Court

HANNINGFIELD SPECIAL REPORT:
The Arrest - How It Happened
Weds 20th Feb 2013, Yellow Advertiser

SHORTLY after 6.30am on Wednesday, September 14, 2011, five police officers pulled up outside Lord Hanningfield's Chelmsford home in two unmarked cars.

They were there to arrest the peer and search his home. The arrest had been planned more than a week earlier.

After banging on the peer’s door but receiving no response, officers walked around his home and began banging on all of his windows.

Hanningfield awoke when officers banged on his bedroom window and his dog began to bark.

He told the court he had been disoriented and unsure where he was, something he often experienced when waking up since his prison term.

Mr Justice Eady said: “It is appropriate to recall that Lord Hanningfield was about to pass his 72nd birthday and that he was suffering from depression and high blood pressure.

“He was relieved to have been allowed home a few days earlier and was thinking about trying to piece his life together.”

The peer put on a dressing gown and went to the front door, where he saw officers holding up a piece of paper which he said he assumed was a warrant because that was what police held up in TV shows.

Police did not have a warrant and accepted in court that they did not make this clear when they arrived.

Officers claimed they were invited into the peer’s home but he insisted on the stand that they were not.

He said: “I didn’t invite them in but I didn’t try to stop them coming in.”

Mr Justice Eady sided with the peer.

He said: “I think it unlikely that he actually invited the officers in. It is true that he did not resist – he was simply overborne by the circumstances.”

The shocked peer said he moved to his sitting room, where he was told he was under arrest.

Police allowed him to wash, dress and eat breakfast, then escorted him to Braintree police station while his home was searched.

He was questioned and later released without bail conditions.

The incident caused the peer – who suffers from high blood pressure and depression – to missed his first appointment with his GP since his release from prison.

The peer testified that his doctor had been 'very concerned' about the missed appointment.

Back to Lord Hanningfield Trial

Back to Court

Back to Portfolio