Sir Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper are under growing pressure to reveal what they knew about the Southport attacker – and when they knew it.
The mass stabbing on July 29th was carried out by 18 year-old Axel Rudakubana, who killed three children and injured eight more, along with two adults. Two days later, he was charged with three counts of murder, ten of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article.
Earlier this month, though, Rudakubana was charged with two additional offences: possessing a PDF of an Al-Qaeda training manual “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”; and the manufacture of the lethal toxin ricin.
At the FSU, we suspect some of the prosecutions for saying supposedly inflammatory things on social media may now be unsafe – such as that of a Cumbrian man given eight weeks in jail for reposting three allegedly ‘Islamophobic’ memes on Facebook. At the very least, there may be grounds for appealing the often draconian sentences imposed on these thought criminals in the last few months.
And what about the many people arrested in August who came under enormous police pressure to plead guilty? Did the police know that the link to an Islamist manual would come out eventually – and that once it had, it would be more difficult to persuade a jury to convict? If so, that may be a good basis for a lawsuit.
We’ve provided legal assistance to several of our members who got into difficulty over Southport posts, including a veteran of the Royal Marines prosecuted for a Facebook video. He has pleaded not guilty and we’re paying for a solicitor and a barrister to defend him at his forthcoming trial.
Talking about the latest developments in this case is fraught with legal difficulty, as the trial process is protected by contempt-of-court laws. The rule of ‘sub judice’, in particular, means you’re not supposed to say anything publicly about a forthcoming trial that risks prejudicing court proceedings, and could face an unlimited fine and/or two years in prison if you do.
But that doesn’t mean, as Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire appeared to suggest on BBC Two’s Newsnight last week, that even asking questions about the case should be forbidden until the end of the trial. On the contrary, there are various aspects to this case – not least the information vacuum that the government has allowed to develop in the wake of the stabbings – that we can and should be able to talk about as openly as possible.
For anyone planning to post something online about last week’s news, we’ve published some FAQs about online offences relating to civil disorder. FSU members can access them here.
We also have an arrangement with Luke Gittos, a criminal solicitor at the firm of Murray Hughman, allowing you to call him if the police contact you regarding your posts about the Southport attack – including anything you’ve said about this latest development.
Provided you’re an FSU member, we’ll pay for a telephone consultation with Luke or someone from his firm. We may also, at our discretion, pay for a solicitor to attend a police interview and for further legal work, including your entire defence.
If you’re not yet a member of the FSU, now might be a good time to join – you can do so by clicking the button below,.
