The FSU is supporting a woman who has been summoned for interview under caution by police after she called a man who threatened and confronted her husband and teenage daughter a “pikey”.
In the heat of the moment, she said “F*** off you pikey” while on the phone to the police, as the man and his associate continued to harass her family during the unprovoked altercation on a country road near their home in the Fens.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary is investigating the mother of two for an alleged “racially aggravated comment”, despite closing its probe into the man’s alleged actions after just one day.
The woman is a member of the FSU, and we’ve put her in touch with a top criminal lawyer — Luke Gittos, the same solicitor who acted for Allison Pearson — to represent her and we will be paying his fees.
Speaking to the Telegraph, she said: “I would urge everyone to join the FSU today. If this can happen to me, it really can happen to anyone. The fact that we need the FSU is a sad but necessary fact of the world we have stumbled into.”
The Telegraph has the story:
A woman has been summoned for interview under caution by police after calling a man she claims confronted and threatened her husband and teenage daughter a “pikey”.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary is investigating the woman, in her 40s, for an alleged “racially aggravated comment”, despite closing its investigation into the man’s alleged actions after one day.
The mother of two, who has no previous convictions and is being supported by the Free Speech Union, will be interviewed under caution by the force on Friday.
It follows the now-abandoned investigation by Essex Police into Allison Pearson, the Telegraph columnist, for an alleged hate crime over a year-old tweet.
The woman involved in the new incident told The Telegraph: “As a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen, I deserve better than this. I just think it is a sign of the times. We are a military family, and this just rocks us to the core that we are living in a world, in this country, where this is allowed to go unchecked.”
On Tuesday morning, she was riding her horse on a single-track country road near her home in the Fens with her husband, a retired Armed Forces officer, and their daughter, 14.
There, the trio were “confronted and threatened” by two men who drove by them at close distance at a speed of 30mph before slamming on the brakes, spooking two of their horses. The Highway Code requires drivers to pass horses at a maximum of 10mph and at a distance of at least two metres.
“The driver and the passenger then jumped out of the vehicle and launched themselves at my daughter,” the woman said. “My husband jumped off his horse and ran towards our daughter, at which point the driver pushed my husband.
“My husband pushed him back in self-defence, there was a lot of shouting going on, and I said ‘I’m calling 999’. After a moment or so, the driver went back to the driver’s door and pulled out what I thought at the time was a knife, but in retrospect it was probably a screwdriver.”
The motorists then drove away from the confrontation before carrying out a U-turn and “screaming” at the family again as they walked their horses down the road.
“I think at this point I said to the driver, “F— off you pikey”, as I was on the phone with the police,” the woman recalled. “He got back in the car, reversed and hit my horse. My daughter was in pieces by this point.”
She said the men drove off but returned within minutes in a different vehicle. She added: “I think at that point, he said: ‘We’re gypsies. That’s a hate crime. We live down here. You’re not to come down here, or else.’ He was threatening us. We were just trying to walk home.
“They then came back a fourth time, screaming at us, at which point I apologised for what I had said in the heat of the moment which was, in his mind, a hate crime.”
The woman maintains that she did not know the driver was a Traveller, and that she intended no malice or offence.
After a fifth confrontation, police arrived on the scene and told the family to go home while they spoke to the driver of the vehicle. The mother-of-two was then interviewed by the officers in her living room.
“They were really polite and courteous and it was a positive conversation, but then all of a sudden one of the officers referred to me as a suspect,” she said. “My heart stopped as I said: ‘Hang on, you what?’. The officer said: ‘We have a recording of you on the phone to the 999 handler using the P-word, you have admitted using it, so we now have to investigate this’.
“I said: ‘Hang on a second, are we not going to discuss that this man pulled out a weapon and drove dangerously?’ But because there’s no CCTV there’s nothing they can do. Their words were ‘It’s your word against his’, so they do not think there is any point in trying to do anything with this.”
Later that day, she was invited by Cambridgeshire Constabulary to attend a voluntary interview under caution on Friday in connection with the alleged racially aggravated comment.
On Wednesday, the day after the incident, she was informed that the force had “filed”, or closed, its investigation into her allegations against the drivers.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary confirmed it had “filed” its investigations into the allegations made by the woman, meaning they are closed unless further information comes to light.
“Officers attended and spoke to all parties involved, with multiple offences reported by both sides,” a spokesman for the force said. “Four crimes were raised – one for assault without injury, two for verbal abuse and one for a racially aggravated comment.
“The assault and verbal abuse cases have been filed pending further investigative opportunities. An investigation continues into the racially aggravated incident.”
Worth reading in full.
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In an era where speaking one’s mind can lead to unforeseen consequences, it’s reassuring to know that with the FSU and its 22,000+ members behind you, you won’t navigate those challenges alone.
