CRIMINAL

Breach of the peace - police arresting person on private premises for breach of peace - disturbance to public off premises not essential ingredientMcQuade v Chief Constable of Humberside Police: CA (Lords Justice Peter Gibson, Laws and Sir Martin Nourse): 12 July 2001 The claimant had been arrested by a police officer at his home to prevent a breach of the peace following a domestic quarrel.

He made a claim against the police for wrongful arrest and personal injuries sustained.The judge found that there had been no disturbance to the public, which he held to be a necessary element of breach of the peace on private premises, and so the claimant had been unlawfully arrested.

The chief constable appealed.Philip Havers QC (instructed by Bar Pro Bono Unit) for the claimant.

David Wilby QC and Neil Cameron (instructed by David Crampton, Kingston-upon-Hull) for the chief constable.Held, allowing the appeal, that the proposition, that at common law it was a necessary ingredient of breach of the peace on private premises that there be some disturbance to members of the public off the premises, was decisively contradicted by the binding decision in McConnell v Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police [1990] 1 WLR 364; and that, accordingly, since it was clear that the judge had misunderstood McConnell the court would direct a retrial of the issue of liability.