BACKLASH Legal Advice upon arrest (25)

I'd agree completely with the above and having been arrested on numerous occasions for activism based offences I'd strongly advise always giving a no comment interview.

The important principles are 1) As soon as you've been arrested the police will be listening and taking notes. If you're in the back of a van, they may well try to engage you in conversation. They are not your friends, and they are trained to get information out of you. Tell them nothing at any point, talk about football. If you answer any questions, you are providing evidence that they will use to prosecute you. You are your own worst enemy.

2) If you do get arrested they are likely to take fingerprints and a dna sample. They will keep these on record for ever, even if you've done nothing, are never charged, and / or are found not guilty. We fought for and lost that civil liberty some time ago. Accept it and move on.

3) The police aren't your enemy either. The system / law is the problem. If they do interview you, tell them you're going to do a no comment interview. Try and mitigate pissing them off / frustrating them. Name, address and date of birth only

4) Unless you have a solicitor you know or trust, I'd be highly suspicious of any advice they give. Not coz their masons, but because they probably have no experience in dealing with these offences, and will simply try and get the case resolved quickly. If it was me I'd do a no comment interview in all circumstances.

5) If the police offer you a caution, it's probably because they've not got enough evidence to convict you. A caution is an easy way out (in the short term) but it is an admission of guilt and will be on your record forever. After a period of time you will not need to disclose it, but it's still there.

Policemen like to get convictions, so if they've got the evidence they will prosecute. If they offer you a caution, I'd strongly suggest turning it down.

On other matters.

The system for legal aid and legal advice has changed for non imprisonable offences and you are no longer entitled to a solicitor (good eh)

You are entitled to telephone advice from a legal call centre, and the custody sergeant will ask you various questions about your financial circumstances before putting you through to this advice line. The advice isn't going to be any better than that of an old style duty solictor, and it's likely to be even more biased towards getting you found guilt fast.

This system is new and is only being applied in some stations. It is likely to become more wide spread because it is the new official system.

There is likely to be a completely new system late this year, which will confuse things further.

I'm not a solicitor so the above is simply based on experience and the advice of solicitors involved in activism type offences. Equally I've been teaching people this stuff for years.

Finally if there is a BDSM friendly solicitors firm then I think they could do the world of good by advertising themselves as such, so that anyone arrested under these circumstances knows who to call. This could make a world of difference.

When you don't live in a free society and you cannot be open about the books, pictures and computer files which you own, you have to hide them. The weak need to rely on subterfuge against the strong.

What is the situation if you destroy the password?

Written down somewhere, you have a 10 digit alphanumeric code (e.g. ahJ89LmNl4 – which you probably couldn't remember) It is not found during the police search. After your release from custody and before any experts have examined your computer, you destroy the piece of paper.

Under the Terrorism Act 2000, you *must* give the police a password to an encrypted disk. If you cant, you will probably be charged as a terrorist as well. Seeing as they don't need evidence to charge you with terrorism and the fact that they *will* be determined to get you with any conviction they can, it is not a good idea to "forget" the password.

Yeah as if the plod are going to volunteer a copy of pace for you, not that I have tried asking for one yet, but if you really want to get up their noses I understand that the time to ask for a copy is when you first get cautioned at the time of your arrest. They say your nicked son and anything you say,,, whatever the current form of words is then they say “do you understand what I have said?” If you want to play for time the answer is “NO, I wish to consult a copy of the Police And Criminal Evidence act, they then have to produce a copy for you even if you are at home, on the street or in the back of a police car, the “go directly to jail” or custody suite process hicups here as they cant transport you till you have consulted it, should you be lucky enough to be lifted away from home or even have actually got to the nick when the book is produced, ask for your glasses, then they have to get your specs but now you really are getting up their nose.