Debbie Hicks, the anti-lockdown activist who is facing a number of attempts to prosecute her for protesting in various ways, was found not guilty earlier today in Cheltenham Magistrates Court. BBC News has more.
A woman who helped to organise a rally during lockdown has been found not guilty of breaching Covid regulations.
Debbie Hicks attended the Freedom Rally in Stroud, Gloucestershire, in November 2020.
The free speech activist was arrested on the day and faced two charges relating to lockdown regulations.
A district judge has found her not guilty and said police were incorrect to act as though there was a blanket ban on protests at the time.
Cheltenham Magistrates Court was told the Freedom Rally took place in Stratford Park on November 7th, two days after the latest round of lockdown regulations had come into effect.
Those regulations banned gatherings of more than two people.
More than 50 people attended the rally and police, who identified Ms. Hicks as an organiser – something she denied – approached her and told her she might be arrested if she did not leave.
Ms Hicks, who said she was not against vaccinations but wanted to take part in the rally to support “freedom to protest”, remained at the scene and was eventually arrested.
PC Tim Burch, from Gloucestershire Police, told the hearing that officers had been briefed that the rally was “not reasonable” because of the lockdown restrictions coming in.
Ms Hicks, of Stratford Road, Stroud, faced two charges; holding or being involved in a gathering of more than 30 people, and participating in a gathering of more than two people.
She said she was exercising her rights under the European Convention of Human Rights articles 10 and 11 – that deal with freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.
“I felt human rights superseded that [lockdown] and it was my right to be there to protest,” she told the court, adding that she was “shocked” by the level of policing on the day.
Clearing her of both charges, District Judge Nicholas Wattam said while the evidence proved she was one of the event organisers, he found the police response to the rally was “not proportionate”.
“I’m concerned that the understanding of police officers on the ground was flawed,” he said, adding that it was not the fault of the police at the event as they were taking their instructions from senior officers.
The judge added that a blanket ban on public gatherings was not in place at the time, and if it had been it would have been a breach of human rights.
Debbie was only able to fight this case because readers of the Daily Sceptic generously contributed to her crowdfunder, meaning she could afford a crack legal team from Murrays Partnership. Wish Debbie luck – she still has four more cases to fight.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Well done Debbie and all those freedom lovers who supported her!
Top lady. If If ever the chips are down and Im backed against a wall – this is the person I would wish to have beside me. Fearless, determined and utterly committed to a just cause. If only there were more like her.
That was one of the best tenners I spent last year! We’ll done all!
Hurrah
Important data emerging from Canada …
Graph below …
Those proportions look about right for the amounts in each camp as a percentage of population.
It is true then that the vaccines don’t work. Did you notice the sharp divergence of the trend lines from around 14 December for the vaxxed and the unvaxxed. What’s going on there?
The vaccines do work…….but not in the way claimed.
Yeah on this occasion the data is not showing a sceptic friendly position. As a ratio cases are 2x higher in unvaccinated. But…this is just a snapshot and vaxxed rates are shooting up, will meet around the 1st week of New Year if current trends continue.
As an aside, imagine going back 2 years and telling someone what’s been happening, and then show them that graphic. So there are between 12 and 24 cases per hundred thousand? That’s not a lot. Does it kill everyone who has a case? What? About 3 people in a thousand? And they are mainly old and or sick? 82 years old average? So many are even older than that? And you closed schools? And trapped old people in care homes without visitors? And spent how many billions? [This goes on for a long time until your friend from 2019 despairs of humanity so much he shoots himself].
Funny place, Stroud.
Meanwhile, I think I know one reason why there are so many “cases”. People on low incomes are getting £500 if they have to isolate because they had a positive test or because they have been notified as a close contact of someone who had a positive test. Before Christmas. I heard two young shelfstackers in Tesco talk about this today. The £500 is an incentive to test – that’s obvious.
I’ve just looked that up and there’s a government link for track and trace financial support.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/test-and-trace-support-payment-scheme-claiming-financial-support/claiming-financial-support-under-the-test-and-trace-support-payment-scheme
Well done all.
It would appear that there still are some decent folk amongst the judiciary.
This one a male …endangered species?
No doubt that judge will be given a good talking to.
“Cleansed” even – I thought Blair had “taken care of” all that?
That’s an appallingly bad write-up by the BBC. Didn’t they have someone in court who actually understands basic legal stuff?
Well? Was that legal argument upheld?
It sounds to me as though it wasn’t, because if so the charges would have been dismissed, rather than the court considering she had a case to answer and then the judge deciding she was not guilty.
Readers of BBC scribbling may be interested in Ms Hicks’s views, but what legal relevance do they have in this case?
What the BBC said a few lines before was wrong then. And as for “if it had been”, that’s the first time I’ve heard of new case law being made in a magistrates’ court. Will the government appeal? I ask sarcastically, because whatever went on I don’t think the BBC scribbler and editor understood it.
Good to see Ms Hicks defeat those charges, of course!
BBC – what do you expect?
Get this:
A human being swerves charges implicating them for functioning as a human being.
Shit. Let’s celebrate. All round mine for a Russell!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebFNaZiIDU8
Government Officially Commit To REMAINING With ECHR
Boris is consistent..
ly wrong.
Why would you expect otherwise? The ECHR is an adjunct of the Council of Europe, not the European Union. Even Russia is technically bound by it (but they just laugh it off).
What a ridiculous waste of our courts’ time this is.
And of public money.
Brilliant. If there’s anything left in the kitty, then the indefatigable Piers Corbyn could well be needing it.
Direct action and civil disobedience is the only way we will end this madness.
Gutsy lady.. and I’m really pleased at the verdict. Justice has been done.. especially in the light of the shenanigans/parties going on with Boris Johnson and his cohorts..
delighted at this having contributed to the crowdfunder, but most especially for Debbie, who is a very plucky brave lady, with thanks for all she has been doing, whom I had the privilege of chatting to during the 20th November (Austrian Embassy) worldwide rally/march
a real world hero – I’m always impressed by real people
Well done, Debbie. And a judge who’s prepared to make a decision based on the evidence before him – it’ll never catch on.
Excellent news!
MSM is trying to make fun of people wanting to protect themselves with cheap and proven drugs. Ivermectin has been FDA approved for human use since 1996. It also beats Pfizer’s new wonder drug hands down, and costs next to nothing. Ivermectin doesn’t make tons of money. So they know the Covid shot is on its final gasp, so they take it add something different to it, rebrand under another name and charge 20 times what they would for ivermectin. I cannot wrap my head around this nonsense. When I explain this to my relatives they label me as crazy and ask me if I know better than science. I don’t make up these information out of my ass. All this information is true and proven. For some people it is near impossible for them to wake up. They are comfortable in their clown world life. If you want to get Ivermectin you can visit https://ivmpharmacy.com
Protected by the ECHR Articles 10 and 11 – are these by any chance Articles that Rabb wants to scrap?
No consequences for the Stasi on the ground though, as they were only following orders.
A small chunk of light in the war on state sponsored thuggery
Excellent – some good news!
Hope she has a good Christmas now.
she is still short £1,500 – only 161 donations so far. You can give any amount you can. I am not affiliated with her in any way. Click her crowdfunder link in the article to donate. Beats writing another email to an MP.
Don’t you wish the met and the judicial would be this responsive and quick investigating a xmas part held at boris’ a year ago (when the rest of us were locked down). And then how about producing the evidence of your investigation to a court of law. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to see the system run with integrity and a fair playing field.
. It doesn’t really work that way though, does it?