A conspiracy theorist has been fined for shoving a trans activist at a Brighton rally.
Matthew Payne, 59, was found guilty of assaulting Denise Friend after a trial at Brighton Magistrates Court last summer.
Today, he told the same court he had been afraid if he had pleaded guilty, people would think he was a Nazi, which he strongly denied.
However, he failed to convince district judge Jack Triggs he felt any remorse for the shove, which happened at a Let Women Speak rally in Victoria Gardens in September 2022.
Payne, of The Promenade, Peacehaven, had been attending the gender critical rally and Ms Friend had been part of a protest against that and advocating for trans rights.
In a victim impact statement read out to the court, Denise Friend said she had found the incident very distressing and it had left her wondering if it would be safe to go to other protests in Brighton.
She added: “The defendant does not seem to have learned anything from what happened at court,” referring to material she had seen online but which was not put before the court today.
The court heard from probation officer Guy Goodwin, who had spoken to Payne at length before this morning’s hearing.
He said: “He said he was hit on the head by a megaphone. He admits he pushed the woman, but he was concerned that he was going to be sentenced as a member of a far right group.
“He has been referred to as such online, and there have been some in person incidents.
“I would not say for a second that he’s someone who has far right views. His particular views feel more on the left side of things.”
Representing himself, Payne, also known as Matt in a Hat, said: “I shouldn’t have done this. It was something at the moment of time. I wish I’d never been.”
He also repeated his accusation that Ms Friend had hit him with a megaphone, which he had not been able to prove at trial.
Mr Triggs said: “Clearly this is an offence with an underlying matter which has a great deal of particular emotion. That was the case in 2022 and is the case now.
“I’m hear only to deal with the assault by beating. There’s no additional allegation of membership of a group. I’m not passing any view or comment on any of the groups views because it’s not my place to do so.
“I’m not convinced, having looked at the CCTV, that there was substantial force. It’s a push – it’s clearly very upsetting for Ms Friend but I have to consider it in the context of the type of violence that can come in the offence of assault by beating.
“I’m not sure you are remorseful so I cannot give you credit for that.”
He fined Payne £500 and ordered him to pay costs of £85, plus a victim surcharge of £200. It was agreed he can pay this at a rate of £25 a week.
‘More of a push than a shove’ but the trans cry bullies who shut down women’s right to speak, threaten them with violence, and provoke anyone who dares to disagreee with them, get away with it again by claiming victimhood when someone reacts.
At least the (lazy) narrative that to believe in biological fact, to protect women’s rights, to be concerned about the harm done to our LGB youth and autistic children and young people is associated with the ‘far’ right was disregarded in this case.
I’d like to see all those trans activists in masks, and those with placards saying the only good terf is a d..d terf, those hounding women out of jobs, shutting down free speech, and provoking/harassing people they don’t agree with finally being held to account for their actions too.
I have to admire the way you object to “trans activists … shutting down free speech” in the very same sentence where you call for them to be “held to account for their actions” – and yet all of the examples you give are of people expressing their free speech! Free speech for us but not for them, right?
I don’t admire the way you associate and defend threatening, intimidating, oppressive, silencing, behaviour with free speech. If every ‘adult’ behaved like that in the name of free speech society would collapse pretty quickly. As it is plenty of people won’t speak up or attend these womens rights rallies because they are scared of the behaviour of trans activists and impact on their lives if targeted.
Yes to free speech for all including the right to offend, no to compelled thought and speech and ‘no debate’, no to pursuing, threatening, intimidating, oppressing, silencing, cancelling people (mostly women) just because they don’t agree with you, including for minor grievances, which were probably provoked, through the courts.
You cannot claim someone else is opposed to free speech whilst objecting to them speaking freely. It doesn’t work!
I can find plenty of news stories about trans people being attacked and tragically , killed. You won’t find any stories like this about anti trans activists
Can you share links to all these cases/claims? Often when you dig deeper into claims like this you discover a trans person was attacked/killed in some foreign land while engaging in a sexual activity with someone they had not disclosed their trans status to, or like this case suggests they have provoked someone to react. Not that that justifies any attack, but it is important context. The trans community would have more credibility if they didn’t/hadn’t peddled fundamentally untrue and harmful narratives including ‘you can be born in the wrong body’, ‘you can change sex’, ‘people will kill themselves if you don’t affirm their preferred gender’, ‘cross sex hormones are harmless’, ‘a trans woman is a woman’, and had not shot down any conversation by also aggressively enforcing a ‘no debate’ principle. Trans activists would be well advised to stop crying victimhood while acting like bullies on steroids and continuing to spread misinformation and demanding everyone has to agree and comply with them.
There are dozens of anti trans articles in newspapers every day. Anti trans voices have no issue getting heard. There are no ‘pro’ trans articles, no trans journalists or presenters at all. The idea that anti trans voices are silenced is laughable- just read any newspaper, any day.
Trans activists have made literally anyone who does not agree or comply entirely and unquestionably with the trans ideology ‘anti trans’, ’transphobe’ and therefore the enemy. This includes anyone who believes in biological sex, women and girls spaces and rights, evidence based health care etc. i.e. the majority of the population- including some people in the trans community(!). This needs a more balanced debate on more trustworthy news sites after years of no discussion or debate but it is indeed finally exposing the scale of the ideologies misinformation, the harm and scandal of ‘trans affirmative health care’, the impact on women, and the aggressive and oppressive behaviour of trans activists. This must be really uncomfortable to hear if you’ve been wholly and unquestionably captured by the trans ideology and now think anyone saying anything challenging this ideology is a threat to your very existence.
What an absolute waste of court time. Some moron pushed you, grow up and stop wasting tax payers money