THE public’s civil rights are under threat because of the draconian use of anti-terrorism laws by the police, the High Court was told yesterday.

Liberty, the campaign group, said that David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, and Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, were misusing the new laws. As a result, civil rights were under threat because of a “more or less permanent state of alertness” in the London area.

Liberty is backing legal action by a freelance journalist and a protester who were stopped and searched on September 9 under the new laws during a demonstration at Europe’s largest arms fair at the ExCel Centre in Docklands, London.

Owen Davies, QC, for the two, said it appeared likely that authorisations were continuously being made under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, without the public being told, to allow the police to stop and search citizens at will.

Seeking a judicial review over the way the pair were treated, Mr Davies said that Pennie Quinton, 32, a freelance journalist from Bermondsey, southeast London, was so upset and distressed that she stopped filming the demonstrations for the media and never returned. Kevin Gillan, 26, a student from Sheffield, was stopped on his mountain bike and allowed to go on his way after being searched.

Mr Davies said: “Mr Gillan was deprived of a number of leaflets he was carrying and the police officer took them away.”

He told Lord Justice Brooke and Mr Justice Maurice Kay: “This is the first time this court has been asked to consider the potentially very widespread and draconian effects of one of the measures introduced by Parliament under the 2000 Act.”

Official figures showed that, within the Metropolitan Police district from July 18 to August 12 this year, at least 55 vehicles and 316 persons were searched, along with 123 pedestrians.

During the arms fair in September, figures showed that 29 people had been searched. Mr Davies said the figures represented a random and indiscriminate interference with people’s civil liberties.

The hearing continues.

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