Hunt demonstrators deny causing distress

Ferry, the son of rock star Bryan Ferry, described how the doorman "pounced" on him as he lay on the floor, still trying to address rural affairs minister Alun Michael.

The 22-year-old claims that he struggled to breathe as the doorkeeper tried to silence him.

He also alleged that another doorman put his knee against his back, describing their actions as "unnecessarily forceful".

Ferry was one of a group of eight pro-hunting demonstrators who stormed the Commons chamber on September 15 last year during a debate on a bill to ban the sport.

Wood, 41, of Bowden Park and the other seven accused demonstrators deny the public order offence of causing alarm and distress.

They want to prove the MPs felt no such threat. On Monday the court was told Ferry was the main organiser of the protest and had bought builders' outfits, drew up a map of the inside of the House of Commons and forged an invitation from a fictious Commons committee.

At their trial at Bow Street Magistrates Court in central London on Tuesday Ferry told how, after bursting into the chamber, he tried to address Mr Michael directly.

Ferry said he looked the minister in the eye "because whenever you try to talk to him he tries to divert his eyes. He will not acknowledge you are talking to him.

"There was no way he could squirm out of this conversation.

"I then felt somebody touching my shoulder. I looked around to see it was a guard or a doorman. I immediately dropped to the floor to make it clear I was not going to push him around.

"I continued to look up at Alun Michael and told him that what he was doing was incredibly unjust.

"I continued to talk and raise my voice then one of the doormen pounced on me and started throttling me in an attempt to silence me. I could not breathe.

"Another one put his knee against my back. I started wriggling not to get away because I had done what I intended to do.

"They were being unnecessarily forceful for a few seconds. I did squirm to get them to get off my throat."

Ferry said that after they allowed him to his feet he walked out of the chamber peacefully.

Ferry also told the court of the ease with which he and the group slipped past the doorkeepers as they approached the entrance to the chamber. They had entered the Commons dressed as builders, but had discarded their outfits in a committee room to expose their pro-hunting T-shirts. As they strolled through a corridor "strung out like horses in a bad race" on the approach to the chamber, Ferry said they passed one doorkeeper who seemed "like he was asleep".

He said: "I do not think he even saw us. I did not see him react to anything we did. They (the doorkeepers) were very sedate and very slow to move."

They then turned left into a wide corridor, where Ferry said he tried to "step up my speed because I did not want him to catch me".

As he did so he slipped on the carpet. One of the doormen also slipped, he said, before Ferry managed to get to his feet and walk through a little door into the main Commons chamber.

Ferry said he had "most definitely not" intended to use violence during the protest and claimed: "I have never had a fight in my life. It was about as orderly as you could get," he said. "We conducted ourselves in a polite and well organised fashion."

He told the court he had always believed the plan could succeed, having visited the Commons just two days previously.

"I would have been wasting my time if I had not thought that," he said. "I saw the confusion and the bad management when I was there on the Monday and the chaos on the construction site. It meant a lot to me to make my feelings heard."

Nicholas Wood, 41, said he had decided to take part because he felt "very strongly about the way the Government is treating the countryside with contempt".

He added: "I hoped it would be non-violent and peaceful. That was exactly how it happened. I do not see how we could have made it any more orderly.

"We behaved like perfect gentlemen from start to finish."

The hearing continues.