Cases

Wood v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis

Facts

W, a media co-ordinator employed by Campaign Against Arms Trade, purchased a share in Reed Elsevier PLC, the parent company of Spearhead Exhibitions Ltd, which organised trade fairs for various industries, including the arms industry. After attending Reed's AGM in 2005, at which he asked one unobjectionable question, police said that they saw him in the street speaking to E, a former member of CAAT with convictions for unlawful activities targeted at organisations involved in the defence industry. A civilian photographer working with the police took several photographs of him. The police said that this was in order to identify him should it come to light that unlawful activity had taken place at the AGM. Officers approached W and asked him his identity. When he refused to give it, they followed W to an Underground station and asked staff if they knew his identity. They later identified W using the photographs.

W sought judicial review of the photographer and officers’ actions.

Also