A LEADING figure in the anti-cuts protest movement in Haringey has been charged with assaulting a police officer during a budget meeting stand-off.
Jane Laporte, one of the spokespeople and publicists for the Haringey Alliance for Public Services (HAPS) which arranged the protest outside Haringey’s Civic Centre last Thursday, was charged on Friday night alongside 34-year-old Nicolas Christian.
Police marched Laporte, 39, of Terront Road, South Tottenham, and Christian, of Chester Road, Tottenham, out of the building in High Road, Wood Green, at about 8.40pm after the council chamber was occupied for more than an hour.
The chamber was daubed with graffiti, a glass door was smashed and protest banners were paraded against the council’s �41million package of severe cuts for 2011/12.
The fracas delayed the council’s budget meeting by 90 minutes and resulted in the public gallery being closed, but the cuts were voted through unaltered that night.
Laporte and Christian will both appear at Highgate Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, March 15.
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