TV Ricky & 13 strikers cleared over flying picket convictions
Actor spent 18 months in jail
ROYLE Family star Ricky Tomlinson had his conviction for picketing during the 1972 national builders’ strike overturned yesterday.
Ricky, now 81, was among 24 trade unionists arrested during a flying picket at building sites in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and served 18 months in jail.
A legal challenge brought by the actor and 13 others was heard at the Court of Appeal last month.
The pickets argued their convictions for offences including unlawful assembly, conspiracy to intimidate and affray were unsafe. Their lawyers claimed witness statements were destroyed and an ITV documentary aired during the first of three trials was “deeply prejudicial”.
It was claimed during the two-day hearing that a “covert Foreign Office agency” was involved in making the 1973 programme.
The court yesterday allowed their challenge based on the destruction of the statements.
Lord Justice Fulford said a retrial “would not be in the public interest”.
Ricky was jailed in 1973 and released in 1975 after 18 months at Leicester’s Welford Road prison.
He said after the hearing: “The reality is we should never have been standing in the dock.” And he paid tribute to fellow picket Dennis “Dessie” Warren, who served three years and died in 2004.
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said it was a “joyous day”. Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, said: “This is a victory against the state interfering in legitimate trade union activity.”
The reality is we should never have been in the dock RICKY SPEAKING AFTER COURT OF APPEAL RULING
ACTIVIST Ricky Tomlinson, right, at 1975 demonstration