Priest, 83, arrested at Palestine Action protest

"The law does not have an age limit", the head of the Metropolitan Police said after an 83-year-old retired priest was arrested for supporting a banned protest group.

Reverend Sue Parfitt from Henbury in Bristol was arrested on the same day the group was outlawed. She was attending a demonstration in Parliament Square, London, on Saturday.

The group became a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000 on Saturday, making membership or expressing support for them punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Met Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: "It is not about protest. This is about an organisation committing serious criminality."

A total of 29 people were arrested at the demonstration and have since been released on police bail pending further inquiries.

The move to ban the organisation was announced after two Voyager aircraft were sprayed with red paint at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on 20 June. It caused about £7m of damage, police said.

MPs voted in favour of legislation to proscribe group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation on Friday. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper previously described the group as "disgraceful" and highlighted their "long history of unacceptable criminal damage".

On Saturday, Ms Parfitt sat in a camp chair surrounded by other protesters, holding a placard stating her support for Palestine Action.

As she was led away by police, she branded the ban "total nonsense", adding it symbolised a "loss of civil liberties in this country".

In a letter to the Home Secretary, protesters said: "We do not wish to go to prison or to be branded with a terrorism conviction, but we refuse to be cowed into silence by your order."

Sir Mark was asked on the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show whether it was a good use of police time.

He said: "The law doesn't have an age limit, whether you're 18 or 80.

"If you're supporting proscribed organisations, then the law is going to be enforced.

"Officers, you could see, did it with great care and tried to preserve that person's dignity, but they're breaking a serious law."

He added over the last 18 months, the group had been accused of committing "some really serious criminal offences", some of which are being taken to trial.

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