Swansea: Case dropped after press photographer arrested on story

Prosecutors have dropped what a judge called a "disturbing" case against a press photographer who was arrested while covering a breaking news story.

Dimitris Legakis was detained with "considerable force" at scene of a murder on Sketty Lane, Swansea and held in custody for 15 hours.

Swansea Crown Court heard "there was no evidential basis" to charge him.

Judge Geraint Walters said it seems a police officer "took offence" to him taking pictures.

Mr Legakis, a freelance photographer who runs the Athena Picture Agency in Swansea, was covering a car fire on 22 September, 2023, when an argument broke out.

Police arrived at the scene and arrested Mr Legakis on a public order allegation, later charging him with assaulting an emergency worker, obstructing or resisting a police officer, and with a public order offence of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour.

The car fire had been set by murderer David Clarke, who beat his 77-year-old wife Helen with a hammer before dousing her in petrol and setting her alight.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped the public order allegation and Mr Legakis pleaded not guilty to the assault charge.

The trial was due to start on Tuesday but at a hearing on Monday prosecution barrister Alycia Carpanini said no evidence would be offered in the case.

She told the court it was not in the public interest to pursue the obstruction allegation.

Asked by Judge Walters why the decision to offer no evidence had been taken on the eve of the trial, the barrister said the original statement taken from the police officer did not "coincide" with what he later said in his victim personal statement.

The alleged assault was also not captured on bodycam footage, she added.

The judge said having read the papers in the case it seemed to him "the high point of the prosecution case" was that somebody employed as a photographer was taking pictures and a police officer "took offence" to it.

He said prosecutors came to recognise that from the start, "there was no evidential basis" to charge Mr Legakis.

Judge Walters called the case "disturbing", saying it "raised serious questions" and that something had "very seriously gone wrong".

He recorded a formal not guilty verdict on the charge of assaulting an emergency worker.

Mr Legakis's barrister, James Hartson, told the court his client was a well-known professional photographer who believed he was singled out by the police because he was carrying a camera.

He told the court his defence case statement raised "legitimate questions about the freedom of the press".

Mr Harston told the court the assault charge was "suggested" to the arresting officer by his sergeant, to which the officer first said "it's not worth it" but "in a heartbeat" changed his mind.

After deciding it would offer no evidence in the case, the court heard the CPS wrote to the judge to suggest the matter could be dealt with "administratively", in other words in private.

South Wales Police has been asked to comment.

Mr Legakis reported being assaulted by four people during the altercation on Sketty Lane.

Six months later, in March, the force's professional standards unit wrote to him to confirm the allegations had not been investigated, and the issue would be raised with a chief inspector in Swansea.