Randy Horton told yesterday how “appalled” he was at the scenes that unfolded outside the House of Assembly on Friday and admitted he “probably should have moved faster” to adjourn that day’s parliamentary proceedings.

The Speaker of the House told The Royal Gazette he knew nothing beforehand of a decision to deploy riot police to the scene and “obviously” did not plan to resign from his position, despite a call for him to do so from union leader Chris Furbert and others.

Mr Horton gave this newspaper a detailed account of his day on December 2, including how he watched “with dismay” from his office in Sessions House as police in riot protection gear arrived on the scene and how he then saw “people scrambling against each other”.

He said he took a “unilateral decision” to adjourn the House once he realised that things were escalating outside and conveyed that decision to Michael Dunkley, the Premier, as well as Opposition leader David Burt.

There was a delay, he said, between him sharing his decision with them and a public notification being issued by the Government at 2.45pm.

Mr Horton arrived at the House at about 7.45am on Friday, when just a handful of demonstrators were in attendance, and was able to enter via the Parliament Street gate.

“There was one lady who came up to me and stood in front of me,” he said. “I can’t remember exactly what she said; it wasn’t kind words.”

The only other MP to make it into the building, he said, was Cabinet minister Sylvan Richards.

The Speaker said he spoke with Acting Governor Ginny Ferson during the morning and, when no other members showed up, he decided to adjourn until 1pm.

“I’m fairly certain I spoke to the Commissioner [of Police] in terms of letting him know we were adjourned until 1pm,” said Mr Horton. “I spoke with the leader of the Opposition and I spoke with the Premier.”

The Speaker said the commissioner did not, at any point, discuss with him the plan to deploy riot police and the first he knew was when he saw helmeted officers through his office window.

“I saw them walking down to my dismay. When I saw that — and I probably should have moved faster but I didn’t move as fast as maybe I should have — once I saw them go in and I saw people scrambling against each other, I saw people tussling, when I saw that I said ‘hey, I’m calling and saying we are not going to resume the House’.”

Reporters from this newspaper who covered the protest believe riot police arrived at about 1.15pm.

Mr Horton said he watched the events from his window for “maybe 15 minutes” and made his decision to adjourn the House until December 9 after that, though he could not say exactly when.

He said he shared his decision immediately with Mr Dunkley and Mr Burt but was not certain he spoke to the commissioner.

A press release regarding the adjournment was sent to the media by the Government at 2.45pm.

“I don’t know that there is any other action that I could have taken,” said Mr Horton, on being asked whether he could have done anything more to stop the situation from escalating.

He said the scenes he witnessed were “not pretty and not good” but he had “no comment to make about the work of the police”.

The Progressive Labour Party MP said: “I was appalled to see people — human beings — going at each other the way they were. I was not there. I just saw people — police and everybody — I saw people fighting against each other. I couldn’t tell exactly what was going on.

“I feel it’s terrible that people were pepper-sprayed. I feel saddened.”

The Speaker said a decision had yet to be taken on Friday’s session of the House but he hoped it would take place.

“Hopefully, all parties will have got together and had some discussions on a way forward so that we can move ahead in a productive way.”

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