[2] They were all acquitted of the most serious charges and the trial became the first judicial acknowledgement of behaviour (the repeated raids) motivated by racial hatred, rather than legitimate crime control, within the Metropolitan Police.
In the late 1960s, Gordon opened Back-a-yard, a Caribbean café, bookshop and cultural centre at 301–303 Portobello Road in Notting Hill, west London, which like other Black venues would attract police attention.
The trial lasted 55 days, and the jury deliberated for more than eight hours before all defendants were cleared of the main charge – inciting a riot – with Gordon along with Rupert Boyce, Anthony Innis and Altheia Jones-LeCointe receiving suspended sentences for lesser offences, including affray and assaulting police officers.
"[1] In his last years, Gordon returned regularly to Grenada on family business, and following prolonged ill health he died there while waiting to be moved to a hospital in the island's capital, St George's.
[8] Actor Nathaniel Martello-White portrays Gordon in Mangrove, an instalment of the 2020 film anthology/television miniseries Small Axe,[7] which was created and directed by Steve McQueen.