Hi there, today me and a few friends were playing football on a astro turf pitch near the college, its next to a school but seperated with fences etc. There are no signs stating its private property or that not to use between set hours. Today the police arrived being called from the school where the officer then threatened to arrest us all for trespassing (yet no signs to say private land or no tresspassing as mentioned) followed by disturbing the peace (just for playing football :|) mentioning the pitch was school property yet being in a public park kind of area. Then let us go and said if he comes back and we are there he'll arrest us all for the said offenses (which is fair enough after a warning) what im wondering is could he have actually arrested us for the said offenses? I know it sounds like im worried but im not im just wondering if its ok for him to do so with the lack of signs about it being private etc.
You could be arrested for just about anything, but being charged for an offence is another story. They will need to prove that you knew what you were doing was against the law, so they wouldn't have bothered arresting you, unless you / your mates started being rude / obnoxious, in which case it could be classed as a public order offence, but that would just result in a fine.
Generally it's safe to assume that something's private property unless it's explicitly stated that it's not. Those 'Private Property' signs are only going to be evidence that the owner has tried to give you notice that it's such; another thing that will alert you is enclosure (by fences and gates) of the land. Is the pitch fenced off from the road? If it belongs to a school I'm guessing it is, which is good enough reason for you not to be there, basically. Your neighbour's back gate probably doesn't have a private property sign on it but you'd still know you weren't welcome; it's the same here. If it's smack-bang in the middle of a park that's perhaps understandable, but in general, the general public doesn't have a right to go wandering (except, of course, for the right to wander lol). In addition, if it's a school there are a number of other special regulations designed to protect the children and staff from trespassing; I'm a bit confused as to why the school didn't send the caretaker out to tell you to piss off; was this during school hours?
was at roughly 12:30 and as for the pitch around it is a waist high fence with gates with the slide handles (like normally used in public play park) Next to the pitch there are swings and roundabouts etc. which seemed more to point at a public area. either way we wont be going back ofc. As for the signs that maybe so but for a area that pretty much resembles a park even with a guy walking his dog and thowing a ball for it to catch at the time we got talked to by the police.. either way nothing can be changed now thanks for the help
if the land does belong to the school, you could ask the head for permission so that you can use it when the school isn't. (just get it in writing & put it in your wallet in case the cops hvae nothing better to do)!
I believe that only applies when it's reasonable to assume that you were in the wrong if you were genuinely unaware that what you were doing was breaking the law. (could be wrong, though). If you committed murder or even just hit someone & then tried saying you didn't think it was a crime, it wouldn't work as an excuse.
For the most part, ignorance as to the law can be used to great effect if it's believable - For instance, saying you weren't aware you were trespassing, like in this situation, then you'd probably be dealt with as the OP described. Warned not to do it again. However, it does depend on the officer, and usually, the situation. If the officer was in a bad mood, and you refused to leave (Citing lack of private property signage), then he could well have arrested you. Logic would suggest, as it's astroturf and artificial, that it is owned by someone - Which makes it private property, and without an agreement between you and the owner, you are trespassing. Had it been a j-random field, and you walked over a badly maintained fence line, then the "I didn't know" argument would hold more weight. It is, after all, up to the property owner to keep people off their land if they so desire. Granted, there is no permanent way to keep people off land, but the fact that you have to climb, remove, or make extra effort to bypass an obstacle that is not natural (say, a river) would imply that the land is private, and by law, you can be arrested for crossing the boundary between public and private land. Being charged depends on the property owner, of course.
..which would be the case if you hurdled a fence. If you haven't passed through some sort of gateway that 'invites' you onto the property, or if you haven't any other reason to suspect that you are allowed on the land then you will likely be guilty of trespass. However, trespass is a civil offence and as such, the Police would rarely attend and would never arrest - unless you were doing something else illegal. Unfortunately, the police have a number of new laws (especially since 1997) that they can lean on when they need an easy arrest, so they could just fit you up. The landowner is responsible for ejecting a trespasser, and could conceivably sue the trespasser or seek injunctive relief. If the pitches were regularly frequented by perceived troublemakers, it might mean Mr Plod will swing buy on one of his rare foot patrols, which might have been the case here. But again, there will be no arrests merely for trespassing. http://www.trespasslaw.co.uk/
to update we spoke to the officer today as they arrived to talk to other people about it and only the pitch is the schools so for now on we'll just use the non artificial pitch behind of which we confirmed with the police isnt school land either way thanks for all the answers
This is a very good idea. The local high school here has a beautiful new running track and frequently draws people to go for jogs/walks/runs. There's a form that people fill out to prove that they're allowed and sign off to say that if they get hurt it isn't the school's fault. Perhaps the same sort of deal could be struck to allow you to use the astroturf field.
