Woman loses Hitler photo compensation claim
Dorothy Phillips, 78, from Clandown, North East Somerset, took the Avon and Somerset force to court over claims the photo, which she valued at £10,000, had faded while being held at Bath police station as part of an investigation.
The photo was part of a hoard of "sensitive" items seized during a search of the house she shares with son, Robert, 41, as part of an operation police admit was illegal.
Police searched the house in November 2006 after Mr Phillips became embroiled in a row with a neighbour and was later accused of making a racist remark. Officers confiscated the photo, flags, books on SS members and other material they felt supported claims Mr Phillips had intended to stir up racial hatred.
But Mr Phillips – who lived for years in the house of former Rhodesian Prime Minister, Ian Smith, a man seen by his many as an unrepentant racist – rejected the claims, saying officers were trying to smear him as a Nazi sympathiser.
The case was dropped and in January police accepted the search had been illegal and awarded Mr Phillips £7,500 in compensation.
But the pair were unhappy with the state in which the photograph was returned.
Mrs Phillips said: "I bought the photograph at auction, hoping it would be an investment for the future and kept it in a darkened room to preserve its condition."
Yesterday she told the hearing at Bristol County Court the damage to the photo would knock £5,000 off its value. The couple have twice before sought compensation but been unable to prove the depreciation in value. They have been unable to find a valuer who will touch such a politically controversial item.
Elliot Gould, acting for the police, said Mrs Phillips had entered an amended claim last November.
This was thrown out in April.
Yesterday Judge Bursell ordered Mrs Phillips to pay £1,716 in costs for three hearings but said if she ever found expert evidence of the value of the damage caused to the photo, she would have grounds to appeal.
Speaking after the hearing, she said: "I don't think we will ever be able to prove the photo was damaged but it has been worth pursuing.
"It just angers me that all this is the result of a search they had no right to carry out and we, the victims, have been painted as villains."
Mr Phillips added that the fact he was a "political animal" who collected memorabilia had been enough to paint him as a villain in the eyes of the police.
He said: "They implied that my possessions were sinister because I grew up in Rhodesia. But I have nothing to hide and am not a racist."
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