English Channel boat: Daniel Thomas charged with criminal damage
Thomas, of no fixed address, was remanded in custody to appear before magistrates in Basingstoke.
Daniel Thomas, 37, has been charged with criminal damage after an allegation that a boat was damaged in the English Channel with an emergency responder on board, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said.
The Crown Prosecution Service, which announced the charges on 24 September, said Thomas, of no fixed address, faces one count of criminal damage, contrary to section 1 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971.
The second count is failing to comply with a notice under section 53 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
“The Crown Prosecution Service has decided to prosecute Daniel Thomas following an investigation by Hampshire Constabulary into an incident on Tuesday 22 September,” said Chris Derrick, deputy chief crown prosecutor for CPS Wessex.
“Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring the case to court and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings,” Derrick added.
Thomas was remanded in custody to appear at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court on 25 September, the constabulary said.
The constabulary listed four suspicions when it announced the arrest, made on 23 September.
They included criminal damage with intent to endanger life and two offences under maritime safety laws, none of which is among the two counts Thomas now faces.
Section 53 makes it an offence if a person given a disclosure notice “knowingly fails, in accordance with the notice, to make the disclosure required”, the Act states.
The maximum sentence on conviction on indictment is two years, or five years in what the Act calls a national security case or a child indecency case.
The prosecution service did not say what the notice required.
The prosecution service said its assessment of a case “is not in any sense a finding of, or implication of, any guilt or criminal conduct”, and that a finding of fact “can only be made by a court”.
It added that there should be “no reporting, commentary or sharing of information” which could prejudice the proceedings.
Derrick reminded “all concerned that proceedings against the defendant are active and he has the right to a fair trial”.