Civil rights campaigners have lost their bid for a High Court ruling that anti-terrorism laws were used unlawfully to stop and search demonstrators at an international arms fair.

A freelance journalist and a protester who were both stopped and searched under the new laws brought the action.

Their counsel, Owen Davies QC, said photo-journalist Pennie Quinton, 32, from Bermondsey, south-east London, was so upset and distressed that she stopped filming the demonstrations.

Full-time student Kevin Gillan, 26, from Sheffield, was stopped on his mountain bike and allowed to go on his way after being searched.

He told Lord Justice Brooke and Mr Justice Maurice Kay it was the first time the High Court had been asked to consider "the potentially very widespread and draconian effects of one of the measures introduced by Parliament under the 2000 Act".

Sky News 31st October 2003.