Calls for government to pardon ex-miners convicted of offences during 1984-5 strikes

Former miners are calling for the government to quash the convictions of thousands who were arrested and charged during the strikes of 1984-5.

Many still have criminal records after they were found guilty of offences such as obstruction and breach of the peace during what has been described as the most bitter industrial dispute in British history.

The Scottish government has already introduced a law to pardon those north of the border who were convicted and now the UK government is being urged to make a similar ruling for England and Wales.

Alan Day, from Maltby, South Yorkshire, was charged with besetting during the strike - a law dating back to the Victorian era banning people from accessing or preventing people from leaving a site.

He was accused of trying to stop a working miner leaving their home during the strike.

He said: "Anybody that got within a certain distance of a striking miner's house or home he could be arrested and charged with besetting from this law from hundreds of years ago because there was nothing from today's laws that would cover what was happening.

"The only involvement I've ever had with the police as an 18-year-old I got pulled for speeding on my motorbike. I didn't get done, I just got a cautionary word. That's been it and I've always been a big advocate of police but after what happened to me I've no confidence in them whatsoever."

He is backing attempts to get the government to overturn Miners' Strike convictions and says he would welcome having his criminal record wiped clean.

He said: "It would be amazing. I'd be over the moon, I really would. It's the only blemish I have on my character."

Last year the Scottish government issued a Miners' Pardon and on Tuesday SNP MP for Midlothian Owen Thompson introduced a bill to Parliament calling for the pardon to be extended to England and Wales.

Speaking in the House of Commons he said: "A miners' pardon would be a powerful symbolic idea of reconciliation. It would show we're prepared to put the past behind us and to move on.

He added: "These miners were heroes not criminals. they were fighting for their livelihoods. The Scottish Parliament has a very helpfully already passed a law pardoning miners who were convicted in Scotland during the strike and I believe now id the time for the government to do the same for those miners in Engalnd and Wales."

Former miner Charles Chiverton, from Mansfield, who later became a probation officer, says he has seen many miners turn to a life of crime after being given criminal convictions during the Miners Strike.

He said: "You would hope that the English courts would look upon it favourably and quash the convictions which were imposed on us at a time when mine workers were basically fraudulently accused and charged with crimes they didn't commit."

The government has the power to issue a Free Pardon where it is impractical to send cases to an appeals court and if new evidence comes to light which conclusively proves that no crime was committed, or the individual did not commit the offence.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "We take miscarriages of justice very seriously and the Justice Secretary considers all applications for pardons."

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