A pro-Palestine protester who damaged a pro-Israel activist’s megaphone has been cleared because he was doing it to stop him and others being shouted at in the face with it.
Timothy Halpin, 59, was selling copies of Socialist Worker at the Clocktower one Saturday in June last year as hundreds of people protested at the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza.
Also present was a group of about a dozen pro-Israel counter protesters, who were using a megaphone to shout at the pro-Palestine crowd.
Brighton Magistrates Court heard that some, including Victoria Bhogal, were approaching people and shouting directly in their faces.
The court was shown video footage of Ms Bhogal shouting: “You are Jew haters, you are antisemites. You hate Israel because it’s a Jewish country, you want all of us dead.
“Terrorist supporters off our streets.”
Ms Bhogal told the court: “We were there that day to counter the lies being spread about us. We were pushed and shoved, our stuff was broken, we were coralled against the wall.
“As a Jew, I just want to push back against lies and advocate for Israel and to push back against what people are saying about us, that we are killing babies.”
She said her group had clubbed together to buy the £80 megaphone.
Giving evidence, Halpin said: “[The small pro-Israel group] were provoking people with intemperate behaviour. There was a guy who was particularly provocative who says he supports the genocide and they all deserve to die.
“I tried to calm the situation by telling people to step back and not engage. One of the pro Israel protesters noticed me and came up and was shouting in my face with the megaphone.
“He called me Trotskyist scum, off our streets over and over. It was loud enough to make me feel uncomfortable. He was simply doing it to get me to move away and to intimidate me.
“Victoria Bhogal was shouting through the megaphone but using it in a way to try and drive people away … She shouted directly into the face of a man I now know to be Yusef Syed.
“He was standing and watching and taking pictures now and again. She was using the megaphone to drive him away as if he didn’t have any right to be there.
“I decided that if the police weren’t going to stop them doing this misbehaviour, I was going to stop it because I had seen her do it to some people earlier.”
The court also heard from Mr Syed, who Mr Halpin had got in touch with just days earlier after seeing the picture he had taken of Ms Bhoghal and then posted on Instagram.
Nearly all the witnesses had to be reminded by the bench to stick to talking about the damage to the megaphone rather than the wider geopolitical issues.
An application was made before last month’s trial began for Ms Bhogal to give her evidence from behind a screen because she feared she would be intimidated by Halpin and any supporters of his in the public gallery.
This was opposed by Halpin’s defence counsel, Savannah Sevenzo, on the basis that as she is a confident protester, she was not actually afraid. The application was granted.
After lunch, the public gallery was warned not to use mobile phones, particularly to record proceedings.
Giving their verdict, chair of the bench Patricia Vanvass said: “There was a loud, charged atmosphere of public protest we saw and heard Victoria Bhogal souting through the megaphone.
“She admitted using phrases such as you are Jew haters and terrorist supporters, off our streets.
“We also saw her walk across the pavement and shout in the face of a member of the public taking photographs, Yusef Syed.
“He found this both surprising and threatening.
“We saw the defendant standing at his table close to this incident. He had been shouted at by a colleague of Victoria Bhogal’s earlier.
“He saw Victoria Bhogal glance at him and thought she would shout at him next.
“Mr Halpin hoped the police would take action but when they didn’t he had a reasonable belief that he had to protect himself, and members of the public, from her loud verbal abuse and he stepped over to disable the megaphone.
“We think Mr Halpin honestly believed he used reasonable force.”
Ban ALL protests at the Clock Tower. Sick of it all.
It’s the genocide that I’m sick of.
What sickens me is the well fed hamas fighters stealing aid meant for the civilian population of Gaza.
The terrorists need to release the hostages they hold captive and surrender their weapons before the IDF help them to meet their god.
Your lies sicken me. Many meeting there god trying to get food by the IDF
100% well said . These propals are Hamas supporters and a danger to British society.
