A student from St Anne’s has been awarded £1,500 following his “humiliating” arrest for throwing a bottle of water to a protester earlier this year.

The chief constable of Thames Valley Police apologised to the student this week for the “inconvenience” of the arrest, and offered compensation as an out of court settlement.

Jonathon Leighton, a second year, was arrested and handcuffed, and held in a police station for several hours, on the 13th January. He had his fingerprints, DNA and photographs taken, and was released the next day at 5.15am.

Leighton was arrested after he tried to throw a bottle of water to eco-protester Gabriel Chamberlain, who was protesting against the proposed development of Bonn Square.

Leighton has called his treatment “humiliating”.

He said, “the fact that I was handcuffed and held in a police cell is humiliating.

“I wouldn’t wish it to happen to anybody else, which is why I think it is crucial to explore legal avenues and hold the police accountable for their actions.

“I believe it was right to pursue the legal channel and tackle these injustices when they arise, or they will happen more often.”

Leighton stated that he would be donating the money to “Thames Valley Climate Action”, an environmental action group which he was a part of, and that the payout would be used in future campaigns.

Leighton stated that this should provide adequate justification to the taxpayer for the money he received from his payout.

Local campaigner Sarah Horne was also involved in the Bonn Square protests and has spoken out in support of Leighton’s payout.

She said, “unfortunately many people experience unlawful arrests, violence, and other oppression when they take peaceful direct action on climate change and other environmental and social issues.

“Hopefully this result will remind the police that they are meant to be protecting the public, not harassing peaceful protesters.”

Leighton said, “I opposed the way that [Chamberlain] was dealt with by the council.

“I felt that it was very wrong they were stopping giving him food and water. I was more up in arms about that than the felling of trees.”

Leighton stated that he was “very pleased” with the result, but nevertheless stated that the financial payout had not been his main priority.

“It’s not so much about the money as about justice. What would have been justice for me would be if I hadn’t been arrested in the first place.

“I wish there was a way I could complain to the police and be sure that my complaint would be taken on board, and the appropriate disciplinary action followed. But I couldn’t be sure of this.”

After realising that he had grounds to make a legal complaint, Leighton’s solicitor wrote the Thames Valley Police to inform them of Leighton’sintension to make a claim through court.

Within three months, the police responded that they would be prepared to offer an out of court settlement.
At the time, Leighton stated that he police had “abused their powers” and has since insisted that his arrest was politically-motivated.

He said, “what I experienced was blatant political policing; my actions were not so much against the law as against the police.”

Members of Oxford Brookes’ University Rugby Club paraded in hunting uniforms, wore sex toys and attacked a woman’s car while she was with her two-year old daughter in a social on Cowley Road.

When police arrived at the scene they were also found parts of an animal carcass. The incident left members of the public intimidated and was described as “inappropriate and offensive”.

Despite a formal apology from the club President, Ronnie Gunson, Brookes University’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Janet Beer, said the matter was being taken “extremely seriously”.

The Ashmolean Museum is due to close for a year while major redevelopment takes place.

The museum, founded in 1683, is the UK’s oldest public museum, and its collections range from Bronze Age tools to drawings by Michelangelo and Raphael.

Rick Mather, an award winning architect, has designed a new building that doubles the existing gallery space and features 39 new galleries, a new education centre, and Oxford’s first roof-top cafe.

The museum will reopen in Autumn 2009.

The first mice have arrived for testing at Oxford’s new biomedical sciences research laboratory, as part of a staged plan to move animals in to the facility.

In July 2004 animal rights protesters from SPEAK halted construction until November 2005, after the University gained a court order restricting demonstrations to one day a week.

In the face of hostility Professor Alastair Buchan, head of Oxford’s medical sciences division, voiced his belief that the facility is a “significant step forward for biomedical research”.

Students at New College have expressed anger following an MCR decision to swap popular undergraduate housing with less popular MCR housing.

The Weston Building is a highly rated accommodation block, currently housing fourth years, but after the swap fourth years will have to live in the subsidiary Sacher Building.

A second-year student described the accommodation in the Sacher building as distinctly inferior.

He said that the Sacher building has “all separate rooms… they seem quite unfriendly and boxy.”

In contrast, students living in the Weston Building live in, “6 bedroom flats with patios looking over the sportsgrounds”.

Students at New College have claimed that the Governing Body gave the JCR very short notice about the vote.

