Southwark notches up gang injunction first
The London Borough of Southwark has become the first council to obtain a so-called “gang injunction”.
The court order – pursuant to Part 4 and Schedule 5 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009 in England and Wales – was imposed on an 18-year-old man who was alleged to have been a member of the Anti GMG gang, one of three main gains operating in Peckham. The individual had been seen celebrating gang culture on videos uploaded to You Tube.
Southwark, which instructed barrister Sonia Rai of Five Paper, applied for an interim injunction on a without notice application. This was granted by Lambeth County Court on 10 February. The case was then transferred to Croydon County Court.
At a hearing on 24 February, the 18 year old denied being a member of a gang but accepted that he was in the videos and that they encouraged gang-related violence.
The court found that, on the balance of probabilities, the youth had encouraged gang-related violence and that the injunction was necessary to prevent him from engaging in, or encouraging or assisting gang-related violence.
It banned him from:
- congregating or loitering with more than two persons in a public place in the London Borough of Southwark
- entering part of an area of Peckham
- assaulting, threatening, abusing or insulting any person in London Borough of Southwark
- producing or marketing any musical material or being in any music video which encourages or is likely to encourage violence against any person
- associating with named persons.
The court also ordered that the 18 year old, who is understood to be considering an appeal, must attend meetings with a gang mentor. A power of arrest was attached to the terms of the injunction.
The court ordered that the injunction and power of arrest should remain in force until 23 February 2012.
Local authorities have had the ability to apply for gang injunctions since a Home Office announcement on 31 January 2011.
Cllr Richard Livingstone, cabinet member for community safety at Southwark, said: "Our officers worked incredibly hard to get this injunction put in place, and it will play an important role in keeping the community safer in Peckham. We carry out a huge amount of work to reduce the levels of gang related violence in Southwark, and securing the first gang injunction in the UK is testament to the hard work of the team. I also hope that the allocation of a gang mentor will mean we can start to turn his life around and not see him back in court."
