Police defend officers after revellers injured during raid on MoD land illegal rave

Residents up to five miles away were kept awake by 'thumping' bass music that went on all night and into Easter Sunday
A police chief has defended his officers who broke up an illegal rave on MoD land used as a firing range amid accusations they injured some revellers by beating them with batons.

One attendee accused police of being heavy-handed, claiming they 'attacked' people by dragging them across the floor and hitting them as they lay on the ground.

Footage from the huge event at East Lulworth, Dorset, apparently shows some revellers with bloodied faces.

But David Sidwick, the Dorset Police & Crime Commissioner, defended officers and said they used proportionate force after coming under 'intense assault' from the crowd.

Officers in riot gear had bottles thrown at them as they stepped in to break up the unauthorised 24 hour rave that was attended by 2,000 people.

Mr Sidwick: "This was an illegal act that was well organised, nationally organised.

It was an illegal event with no safety constraints.

"The police were absolutely right to do what they did and police this robustly.

"The police would have tried to close this down peacefully.

They came under intense assault with bottles.

"The reason they closed it down was there were a number of illegal acts going on, drug taking but the immense inconvenience to the community around, you could hear this for miles.

"I had members of community come to me absolutely devasted by the noise, absolutely devastated hat people were stopping and defecating in their drives, there was a lot of anti-social behaviour that occurred.

"The police were right to shut it down.

"I am certain that when it is reviewed it will show this was a proportionate response."
The rave began late on Saturday night when revellers broke onto MoD land used as a firing range.

Police attended and told the crowd to leave the site but to no avail.

Boosted by colleagues from neighbouring forces, officers in riot gear went in and physically dispersed the crowd which had become 'violent and hostile.'
Eleven people were arrested for a variety of offences, with one person charged with assaulting a police officer.

But attendee Zak Hanman, from Swindon, Wilts, told the BBC the event had been 'very peaceful' up to that point and no violence was presented towards the police.

He said: "Everyone was just enjoying themselves, but the police...

started dragging people to the floor, hitting them, attacking them when no violence was presented towards them.

"The violence they used was unethical, it was unhuman-like and it was just not needed."
He admitted he had seen violence towards police officers from partygoers, but said that only began after officers moved in.

He said: "Towards the end, yes, people were throwing stuff at them [the police], but that was not until they were hitting people, attacking people."
In one case in particular, he said he had seen officers "hit this guy with a baton, even when he was on the floor".

He added: "Yes, people were taking drugs, yes, people were drunk, but that doesn't mean beat them up," he said.

"Any human in their right mind can see that it was just not called for."
Dorset Police said in a statement: "This event caused significant disruption to local communities and we took appropriate and proportionate action to bring it to safe conclusion.

"While responding to the incident involving a large number of people, our officers came under attack from missiles and faced a violent and hostile reception.

"Violence in our communities and against our officers will not be tolerated."
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