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Pensioners seized by Heathrow police - over 'inflammatory' protest T-shirts Simon Kennedy Three pensioners were questioned and escorted from Heathrow after police decided the Stop Airport Expansion slogan on their T-shirts was ‘inflammatory’. Mike Lacey, John Wilding and his wife Tessa were stopped as they tried to join a demonstration against plans for a third runway. Police took their names, addresses and descriptions and followed them out of a bus terminal, warning they would be arrested if they returned within 24 hours.
(Article continues below) Now the three have written to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, accusing the officers of harassment and abuse of their ‘stop and search’ powers. They were stopped despite police knowing that a demonstration against the extra runway was taking place nearby. Mr Lacey, a 71-year-old grandfather who used to work for Christian Aid, Dr Wilding, also 71 – a retired academic and emeritus reader in psychology at the University of London – and his English teacher wife Tessa, 60, live in Slough, which will be badly affected by noise and pollution if the runway is built. They were on their way to join a march to the village of Sipson, which is likely to be flattened if the runway goes ahead. As they walked into the main bus terminal at Heathrow to catch a connecting service, they were stopped by five Met Police officers who accused them of breaching airport bylaws. In a ‘stop and search form’ officers wrote that Mr Lacey was questioned because he had been ‘seen in the bus terminal wearing inflammatory clothes’.
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