Gaza which has been flatten to the ground by Israel bombing for over two years. Food is being with held from Gaza. Over a 1000 shot dead trying to get food. Yet the Isreal hostage you mention are in Gaza – does Israel not care for there safety- do you not care ? Pro Palestine supports are not doing this, it is by the Israel government.
Your hypocrisy is sickening and world wide will never be forgotten
We’re all sick of the Hamas supporting useful idiots and a two tier judiciary.
The irony of your statement is lost upon you.
You ok hun?
What is scaring kids in Brighton town centre and wasting police time going to do?
Go fight in Israel or donate to Palestine or whatever it is you believe in. Maybe join Hamas (unless you are female or lgbt).
Is this the case that is being reviewed by the CPS for possible purgery by the defendant and witnesses ?
What a waste of tax-payers, and the defendant’s time and money.
Harmless Socialist Worker seller’s are probably out in every town centre in the country , every weekend recieving abuse .
I wonder if thrle result would have been the same if an Israel supporter had damaged the megaphone belonging to a pro Palestinian supporter.
I’m wondering why you’re asking that question
There’s nothing Harmless about Trotskyists who want to shut down your freedoms and rights. Clear and present danger to society , who now back Putin against NATO and Hamas against democracy. Go figure.
Hamas are terrorists, stop supporting terrorism. It’s a fashionable cause that these idiots do not fully understand.
Exactly.
There are always so many ways to spin things, aren’t there ? If he gave a defence of self defence, isn’t the burden of proof on the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that it wasn’t? If that is all the case hinged on , it doesn’t actually prove that Halpin isn’t aggresive Trotskyist scum wanting to shut down free speech he didn’t agree with – why would he have been arrested otherwise – it just proves someone paid for hot, expereinced defence council against a CPS boy just out of pupillage
It’s fashionable to not want to see people starved or shot at trying to get food???
I fully understand your lies & hate.
Better ask Hamas about that. They’re desperate for the free food distribution of GHF to fail so Hamas can hang on to the lucrative corrup trade with their equally corrupt UN buds. Hamas fire on their own and attack from within the crowd as shields. There is no limit to their depravity. Why would you wish them as the government on the people of Gaza – or I guess you were happy the Iraqis were governed by Hussein, right ?
Please can we stick to the topic of breaking the mic and not discuss politics?
Good luck with that
It’s a passionate topic for people on both sides. The microphone, meh.
At least tiny tony our own raging anti semite is off the streets on strict bail conditions. 😊🇮🇱
Israel is a Failed Terrorist State & the whole World now know this. They can never come back from this, they are now Pariahs in the eyes of the World
Hamas could free the hostages and surrender their weapons, it could all stop today. No they choose to continue dragging the civilian population on to further destruction. Notice that no muslim nation has offered to treat Gazan ill children, but the UK NHS has offered this, delaying treatment of our own children.
Treatment prioritisation is based upon clinical need not skin colour.
Better ask Hamas about that. They’re desperate for the free food distribution of GHF to fail so Hamas can hang on to the lucrative corrup trade with their equally corrupt UN buds. Hamas fire on their own and attack from within the crowd as shields. There is no limit to their depravity. Why would you wish them as the government on the people of Gaza – or I guess you were happy the Iraqis were governed by Hussein, right ?
The point relates to the NHS in the previous post (which really should not need explanation).
I went on one of these ‘stand with Israel’ marches and I can tell you, the abuse and aggression comes at them, not from them. This case is perverse.
I was reading into case law about this, because it was interesting, and found that UK case law, such as R v Ireland and R v Constanza, confirms that words can amount to assault if they provoke a reasonable fear of immediate violence. Amplified speech through a megaphone falls squarely within that principle. Amplified verbal aggression at close range may justify reasonable self-defence, which is why the actions were considered reasonable self-defence.
the problem is Israel has created too many enemies and is now alienating themselves from there allies, throughout history its been proven time and time again that you have to win the hearts of the people so killing mothers, fathers and children and taking there land is never going to end well but its okay to have different opinions, I don’t think shouting at people through a microphone makes a point of view more valid