The conviction of Claudia Webbe proves what I myself have been told, that there is no defence to a charge of harassment. The crime consists in having made the complainant feel harassed. If she says that she was, then she was.
No lawyer would commit professional suicide by representing you if you tried to plead not guilty; I have that in writing, although I admit that it might be different if you could afford Courtenay Griffiths QC. Note, though, that not even he can get you off.
Ask any solicitor in the field. What they tell you may not be what you had read in a textbook. It may not be the Statute Law. But it will be how it works in Magistrates' Courts the length and breadth of the country on a daily basis. "Once they say they felt harassed, it's game over, you'll be convicted on the spot." Those were the words used, repeatedly.
What matters is that the complainant is well enough connected to have her case taken up by Keir Starmer's Crown Prosecution Service. If she is, then she, he and it are guaranteed a kill. And here we are. Starmer wanted a critical MP out of the way, and his old staffers duly obliged. Watch out for the Labour nomination at Leicester East.
Moreover, just as a crime for which the punishment is a fine is a law for the poor but not for the rich, so a charge to be tried by a Magistrates' Court, which is most of them, is a charge of which it is more or less impossible to be acquitted. Magistrates do not acquit. That was not why they became magistrates. Even hangmen expected to be paid, but magistrates love hanging and flogging so much that they do it for free. Put down that textbook and get out more.
Yes, watch out for the Labour nomination at Leicester East. And watch out for a lot more of this type of lawfare.
ReplyDeleteDon't I know it. They are still very angry that Apsana Begum beat them, but they have been emboldened by the Webbe lynching, so, on both grounds, they are going to go all out against the next victim.
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