Raising Hell is a veteran UK squat-punk fanzine that has recently been relaunched, as well as compiling its classic issues from the eighties and nineties into a handy anthology. The zine’s Instagram feed carries on its irreverent spirit and is well worth a follow.

I previously republished their action-packed account of the eviction of Lee House squat near Rectory Road in 1989.

They recently posted a flyer for this gig from 1994 featuring Hackney squatters Coitus (apparently originally called Eternal Diarrhoea when the formed in 1989). The band included some former affiliates of the infamous nihilistic Hackney Hellcrew.

As Raising Hell say in a note accompanying the flyer:

January 1994…. 30 years ago the Putlogs pub in Clapton was home to a series of punk gigs until a gig on the eve of the “Hackney Homeless Festival ” (a couple of months after this gig) in nearby Clissold Park was ruthlessly attacked by the local Stoke Newington cops.

It was quite common for London cops to target punk gigs at this time, both at squats and regular pub venues, but this was a particularly vicious assault resulting in many busted heads and 16 people arrested and then fitted up on completely false charges.

None of the cops cock and bullshit stories stood up in Magistrates Court or Crown Court and none of the defendants were found guilty. However the tables were turned a few years later when an internal investigation into the corrupt and violent regime of Stoke Newington cop shop resulted in 7 of the cops present that night being prosecuted and put on trial at the Old Bailey….

A putlog “is a short horizontal pole projecting from a wall, on which scaffold floorboards rest”.

Putlogs was located at 2 Charnwood Street E5 8SH, on the corner with Northwold Road. It was also known as Pudlocks and was previously the Duke of York pub:

The pub closed in 2000 and was converted for residential use in 2003.

Hackney Homeless Festival took place on Sunday 8th May 1994, which means the gig at Putlogs that was attacked by the police was Saturday night of 7th May 1994. According to the Independent, local heroes Coitus also headlined this one.

Officers from Stoke Newington police station being corrupt and violent was par for the course in the 1990s. This incident was highly unusual as it led to PC Paul “protagonist of brutality” Evans being jailed for six months for assault. None of the trumped up charges agains the punks led to any convictions either, which was not always the case.

As usual there seems to have been a great deal of work undertaken by Hackney Community Defence Association / The Colin Roach Centre to assist the victims of police crime. It has to be mentioned that suing the police is a very stressful and time-consuming activity. The significant number of Hackney residents who were prepared to put themselves through the courts was a major reason for the downfall of the extraordinarily corrupt cops at Stoke Newington police station in the 1990s.

There are several media stories about the incident at the foot of this post, but the most useful account comes from anti-capitalist weekly freesheet SchNEWS:

Cowards and Bullies

Yes it’s official, on Wednesday Judge Graham Boal sentenced P.C. Paul Evans from Stoke Newington, Hackney, for assaulting a student on the eve of a festival, to six months saying, “You are a coward and a bully and you have brought shame on the force”. A solicitor told SchNEWS. “Members of the public charged with these offences could expect six to twelve months but I would expect someone who was in a position of trust and respect (sic) to receive considerably more”.

Six other members of the same scum squad were cleared of all charges. On the night before the 1994 Hackney Homeless Festival, two police officers were called to a pub to investigate a vandalised slot machine. Despite admitting that they were not threatened in any way they called for assistance, this being provided by another twenty of Newington’s worst.

A series of random beatings began after police chased a man they wrongly believed to have smashed the window of their car. A bystander was knocked to the ground then assaulted and arrested by a passing plod, his friend complained and was dragged to the ground, kicked in the groin then held to the floor by a boot on the face.

P.C. Evans approached a group of people standing outside the pub saying, “I’ve never seen so much collected scum.” One man remarked to a friend, “I couldn’t agree more”. Evans then beat him to the ground with his torch. Another two who objected to this behaviour were also assaulted, arrested and taken to Stoke Newington police station where Evans continued to kick them about the head, demanding they “Call yourselves cunts” as he did so.

A police photo showing the injuries to one man later went missing. The seven officers involved then got together in the station canteen where it took them an hour and twenty minutes to write their notes, claiming they had faced “an angry and violent mob”.

