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Tank Girl Let Off At The Last Minute

Published Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:47:23 -0600

Last updated Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:47:56 -0600

On April 1st 2009, during the G20 meeting in London, there was a public protest and demonstration on the streets outside that, despite the best efforts of the media and police, didn't boil over into mass violence, rampage and the burning down of Old London Town.

Amidst the protest was a tank, driven by the anarchist surreal protest group Space Hijackers, with Ride of The Valkyries belting out of loudspeakers. Including an acquaintance of mine, Leah Borromeo, dressed in a black bra, boiler suit and a riot helmet.

Dubbed "Tank Girl" by the media (and "Bra Girl" by less… imaginative parts of the media), Leah is an investigative journalist who had embedded herself with the group, only to find herself and arrested and charged with impersonating police officers, along with the other members.

Because, yes, that's right, police officers in London look just as they do in this photo that appeared in the Evening Standard at the time.

In the last year, subsequently Leah found herself struggling for work with a serious court case looming. Indeed, a media position with a charity out in Haiti that she was uniquely qualified for was under threat by the impending court case next week.

Yesterday Leah Borromeo posted to her blog a letter from her lawyers;

The Crown Prosecution Service has finally come to their senses and made the long overdue decision to discontinue your case. This means that the case is over, you are no longer on bail and no longer required to attend Court.

To quote directly from their letter faxed this evening at 17.41hrs: "The decision to discontinue these charges has been taken because there is not enough evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction. I have considered the statements that you have submitted and your Defence Case Statement and as part of our continuous duty of review I am not satisfied that a bench of magistrates' or judge hearing the case alone, properly directed in accordance with the law is more likely than not to convict the defendants of the charges alleged."

You have the option to revive the proceedings if you want the Trial to take the place although I'm sure that none of you will want this to occur….

Regards,

Hodge Jones & Allen LLP

It's over, London authorities have been made to look a fool (including Kier Starmer, head of the Crown Prosecution Service who himself gave advice to the McLibel Two in a previous life).

So Tank Girl is off to Haiti. And the world keeps turning.

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