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Oxford seeks ban on protesters
The University of Oxford had returned to court to seek a stronger injunction against animal rights activists
On 15 September, Oxford University asked the High Court to impose a draconian injunction against animal rights protesters, demanding that they effectively be banned from the city centre.
The university said it had been forced to act to protect its proposed biomedical research facility, where experiments on a range of animals, including primates, are due to be conducted once it is complete.
The institution said its contractors had been harassed and intimidated by a group of protesters to the extent that the work could not continue.
Lawyers representing Oxford claimed the group campaigning against animal experimentation at the university, called Speak, consisted of the same individuals who demonstrated against a similar facility at Cambridge University, which was subsequently abandoned.
They also said the protesters were the same individuals who have subjected the Huntingdon Life Sciences laboratory in Cambridgeshire to a campaign of harassment, a charge they deny.
The University’s lawyer told the High Court: "What they did at Cambridge, they are going to do at Oxford. They want to stop the laboratory being built. This campaign has the marks of going out of control. It has the marks of becoming quite violent. We are not seeking to prevent freedom of speech. This order is designed to protect the claimant from being harassed."
The university asked the High Court to impose an order preventing protesters from demonstrating or "loitering" within 50 yards of any university building, effectively stopping them from entering large areas of the city centre.
It also asked for an injunction preventing protesters from threatening, harassing or pestering its employees. This, it said, should include using any kind of instrument.
The university admitted the proposed injunction was draconian, but said that it would not object to the protesters demonstrating in a designated area opposite its new biomedical research laboratory site. But the High Court should impose an order preventing more than 25 demonstrators gathering at the site for longer than four hours.
The hearing was adjourned to allow the defendants more time to prepare their case. Mr Justice Simon granted the university a temporary injunction banning protesters from intimidating or harassing its employees.