Justice or Prejudice? The CPS and Courts’ Controversial Approach to 'Far-Right Rioters'

The curious case of David Spring...

On Tuesday, Judge Benedict Kelleher of Inner London Crown Court sentenced a 61-year-old retired train driver to 18 months in prison. David Spring pleaded guilty to one count of violent disorder after attending a demonstration at Whitehall, London, on July 31st in the wake of the Southport child murders.

The news went viral. This was mainly because Your Local Guardian ran with the headline, “Sutton man, 61, who chanted ‘who the f*** is Allah’ jailed” - a clever frame that garnered a hell of a lot of clicks. It was as if the UK had reignited their long-lost blasphemy laws.

In reality, because Spring pleaded guilty to violent disorder, his sentencing had nothing to do with speaking about religion or race. He accepted “threatening unlawful violence”, an offence under section 2 of the Public Order Act 1986.

The bizarre thing is, all the news reports cited no evidence that he threatened unlawful violence. Amidst a flurry of adjective-laden “factual” reporting, some of the worst behaviour exposed included calling police officers “f**king w***er”, “c****”, participating in chants of “you’re not English anymore” and shouting “who the f*** is Allah”.

To our delicate British sensibility, these are vulgar words, but by any objective measure, they do not constitute literal encouragement of “unlawful violence”.

According to the Greater London Authority, the governance body of Greater London, the courts also "do not accept that simply swearing at a police officer is sufficient grounds for an arrest".

Popular YouTube commentator, Politico, scoured through footage of the event and confirmed that Spring did not commit any physical violence. His “crime” involved walking up to the police after he saw an officer pitifully punching an attendee to the face several times.

(I say “event” because footage shows protestors protesting peacefully before a small minority turned violent and started lobbing what authorities term “missiles”, which include anything from crumpled paper to drink cans).

Other photos did show him pointing:

David Spring pictured pointing at Met police officers.

Since Spring pleaded guilty, whether he actually broke the law was not up for judgement. Judge Kelleher only issued judgement on his sentence. He notably said, “what you did could and it seems did encourage others to engage in disorder.”

Note the words “could” and “seems”. These are not words that belong in an evidence-based court.

Judge Kelleher added that a custodial sentence was appropriate to deter others from engaging in similar behaviour. He was making an example out of him.

Now compare Judge Kelleher’s actions to a case where a defendant actually physically assaulted a police officer days earlier.

Ozzie Cush

On July 31st, the same day as the event Spring attended, 20-year-old Ozzie Cush travelled to Trafalgar Square and kicked a police officer. Video footage showed him committing the assault. He pleaded guilty, and Kelleher sentenced him to 10 months’ jail time - 8 months fewer than Spring.

Cush and Spring reportedly took to the streets for similar reasons - to protest mass immigration and/or the Southport child murders.

So Judge Kelleher effectively punished nasty words, hostile gestures, whatever you want to call it, not as if it is synonymous with physical, material violence but as if it is worse than physical, material violence.

This is probably because Cush pleaded guilty to common assault of an emergency worker, which carries a maximum sentence of two years compared to violent disorder, which carries a maximum sentence of five years.

It remains a mystery why Cush did not face charges of actual bodily harm as the worker he assaulted reported “some immediate pain but did not sustain any lasting injuries from the incident.” Something that meets the burden of proof needed for an actual bodily harm charge - the maximum sentence of which is five years.

Judge Kelleher also remarked: “Your actions also ran the risk of inflaming the wider situation and encouraging others to attack the police.” Suggesting that there was plenty enough evidence to pursue a violent disorder charge against Cush, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to.

Arguably, kicking a police officer is much more likely to incite violence than swearing.

In short, there are bizarre inconsistencies in the prosecution and sentencing between “far right” rioters/protestors. Let alone compared to the sex offenders, child molesters, and fugitive bank scammers who have been spared jail in recent years.

And it is the combination of the Crown Prosecution Service’s choice of charges, our illogical sentencing guidelines, and the judges’ discretion in issuing them that is causing it.

If challenged, violent disorder charges can be difficult to prove. The cases can also be lengthy. Other commentators have pointed this out and suggested something more nefarious is occurring with these guilty pleas.

They say the state is effectively intimidating certain defendants with harsh sentences and rushed hearings. As a part of Keir Starmer’s crackdown, those who pleaded guilty have been fast-tracked. While the state has systematically remanded in custody those who pleaded not guilty, pending trials that are expected to take place in September.

Part of the incentive to plead guilty involves the state offering a reported third off their sentences.

Perhaps this is why we’ve seen people like Spring enter guilty admissions. He thought it would make his life easier, or possibly, money was an issue. Instead, he and a host of other Brits, will now spend this Christmas, and even next, behind bars.

As one judge almost hauntingly said to an army veteran on Wednesday:

“You are the person that provides me with the most difficulty because it cannot be levelled that you hit anyone, neither have you thrown anything, neither is it said that you spat at anybody… (but) anybody party to this disorder has to receive a custodial sentence”.

Gary Harkness, the army veteran, too pleaded guilty to violent disorder. He was jailed for a year.

The laws do not make sense, some of the prosecutions don’t, and neither do some of the judge’s decisions. But they’ve certainly given Starmer nice mainstream headlines to stand behind. He’s helping jail all the violent, racist “far right Nazis”, or so they would have you believe…

Gary Harkness.

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