UEA student who blocked UKIP speech has conviction for assaulting police at UAF demo

UEA student officer Liam McCafferty is a violent criminal
with conviction for assaulting a police officer

The student union officer at the University of East Anglia who helped organise a petition to prevent local UKIP candidtes addressing the University's Political Studies Society because he claimed students wouldn't 'feel safe' with UKIP on campus has a conviction for assaulting a police officer at a UAF demonstration.

Liam McCafferty, 22, from Doncaster was arrested at a UAF demonstration against an EDL march in Bolton in March 2010, and was convicted of the assault in June 2011 and fined £100. He subsequently appealed his conviction, but it was upheld in March 2012, when in addition to the £100 fine and £630 costs he was ordered to pay a further £200 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge, bringing his bill up to almost £1000. McCafferty asked to pay at £10 a week, but was told that 'if he could afford to swan off to demonstrations, he can afford to pay up' by the judge. He was permitted to pay the costs at £5 per week, but inquiries indicate that he may not have done so.

The judge, in upholding his conviction, said he had taken 'sly digs' at an officer manning a cordon to keep UAF and EDL marchers apart.

McCafferty, speaking about his campaign to prevent UKIP speaking on the campus, said, "the talk was cancelled because student members did not feel safe", despite neither of the UKIP speakers having a conviction for assaulting a police officer. He also Tweeted the following,

Can students feel safe around a man with a conviction for political violence?
McCafferty was fined £1,000 for assaulting a policeman at a demo.

apparently forgetting to mention that even the police can't feel safe when he's around. Of course, the police can't feel safe when any UAF activist is around, and it is hardly surprising to discover a boy with links to the UAF is attempting to suppress freedom of speech. Normally they resort to bully boy tactics and violence, and we're sure that UKIP can look forward to that when sanity returns to UEA.

Full details of his conviction can be found on the Bolton News website here : £1000 bill as student loses EDL demo appeal

We wonder whether students feel safe knowing that their full time student union officer is a violent convicted criminal with a history of beating law enforcement officers, and whether that makes them feel safer or not?