HACKNEY activist Leila Deen could have expected a tough interrogation when she was arrested for throwing green custard at business secretary Peter Mandelson this week.

But according to the 29-year-old campaigner from London Fields, police officers saw the funny side of her protest – and cracked a few puns in the process, the Hackney Post can exclusively reveal.

“They thought it was really funny that they were taking me into custody,” Ms Deen claimed.

“The fact is that this is protest and protest captures imagination by being creative.

“In this case it’s creative because it’s funny. So for the police to take this in the context in which it is intended is a good thing. They behaved responsibly in the same way that I have.”

Ms Deen, a charity worker, has been a member of environmental protest group Plane Stupid for the past two and a half years.

As part of Plane Stupid, Ms Deen has scaled a crane at a G8 summit, glued herself to the doors of the Department of Transport, and only last week turned herself into a human lie-detector – disrupting a speech by Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon by sounding a horn every time she thought he was lying.

In an interview with the Hackney Post, Ms Deen vowed to continue using such tactics to campaign against the Government’s environmental policies.

Ms Deen was not charged and has been released on bail to reappear on April 9.

(Image taken from Plane Stupid on Flickr.)

- You can see Hackney Post’s interview with Leila Deen here.