Criminal Justice (Scotland) (Amendment) (Hansard, 9 July 1985)

§ Mr. Gerald Malone (Aberdeen, South)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to impose a mandatory minimum sentence of three months' imprisonment in respect of persons of 21 years of age or over or of three months' detention in respect of any person who is not less than 16 but under 21 years of age who is convicted of the offence of breach of the peace or any offence involving violence against a third party committed within the relevant area of a designated sports ground or a public service vehicle or railway passenger vehicle being operated for the principal purpose of conveying passengers to or from a designated sporting event. The purpose of the Bill which I seek to introduce is to amend the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act. It is yet another measure of a sort that we have seen before the House this Session to stamp out football violence. As the nation watched with growing disbelief the shame of Britain at the Heysel stadium some months ago, two important lessons hit home. The first was that football matches were without doubt the chosen arenas for those who have the 20th century gladiatorial instinct. The second was that our complacency on this problem has endured for too long.

We have seen considerable progress with the passage of legislation, with all-party support, to ban alcohol at designated sporting events throughout the United Kingdom. It seems almost unbelievable that what we were told by England and Welsh Members a few months ago was impossible is now in legislative form and will be on the statute book before the end of the Session.

We in Scotland have had the benefit of similar legislation for about five years, and it has worked well, but each of those five years is a silent witness to our incapacity and unwillingness until now to grasp what has been an ever-increasing and growing problem throughout the United Kingdom. However, the Bill applies especially to Scotland. It is a timely reminder that we in Scotland risk falling into the same complacency trap. We pride ourselves on having avoided it, but unfortunately football violence is again escalating within Scotland.

There is a new villain who is attending Scottish football matches, and he is called the soccer casual. He is dressed in smart clothes. He is usually dressed in denims and a cashmere sweater. He is fairly respectable looking. He will have a short haircut and often he will be middle class with a considerable amount of money in his pocket. He is also brutal. He is a sort of Sunday supplement soccer hooligan and he is new on the Scottish scene. For him, fines are no deterrent. It is a badge of honour for him and his friends to appear before a court, to be found guilty of an offence and to be fined. These new hooligans collectively shrug that off. If we are to tackle this new menace, we shall need a new form of specific deterrent.

The problem is a real one. During a recent Scottish sheriff court case, a document was provided to the court which showed clearly that Aberdeen soccer casuals were intent, having run riot in Scotland during the past year, on taking the problem south of the border. The document revealed that they were issuing a challenge to fans in England to try to meet the standard of behaviour that they had been displaying in Scotland.

900 The Bill seeks to impose mandatory minimum sentences on soccer thugs. It will do two things. First, I believe that it will underline our determination as a legislative body to fight soccer thuggery wherever and whenever it occurs. That will be apparent in the United Kingdom and, at a sensitive time, abroad as well.

The Bill will support our police forces, which are finding it difficult to cope with the new phenomenon of the soccer casuals. It will provide a sharp edge to their efforts to isolate and to stamp out this form of violence. It will emphasise that no act of violence, however small, can be tolerated within the grounds of a football stadium. However small the initial act of violence, it will not matter. The lesson that we learnt from the events within the Heysel stadium was that small acts of violence can lead to larger riots. If we are to see soccer progress and to continue as something approaching a national sport, we cannot allow violence to continue.

Many of our football clubs, including many in Scotland, are rising to the modern challenge of football thugs. In the Aberdeen football stadium a substantial amount of investment has been made and the club has shown its willingness, and its faith in its supporters, to stamp out hooliganism. Football clubs which attempt to do this deserve the support of legislation. When the Aberdeen football club sends its supporters abroad to European events, it sends them as ambassadors for Aberdeen and Scotland as well. However, unless we stamp out the menace of soccer casuals, that could change.

The Bill is a step towards bringing the family back to the football stadium in Scotland and towards reestablishing the image of one of our most important national sports. I hope that it will receive the support of the whole House.