Fifteen Year-Old Reform Activist Arrested After Comparing Tory Councillor to Rent Boy

A 15 year-old Reform activist was arrested by four police officers, locked in a cell and had his fingerprints, DNA and mugshot taken after writing a tweet in which he compared a Tory councillor on Wolverhampton City Council of dressing like a “rent boy”. The Telegraph has more.

Fraser, a 15 year-old schoolboy, was asleep in bed when four police officers knocked on the door of the family home, a modest two-up-two-down on an impoverished housing estate on the fringes of Walsall in the West Midlands.

Brushing aside his mother Leanne, the officers raced up the stairs where Fraser was asleep, given it was only 8.30am and the start of the summer holidays. The day before, Fraser, a committed Reform UK activist, had been in Clacton campaigning on behalf of Nigel Farage during the hastily called by-election. He had arrived home late and was groggy from the endless door-knocks.

“I just remember waking up in my room with these four people around me. They were all in uniform,” said Fraser. “I asked them: ‘why are you here?’” The answer he got back was unclear – to Fraser at least. More than two months later, he is none the wiser.

But it appears a handful of posts on Facebook had so upset a Tory councillor on the Wolverhampton city council that he had made a complaint to police.

In one post, Fraser complained that the councillor was dressed inappropriately by wearing shorts and a T-shirt to a meeting and in another – when the councillor had worn a suit – commented that he was on that occasion thankfully not dressed like a “rent boy”.

The West Midlands force responded by dispatching four officers in two police cars to apprehend Fraser on the morning of August 3rd.

Two months on, police and prosecutors are still to decide whether to charge the teenager in a case that his lawyers say raises serious questions about freedom of speech and whether police are abusing their powers to pursue so-called ‘hate’ crimes.

Fraser’s arrest threatens to become a cause célèbre. His legal team, in a letter to West Midlands Police, maintains that Fraser was simply engaged in “plainly political advocacy” rather than any “threat or private campaign of intimidation”.

In the legal letter, seen by the Telegraph, Fraser’s lawyers accused the force of acting disproportionately. They are planning to sue the police, accusing the force of “wrongful arrest” and “false imprisonment”. But first they need the criminal investigation – which is ongoing – to be dropped.

Fraser remains baffled about what he might have done that broke the law.

“I would say my arrest was politically motivated,” said Fraser. “I can’t quite believe what’s happened to me. I would like an apology from the police. But I doubt they will give me one.”

What the Telegraph has been able to examine, including correspondence between Fraser’s legal team and the police, suggests he was detained, questioned and bailed for a small number of Facebook posts, in which he criticised the councillor – Simon Bennett, the leader of the Tories on the council – for looking at his mobile phone during a meeting; and also complained that the councillor had worn red shorts, a blue T-shirt and trainers to a committee meeting.

“Why do some councillors rock up at a scrutiny committee in shorts and t-shirt in trainers? So unprofessional,” he wrote.

In one image posted online, Fraser had added rabbit ears to a photo of the councillor with the caption: “Nibble… nibble… crunch… crunch. Can you hear it? That’s the sound of a rabbit devouring the last remaining shreds of Wolverhampton Conservatives’ credibility.”

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: This is a Free Spech Union case. Please join if you want to protect people like Fraser from state over-reach.