CLAIMS that former Bar Council chairman Anthony Scrivener QC made an obscene gesture at protesters outside the Westminster homes-for-votes hearing have been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Scrivener, representing Dame Shirley Porter at the District Auditor's inquiry, is accused of making a V-sign at the crowd outside the Marylebone Council House on day one of the hearing.
But the barrister, based at 2-3 Gray's Inn Square, who is next week due to sum up Porter's defence, has laughed off the incident claiming there is no truth in the allegations.
“I was waving to a chap in the crowd. I didn't even know it was an incident until someone told me afterwards,” he says.
But following formal complaints from several witnesses, the police are seeking advice on the matter. A CPS spokesman confirms that an advice file from the Metropolitan Police is currently under consideration.
Porter and her lawyers were greeted at the first day of the hearings in October by a barrage of placard-waving protesters.
The former leader of the Tory borough was heckled as she made her entrance, but seized on the moment to proclaim her innocence.
It was while Porter was giving her impromptu press conference that Scrivener is alleged to have made the gesture. It is claimed that he was angered by remarks shouted out by some of the protesters.
But Scrivener says the hearings have been generally good natured with both sides co-operating despite the occasional heckle from the public gallery.
“That's all part of the fun,” he says.
