“I’m forced to carry a body cam with me whenever I’m covering something by myself,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I shouldn’t be fearing doing my work and going out and about, and taking pictures, or even speaking my mind, as I did,” he said.<\/p>\n
South Wales Police has refused to comment. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Mr Legakis, a freelance photographer who runs the Athena Picture Agency in Swansea, was arrested while covering the fire which damaged more than 20 vehicles.<\/p>\n
Representing Mr Legakis, defence barrister James Hartson said his client was an “accredited and respected freelance photojournalist” and had lost work following the conviction.<\/p>\n
“This is the second time he’s been dragged into the criminal court for what appears to be ‘upsetting’ a police officer,” Mr Hartson added.<\/p>\n
Mr Hartson told the court it was time the police realised “it is not a criminal offence to be insulting”.<\/p>\n
“That appears to be the test which is applied to Mr Legakis at every time he appears at a scene of an incident to do his job.<\/p>\n
“There is a clear infringement of his human rights. If police don’t agree with him, they lock him up and throw him in a van,” he added.<\/p>\n
Speaking after his case was thrown out, Mr Legakis told BBC Wales he was “relieved” with the outcome, saying he has had sleepless nights due to the case.<\/p>\n
“It was horrendous,” he said.<\/p>\n
He also said it was “embarrassing” to tell clients he had a court case against him.<\/p>\n
Mr Legakis said he was arrested after calling a fire officer “a coward” after he allegedly “made handcuff gestures” towards him as he was taking photographs from the pavement.<\/p>\n
He said he “absolutely does not” regret his remarks and rejected the suggestion that his use of language was provocative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Athena Pictures<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nDimitris Legakis was photographing a fire at a car dealership when he was arrested<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
“It’s a freedom of human rights, of expression… if you disagree with someone or raise you voice… it’s not up to the police to police that and subsequently arrest you. I felt betrayed,” he added.<\/p>\n
“It does worry me. The problem I’m having is most of the time I’m working by myself.”<\/p>\n
He added that he felt “resentment” due to the delay in the appeal process.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Judge Huw Rees told Swansea Crown Court there was “no longer a conviction” against Mr Legakis as he permitted the appeal.<\/p>\n
The prosecution told the court there was “not enough evidence” and it did not meet the test of the Section 5 Public Order Act.<\/p>\n
Judge Rees told the court he understood Mr Hartson’s “passion” and asked why the case had not been reviewed sooner.<\/p>\n
“We have little alternative other than to allow the appeal,” he told Mr Legakis.<\/p>\n
The Crown Prosecution Service, South Wales Fire and Rescue Service and Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service have been asked to comment. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BBC Freelance photographer Dimitris Legakis was arrested while covering a fire at a car dealership A press photographer arrested while covering a fire at a car dealership and who had his conviction thrown out said he should not have to be fearful doing his job. Dimitris Legakis, from Swansea, was found guilty by magistrates last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[46],"tags":[661,88,264,6488,6283,2317],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62877,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62875\/revisions\/62877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"BBC](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/b2c6\/live\/b8b87bf0-8feb-11f0-a795-b308c7069dd1.jpg.webp\")
BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/bbcdotcom\/web\/20250905-110137-f27f908f49-web-2.29.1-3\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Athena](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/8941\/live\/3a3c1590-8fee-11f0-a795-b308c7069dd1.jpg.webp\")