A second-year student said, ” I think it’s just quite arrogant of college not to really consult the JCR first… it seemed like they were trying to do it so that the JCR didn’t notice it at all.

“I think it’s quite unfair that students applying will think that they’re going to receive good fourth-year accommodation and then not get it.”

Current students were initially angered over the swap because they feared that it would affect them during their time at the college.

At a JCR meeting on Sunday, FHA Rep Stephen McGlynn proposed a motion, seconded by JCR President Matt Ranger, stating the JCR’s opinion that the swap should be postponed until summer 2012, by which time all of the current students will have graduated.

The college’s original goal, according to the meeting minutes, was that “such a move would be completed by three years’ time” from Michaelmas term 2008 and that “college may complete this move before then”.

MCR President Thomas Addock also attended the JCR meeting.
Entz rep Hardeep Rai said of the MCR’s participation, “we’re usually defensive and we don’t like change – but it was almost off-putting how nice they [the MCR] were. There has been dialogue about changes to the deadline… it’s actually nothing of the nightmare that we thought it might be.”

Michael Burden, the Dean, said that he had “nothing particular to say about the switch… it’s a very complex situation”.

The JCR President is scheduled for a meeting with the Dean on Wednesday the 12th.

The overwhelming majority of Oxford students do not know when the OUSU elections are taking place and don’t even know who the presidential candidates are, a Cherwell survey has revealed.

Voting is due to open between Tuesday and Thursday next week, but only 17.8% of students knew that the elections are in sixth week, with some under the impression that they had already taken place.

Only 36% of those polled said that they intended to vote this year, despite the fact that online voting has been introduced by OUSU.

The poll also revealed that more than two-thirds of Oxford students cannot name any of the presidential candidates.

Luke Tryl, former President of the Oxford Union Society, is the most widely known, with 24% of students aware he is running.

Only 11% could name Stefan Baskerville, former JCR president of University College, whilst less than half that named John Maher, former JCR president of Keble College.

Baskerville appears to have the most backing at this stage, however, with the biggest proportion of those surveyed who intend to vote pledging him their support.

In a sample of almost 200 students, very few seemed fully informed on the upcoming election, with only three able to name all four candidates – a group which includes Aidan Simpson, the anti-tuition fees campaigner from Somerville College.

As further evidence of this, four students quizzed this week about the OUSU elections were under the impression that Lewis Iwu, the current OUSU President, was one of this year’s candidates.

Word of mouth

Many students claimed to only have heard of candidates because they had been invited to their Facebook groups or because they are in the same college as the candidate.

Of students polled at Keble, for example, 50% said they plan to vote for John Maher, their ex-JCR President.

The poll results left plenty of food for thought for the OUSU presidential candidates, with scores of apathetic students condemning the institution as hopeless and irrelevant.

One student even claimed to have no idea what OUSU was.
Thomas Crawford, a first year Mathematics student, admitted, “I don’t even know what it is, to be honest.”
He was not the only undergraduate to be somewhat oblivious to the current OUSU race.

James Gillard, a fresher from Jesus College, asked, “What relevance does this have to me? Doesn’t my JCR handle all of this? The ramifications of this vote have not been explained to me in any way.”

When asked for his opinion, a Worcesterite asked, “Are the elections even this term?”

Despite general apathy, however, turnout in next week’s OUSU elections is expected to substantially increase on previous years’ thanks to a complete reformation of polling.

Whereas previous polls were conducted by traditional balloting methods over a single day, this year’s poll will be carried out over three days and conducted entirely online.

Madeline Stanley, OUSU Returning Officer, revealed that each student will be sent a unique voter number which they will be able to use only once.

She stressed that she had upmost confidence in the new system, despite fears in some quarters that there could be teething problems.

“To give you some idea of the security this system has, it has been used by Westminster City Council and twenty local authorities,” she said.

“It could have been advertised better”

“Each individual’s vote is secure and moving to another computer won’t get you another vote.”

Many students, however, were unaware that they could now cast their ballots via the web.

“It could have been advertised better,” said one student, while another said that uncertainty about how to vote would probably stop her from bothering.

Others were encouraged by the change. “I don’t really care about OUSU, but if it’s online, why not?” quipped one student.

The vast majority of students, however, were unconvinced that their vote would make a difference to improving OUSU as an institution either way.

“I’ve never seen the effect of OUSU on my life,” said one voter, with another labelling OUSU “a little playground for people who want to put it on their CV.”

“It doesn’t matter who’s president, all the same things go on.”