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NLJ this week: Pitch invaders who interrupt play should beware of the law

07 October 2022
Issue: 7997 / Categories: Legal News , Public , Sports law , Health & safety
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In this week’s NLJ, Neil Parpworth, of Leicester De Montfort Law School, looks at trespass on the field of play. It’s just not cricket! 

Parpworth looks at a case of aggravated trespass, where a YouTuber invaded the pitch dressed in whites during a test match at The Oval, ran up to the crease and released the ball. He also collided with a player. This caused confusion both to players and umpires.

While the YouTuber found this entertaining, the judge disagreed and found him guilty of aggravated trespass, under s 68(1) of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

Parpworth writes that case law on s 68 suggests that it is an offence tending to be committed in the context of protests and demonstrations. However, the case of The Oval YouTuber, like that of the Naked Rambler before him, where ‘the defendant is committed to a course of action which inevitably has an impact on others’ illustrates the scope of the offence.

Read Neil's article in full here.

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NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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