Dr Nicholas Dobson treads carefully on the issue of trespass, standards & public interest
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How far can a councillor go to promote his own perception of the public interest? Does this extend to trespassing onto another's land, filming proprietor and premises and then placing the film on the Internet? No, according to Mr Justice Charles in the Administrative Court in February who, on the facts, upheld a decision of the Adjudication Panel Appeal Tribunal that the councillor's behaviour breached the Code of Conduct (the Code) whilst remitting the issue of sanction to a differently constituted Appeals Tribunal (R (Mullaney) v The Adjudication Panel for England [2009] EWHC 72 (Admin), [2009] All ER (D) 102 (Feb)).
Mr Sfadar Zaman, a member of the public, alleged that the claimant (Councillor Martin Mullaney, a Birmingham City councillor) trespassed on his land and a building owned by Mr Zaman, filmed him and the building and then made the film available on the Internet.
The claimant and a fellow councillor (Ernie Hendricks) had been concerned about the state of the building and agreed
