Businessmen accused of 'Rooftop Ricky' assault walk free
South Wales Echo, 18 August, 2009
TWO property developers accused of assaulting and falsely imprisoning rooftop protester Ricky Canty have walked free from court.
Judge Keith Thomas ordered a “stay” in proceedings after deciding it was unjust to try Northern Irish businessmen George Beatty and Ernest Wray because the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had dropped a case of criminal damage against Mr Canty, 60.
The two businessmen bought the property – formerly Mr Canty’s home in Raldan Close, Barry – at auction in 2007 and were later accused of assaulting their live-in protester in order to get him down from the roof where he erected a wooden platform and shelter and staged a sit-in for two years.
Judge Thomas launched an astonishing attack on a CPS lawyer who had reviewed the case, saying he had “abandoned his independence” when considering Mr Canty’s claim that he had been beaten and tied up against the defendants’ claims that Mr Canty had caused criminal damage to a house they legally own.
“The two are separate issues and should be determined independently – the lawyer seems to have come to the conclusion, wholly wrongly, that the two allegations cannot both be true”, he said.
“In short, a reasonable observer would be entitled to conclude that bias had been shown towards the complainant in this case [Mr Canty] and against the defendants [Mr Wray and Mr Beatty].
“This gives rise to one of those exceptional cases where the prosecution’s mishandling of the case would lead to unfairness and it would be contrary to natural justice to allow this prosecution to proceed.
“I therefore stay these proceedings as an abuse of process.”
Mr Wray, 57 and Mr Beatty, 56, both from Fermangah, Northern Ireland, went on trial at Cardiff Crown Court in May but a jury failed to reach a verdict on charges that they falsely imprisoned Mr Canty and caused him actual bodily harm on October 13, 2008.
They have always denied the claims and their retrial was due to start on Tuesday.
They said they were working in the Barry house when they heard a thud and discovered Mr Canty had fallen through.
Mr Wray said: “We found a pair of legs sticking through, pulled him but he came down holding a piece of wood and tried to hit us.
“We had to get something to tie him, to save ourselves”.
Mr Canty’s protest had started a year before the property went to auction – in April 2006 – when he claimed it was wrongly repossessed from his family.
He still maintains he is the property’s lawful owner and has spent the past month protesting outside Cardiff’s Civil Justice Centre in Park Street.
He said he now intends returning to continue what he sees as his fight against injustice.
“I’m not moving” he said.
“You can watch me die there.”
Dairy farmer Mr Beatty said the past year had been a hellish ordeal for himself and Mr Wray, who between them own other investment houses in South Wales and who now have a tenant in Raldan Close.
He said: “We are just two hard-working men and this has been a total waste of taxpayers’ money.”
