COURT appearances began in Yorkshire yesterday following the arrests of five peaceful protesters at an anti-fracking demonstration.

Crawberry Hill is an experimental drilling operation near the market town of Beverley in the East Riding and a permanent protest camp has been set up by campaigners calling themselves “protectors.”

On Saturday they staged a protest, sitting in the road outside the entrance to the site, blocking access to a lorry.

When Humberside police turned out to support bailiffs, a police sergeant using a loud hailer was drowned out with chants of “la la la.”

Police moved in and seized sitting protesters, but the demonstrators accused police of handling those arrested roughly.

“It was peaceful and in good spirits when the police jumped in and roughly arrested five people, throwing some of them face down on the tarmac,” said an anonymous protester.

“In the circumstances the use of handcuffs was just totally disproportionate.”

One man was held face down in the road. His hands were tied behind his back as an officer knelt on him and he was then carried face down with his arms pulled up behind him.

A protester said: “It was an unlawful arrest. These were purely intimidatory tactics by Humberside police at a peaceful protest.”

A second man was handcuffed and the five people arrested were searched before being put inside a police van. Protesters videoed the action.

One of those arrested appeared before Beverley Magistrates yesterday and the other four will appear on Wednesday August 20.