Uni chiefs take out court injunction to remove Rootes free education protesters

Furious uni bosses have slapped the Rootes building occupiers with a court injunction — who now face eviction and could be landed with a six grand legal bill. 

Free education protestors have occupied the building for over a week after heavy-handed coppers allegedly used CS spray and tasers on students to boot them out of the Senate House sit-in.

Demonstrators maintain their event was peaceful but Vice Chancellor Nigel Thrift said “an unprovoked assault” on the security team forced them to call police.

Third year protestor Callum Cant, who is named in the injunction above as Cakkum Cant, claims the court proceedings are trying to frighten the occupiers.

The 20-year-old English student said: “This is despicable.

“The injunction is obviously a move to intimidate student protestors. It’s also disappointing they’ve named some of us.

“The solicitors the uni have hired could pursue us for thousands of pounds of legal bills as they haven’t set an upper limit.”

The 30-strong group have been living in the building for days and say they have organised seminars and poetry readings.

An injunction has been sent to court and, if granted, authorities will have permission to evict the occupation — if protesters return they would be in contempt of court.

They also filmed this video.

After the original protest, footage emerged showing police CS spraying a group of students and allegedly using a taser to clear the room.

A student spokesman added: “We’re not looking for violence, we just want the uni to admit CS spraying and using tasers on their own students.”

Uni comms boss Peter Dunn said: “A number of people, between six and 30 have been occupying the building for about a week.

“Some of them aren’t students from Warwick or even at university.

“Every penny of revenue from that building goes into research and education for students, so they’re stopping that from happening. We’re losing money we could be giving to students’ education.”

Dunn added: “Naming people in the injunction would mean those people could be liable to pay for legal fees, which is an option we would reserve the right to exercise.”

Solidarity demonstrations have sprung up on other campuses, including Durham, UWE, Leeds and Sussex.