On May 8th another major trial will start at Roddy Kentish-one of the defendants in the notorious frame-up Mangrove 9° trial last December-was found not guilty of attempted murder but guilty of assault and carrying an offensive weapon at the Old Bailey on 20 April; he was sentenced to 18 months inside by racist Justice Melford-Stevenson. The lessons of the "Mangrove' trial, where the defendants successfully turned the trial into a political exposure of the State's repressive machinery, were in this instance sadly not applied. The case was not fought politically; and there was very little support from community organisations and other left groups.
THE TRIAL The charge of attempted murder arose from an incident in October, 1970, when the Notting Hill police ( particularly well-known "friends of the people Pulley, Lewis, Langham, Hogarth and Saunders) came to arrest Roddy on a charge of affray in the Portnall Road demonstration ("Mangrove" demo) of August 1970. Since Roddy hadnot been on the demonstration (he was later acquitted of all charges in the "Mangrove' trial) he very understandably resisted arrest.
The police alleged that Roddy attempted to strangle P.C. Lewis. Although Lewis supposedly lost consciousness he was however able to make detailed notes on the whole incident just one hour later!
The police doctor was perhaps the funniest witAsked in the courtroom why his notes referred to the left side of Lewis's face while the photo was of the right side, he replied that maybe there were marks on both sides of the face, or perhaps for left the court should read right! He also had to admit that the face marks-wherever they were-did not necessarily imply "manual strangulation' as his notes told him. The whole trial was like this. Melwas found not guilty of attempted murder, and would undoubtedly have given him more than 18 months for the other charges but for his excellent character witnesses and fear of embarrassment at the Court of Appeal. CONTEMPT Before the trial members of Notting Hill IMG distributed with Roddy's agreement a leaflet calling for a picket of the court. Once it had started they took copies of a second leaflet giving the political background to the case into the public gallery; and incorrectly allowed some to be passed around, The IMG accepts all criticism for this error. A girl in the public gallery informed the police, claiming that a certain black man had given her a leaflet. Melford-Stevenson then accused him of contempt of court. Two witnesses from the IMG came forward, stating that it was in fact they who had given the leaflet to the girl and they who had produced it. Nevertheless the man, a well-known Black Panther, was put inside for seven davs.
SUPPORT Roddy's legal advisers were determined to fight the case "straight", despite its obviously political nature. They thought they could win on legal technicalities, and were proved wrong. The lessons are clear. The courts dispense class justice: it is only by recognising this and taking the class struggle into the courts that such cases can be fought on anything like equal terms. And that means not only putting up a political defence in court, but also active support in such cases from left groups to destroy the barrier between the courts and what goes on outside them.
-Piers Corbyn Notting Hill I.M.G.