The police told me I had been identified from a photograph taken at the time. This is impossible because I wasn't there, maybe in spirit perhaps, but I am a single parent with a son of 6, and I realised long ago that I couldn't be a parent and an activist, but I could support the struggle from the sideline. This is what I have been doing for the last 4 or 5 years, but the police obviously took one look at my past record, one look at a grainy photograph of someone who looks slightly like
me, and decided to pin it on me.

My son was at school that day but I was told that I would be released in a couple of hours. They forgot to take off my watch at the station, I was locked up at 11.15 am, after being told I would be interviewed "in an hour or so". At 4.30 pm I was taken out, and handed over to two detectives who told they were going to take me to Northwich, in Cheshire, for questioning. I told them I had a small son to think of and asked what was going on. They laughed and one said "you didn't think about that the first when you went to Chester, did you?!" I asked "have you ever heard of the phrase 'innocent until proven guilty?'" He didn't seem to understand, just laughed again. I was allowed to speak briefly to my Mum who was looking after my boy, and then I was taken to Northwich with the two detectives, who I learned later were the two who had decided the person in the photograph was me. I had never met either before.

We got to Northwich at 7.00 pm, and I was interviewed with a solicitor present, one which my family had arranged for me. The whole interview lasted 2-3 minutes. They kept on about the photograph but wouldn't show it to us. I was fingerprinted, photographed, etc, then put in the coldest cell I had ever been in. From arriving there I had repeatedly told them I was a vegan, but after a freezing sleepness night I was offered bacon and eggs (that old joke). The woman on breakfast duty didn't know what 'vegan' meant. At 9.00 am they sent me a tomato on a plate. I felt they were taking the piss and sent it back. Eventually I was taken to Chester court, 17 miles away, and handcuffed and hungry, I was given bail, as long as someone stood a £1000 surety. I was taken to Chester Police station and checked in.

Luckily my parents were kept in touch via my solicitor, and my dad immediately went to Coventry Police station with proof of his bank balance. This was at 11:10 am. I was again locked up whilst the desk sergeant waited for the proof to be faxed through. After an hour, he came and said Coventry police were still checking up on me and my family (whatever that meant). So I asked for some food as I hadn't eaten in 24 hours. I said again I was a vegan and he said I'd have
to eat what the others do. It was lucky there were plenty of brick walls for me to smash my head against. At last, at 1.45 pm, 1 1/2 hours after my dad had offered the £1,000, and 27 hours after they had stood on my doorstep, promising " a couple of hours", I was finally freed. My Dad had left £15 for me at Coventry police station so they could issue me a travel warrant, but the desk sergeant decided that as I had £60 on me, (I was going to pay my gas bill that day), I could
afford my own way home.

On getting back to Coventry I learnt that friends had started out to pick me up from Chester but had broken down halfway and had to phone for a mechanic etc. - so it cost us all dearly that day and not just in money. The way I see it is if you're going to be put through an experience like that, every time the police need a few arrests, then why be law-abiding? My little boy hates policemen, and under that is fear, and I'm sure he'll never go to one for help. My solicitor says that one photograph is all the evidence they have against me. The charge will be hanging over me, at least, until November, and that is just another example of Great British justice. My fault ,perhaps, for being in possession of dreadlocks, a tatty parka and a "strange" diet.

Note: In the end Jill was totally cleared of any involvement in the riot, although many Hunt Sabs were sent to prison as a result of the trashing of Summersgill's house. It will come as no suprise that Alan Summersgill himself was cleared of killing Mike Hill and never faced justice.

Like many Animal Rights People, this wasn't the only time something like this happened to Jill. Several years after this raid, the police raided Jill's flat and her Mother Nancy's flat, arresting Jill, Nancy, Jill's aged dad Bob and Jill's partner Justin ... they were accused of being part of an ALF action against Glaxo ... but again they were eventually cleared of any involvement.