THREE CHARGED WITH ASSAULTING EMERGENCY WORKER AFTER GOSPORT PROTEST

Three people have been charged with assaulting an emergency worker after protests in Gosport, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said. Officers policed a protest the force called peaceful in the town on Tuesday, after hundreds gathered amid reports a boat was due to arrive, and police arrested six people. Shannon Dodds faces two counts of assault by beating of an emergency worker. Sally Pearson faces one count of the same offence and a racially aggravated public order offence. Both are remanded in custody to appear at Portsmouth Magistrates' Court on Thursday. Toby Matthews has been charged with common assault of an emergency worker and bailed to appear at the same court on 9 November.

Two men from Salisbury, Wiltshire, were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass. A man from Gosport was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker and given a fixed penalty notice for careless driving. All three have been bailed until 22 December. Police said the protest was prompted by initial reports that a small boat was due to disembark in the town, and that officers were deployed to manage the gathering, which it described as peaceful.

The charges follow an urgent review ordered by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood after a second boat evaded Border Force to reach the Kent coast this week. Twenty-one people were detained on Tuesday after a boat reached Samphire Hoe beach, near Dover; the Home Office has not said whether more were being sought. The review will also cover a dinghy that reached Folkestone undetected on Monday, reportedly the first such case in a year. Border Security Command had previously said new surveillance and extra resources made such incidents less likely.