All arrested were acquitted and all charges dropped. The irony about this case is not that the police launched unprovoked attacks on the public, Stoke Newington have a history of this, but that one of their own who saw them fabricating their notes was so disgusted he blew the whistle. The local area complaint unit recommended that the seven officers be charged with ‘conspiracy to pervert the course of justice’ on the strength of his statement.

But, surprise surprise, the Criminal Prosecution Service kept the existence of the officer and his statement from the jury. Neither was any mention made of the fact that these same officers were involved in an attack on a squatted pub or that they were also involved the day after in attacks on 29 members of the public at the festival. One, a woman, suffered a broken arm, another a man suffering from Spina Biffida. No-one who was attacked or arrested were ever convicted of any crime and a number are currently suing police.

During 1987-94 alone, the Colin Roach Centre (set up after Colin Roach was shot dead in the foyer of Stoke Newington police st.), dealt with over 500 allegations of assault, the planting of evidence, police drug dealing and fit-ups.The centre also told us P.C. Evans is under investigation for nine other claims of assault against members of the public. It’s clear to SchNews that it’s not one apple, it’s the whole fucking barrel.

• Colin Roach Centre: 0181 533 711

* Vocab Watch: 

Affray – The unlawful use or threat of violence

Conspiracy (not applicable to the police)

(From: SchNEWS Issue 144, Friday 21st November 1997)

Further reading

For more information on community resistance to the police in Hackney, see: “They Hate Us, We Hate Them” – Resisting Police Corruption and Violence in Hackney in the 1980s and 1990s by John Eden in Datacide magazine. And Fighting The Lawmen by HCDA.

For more on punk pubs, see: “Anarchy in Hackney now!” – 1990s gigs at the Acton Arms as well as our Punk tag.

There is more information about Coitus at Terminal Sound Nuisance blog.

Finally let’s end on a song, with Coitus performing “Submission/Domination” to an audience of Stoke Newington punks (not sure when/where excactly):

This clip is taken from this cool short film “Stokey Punx” from 1995. Other bands featured included Dread Messiah and the anthemic “Beer” performed by Suicidal Supermarket Trollies.

Text of Guardian clipping photographed above:

(Undated but probably September 1997)

Police ‘covered up brutal attack’
Seven officers ‘invented story after beating up youngsters’
Vivek Chaudhary

POLICE officers launched a brual and unprov;ked attack on a group of young people attending a music festival and then colluded with colleagues to cover up their illegal conduct, the Old Bailey was told yesterday. The officers. all from Stoke Newington police station. north London, attacked festival goers who were attending a two day event in a north London park in May 1994, the court was told. James O’Mahony. prosecuting, told the court that the youngsters, who were having a “Saturday night out’, had not done anything wrong. They were attacked after some of them protested at police brutality when officers attempted to arrest a man close to a pub where there had been trouble. He said one man was beaten with a torch, another had his head smashed into railings, while another was attacked in the yard of the police station. Others were punched, kicked and verbally abused by officers.

Mr O’Mahony said: “If that was not bad enough the officers then told lies about what happened. It was a beating up and then a cover-up. “They put together a framework of lies for the basis of the continued detention of those arrested. All the officers made entries into police note-books and made witness statements… These were then used for the prosecution of those who had been assaulted and unlawfully arrested.”

Police officers Martin Pearl, David Hay, Paul Evans, Colin MacLennan, Mark Astley, Dustin Irribarren and Emma Flannigan all deny conspiring to pervert the course of justice on May 8, 1994. Messrs Evans, Hay and MacLennan deny conspiring to commit perjury between May 7 and October 15. 1994, while Messrs Evans, Astley, lrribarren, Hay and Pearl deny affray on May 8. 1994. Messrs Evans, Astley and Irribarren deny assault on the same day and Messrs Evans, Astley, Irribarren, Hay and Pearl deny false imprisonment — again on May 8, 1994.

The court was told that the officers arrived following trouble at the Putlog pub, Stoke Newington.

Mr O’Mahony said: “No complaint could be made as to fair and firm enforcement of the law but police conduct here was brutal, unprovoked and over the top. It was deliberately directed at innocent people.”

He told the jury that not all seven officers in the dock were responsible for the violence but all seven were responsible for making false notes in their police note-books. Messrs Evans, Hay and MacLennan also lied on oath as to what happened during the trial of one of those arrested, he said. The man was, however, acquitted.

