A former Labour officer is due in court to face charges over a tweet he sent to a local Jewish campaigner.
Greg Hadfield, who previously edited and co-owned the Brighton Independent, will appear in court next month charged with sending an offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing message on a public communication network.
It is understood it relates to a tweet he sent to Fiona Sharpe from the Sussex Jewish Representative Council, and featured a screenshot of a pornographic image first posted by former Hove MP Ivor Caplin.
A police spokesman said: “Sussex Police can confirm that Greg Hadfield, 68, of Surrenden Road, Brighton, has received a postal requisition to attend Brighton Magistrates’ Court on February 13.
“He faces a charge of sending by a public communication network an offensive, indecent, obscene, or menacing message or matter, contrary to the Communications Act 2003.”
Mr Hadfield was briefly secretary of the Brighton and Hove District Labour party in July 2016, and later chair of the local branch of Momentum.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story said Hadfield had been charged. Under the postal requisition process, no charge is brought until the defendant appears at court.
Anyone who follows Greg Hadfield’s X feed will realise all this has very little to do with Caplin’s religion and everything to do with his politics and shocking conduct. The X post Hadfield re-tweeted was very mild in content by comparison of some of Caplin’s astonishing sexual output on a public forum, and a certain friend of Mr Caplin, Fiona Sharpe decided to report it, even though the retweet wasn’t even solely directed at her. This is Hadfield acting as an investigative journalist trying to expose what is going on. If anyone should be charged it should be the original poster, not the re-tweeter! Mr Hadfield has no criminal case to answer in my view.
Peculiar to mention that the alleged recipient of the Tweet is Jewish. In the interests of symmetry, let’s observe that the originator of the pornographic Tweet is also Jewish.
To those of us following the inside story, Fiona Sharpe is looking pretty silly. Just because she’s offended doesn’t maker her right. This was after all a re-tweet she was perfectly happy to receive directly the first time from her mate Ivor. She ought to be charged with wasting Police time.
……and she’s not the only one looking pretty silly. Some very sloppy “journalism” here. Often the case when you’re more interested in a confected hit piece than reporting facts……
I have asked for this article to be removed and rewritten, with [another] new headline.
I have been summoned, not charged.
The summons does not mention – or relate to – a tweet/post “sent” to anyone.
Even if it did, I do not see what relevance the person’s faith/heritage is.
The article does not mention my faith/heritage – not least because Jo Wadsworth did not get intouch with me before publication.
A full account can be found here: https://greghadfield.medium.com/revealed-zionism-abuse-pornography-and-worse-f080409f8606
Greg entered the chat with all of his receipts! Well done sir