while trade union messages of support were being read out."
The TAU Officer witnessing for the police, Gareth Rowe, told the court how their unit was sent to Victoria Square around 10 am and told to “kit up” sometime between 11am and 1pm. The defense showed CCTV evidence from shortly after 1pm - where Dane was in the square – in which the police are clearly audible as they tell each other “push up lads” and officers are clearly visible as they reach into the anti fascist crowd and strike a demonstrator.
Download, read and circulate the full j4b press release about this Not Guilty verdict here.
If you were in Bolton and want to tell us what happened from your perspective you can join the many others who have already shared their experience with us and who are working with us to ensure that justice is done and is seen to be done. Email your stories and or photos to us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it