Mr O’Mahony described Evans as the “protagonist of brutality” who launched his attack, along with some colleagues, in two Iocations close to the pub.

“Those people had done nothing wrong. Again and again, protests were made at the heavy-handed, brutal violence but to no avail. It didn’t stop on the streets. It continued in police vans and it continued at Stoke Newington police aation.” The court was told that at least five festival goers sustained injuries and were then prosecuted on the basis of false witness statements made by the officers. They are all due to give evidence at the trial along with other witnesses who saw police launch the unprovoked attack, the jury was told.

Mr O’Mahony said: “That night all the defendants were in the canteen of Stoke Newington police station. All made notes in official note-books as to what happened and the contents later went into witness statements. The jury also heard extracts from the statemenek which alleged that police had come under attack.

The Independent 17 September 1996:

Seven Met officers on crime charges

Seven Metropolitan Police officers have been charged with offences including assault, unlawful imprisonment and conspiring to pervert the course of justice over incidents in east London, the force confirmed last night.

The charges follow incidents in May 1994 and February 1995 which prompted several complaints and an internal police inquiry, supervised by the Police Complaints Authority.

Two of the officers have already appeared in court and been remanded on bail. The others have been summonsed and will appear before magistrates in early November.

Six of the officers, all male, were based at nearby Stoke Newington police station, and were on duty at the time of the alleged offences. The seventh was based at Enfield, in north London.

The charges arise out of a public-order incident when 12 people were arrested outside the Putlogs pub in Hackney. The arrests came after a performance by a punk band called Coitus the day before a festival for Hackney’s homeless. All those arrested were charged with counts of obstruction, affray and criminal damage. All were subsequently acquitted.

One set of complaints is believed to centre on four people among those arrested. A second, and unrelated, set of complaints is believed to centre on accusations of assault in cells at Stoke Newington.

Charges were laid after advice from the Crown Prosecution Service. None of the complainants has been named. Additional case papers have been filed to the CPS and its decisions on further allegations of assault and perverting the course of justice are awaited.

Scotland Yard said that Constable Jason Cook and Sergeant Terence Norman had already been bailed by Bow Street magistrates on charges of assault in Dalston, east London, in February last year.

On Monday, summonses were served on PCs Martin Pearl and David Hay alleging unlawful imprisonment and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in Stoke Newington in May 1994. PC Mark Astley, based at Enfield, faces the same charges.

PC Colin MacLennan is charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice in Stoke Newington in May 1994. Yesterday, a further summons, alleging assault, unlawful imprisonment and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, was served on PC Dustin Irribarren.

All five are due to appear at Bow Street on 5 November.

Russell Miller, solicitor for nine of the complainants, hailed the decision to prosecute as “the culmination of 14 months’ work and an unprecedented example of co-operation between victims, their solicitors and those responsible for investigating police crime. It is an example all those concerned with the current crisis in policing should look to as a model”.

BBC News

Tuesday, November 18, 1997 Published at 21:52 GMT

Police constable jailed for six months

A police officer convicted of assaulting a reveller at a festival for the homeless has been jailed for six months at the Old Bailey.

PC Paul Evans, 32, from Stoke Newington police station, north east London, had brought disgrace on himself and shame on his profession, said Judge Graham Boal.

He was found guilty of assaulting Ben Swarbrick by beating him, and of affray and was sentenced to a total of six months.

Evans was cleared of false imprisonment and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

He had denied all charges.

The judge told him: “As a constable in the Metropolitan Police, your duty was to uphold law and order.”

He said a prison sentence was inevitable and added: “Were it not so, the public would have cause for concern.”

Six other officers from the same station were all cleared on Monday of various charges they faced after the festival for Hackney’s homeless in May 1994.

The officers faced a total of 15 charges related to alleged attacks on the public or that they had conspired to pervert the course of justice regarding those events.

Mr Swarbrick said afterwards: “I was brutally assaulted by PC Evans that night. I’m not too happy with the verdict but I’m glad it’s all out of the way now.”

The officers had been called to a pub after they received reports of vandalism on a fruit machine.

They made 12 arrests but people involved alleged the officers had been heavy-handed.

The prosecution described PC Evans as the “main protagonist” in the events.