THE police force that charged a person for shouting “Who elected him?” on the proclamation ceremony of the King, in Oxford, has admitted wrongful arrest.
Symon Hill had been walking home from his church — New Road Baptist Church, Oxford — on the morning of Sunday 11 September 2022, when he encountered a crowd gathered to listen to the proclamation of the King.
He shouted “Who elected him?”, and was ordered to be quiet by private security guards. When Mr Hill asked them what authority they’d, the guards pushed him back, and cops intervened.
Mr Hill was arrested and led away in handcuffs, and later charged with the offence, under the Public Order Act, of using “threatening or abusive words or behaviour”; but, in January 2023, the costs were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (Comment, 27 January 2023).
Thames Valley Police has now admitted wrongful arrest, after Mr Hill challenged the legality of their actions in a case supported by the civil-rights charity Liberty.
According to Liberty, bodycam footage from the officers captured one in every of them saying, “But we do have to fantastic or de-arrest as we are going to get a grievance off the back of this.”
Mr Hill said in a press release: “It has taken the police two and a half years to recognise that expressing an opinion on the street will not be a criminal offense. Opposing the monarchy will not be a criminal offense.”
The case was not about him, he said, but about “the rights of all people to dissent, to specific their views, to refuse to bow down, to say the dignity and equality of all human beings. With the vague anti-protest laws as they’re, anybody could face arrest for expressing an opinion in a public space. The law should be modified and the police should be held to account.”
Before the Coronation of the King, Mr Hill, who’s training as a Baptist minister, argued that “faithfulness to the Kingdom of God requires rejection of the kingdoms of this world” (Comment, 28 April 2023).
The Deputy Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, Ben Snuggs, said in a press release that the force had settled a claim with Mr Hill, “and accepted that the grounds of the offence for which he was arrested were illegal.
“Public order and public safety operations are a key a part of policing and it’s vital we use these circumstances to assist shape our future response,” Mr Snuggs said.
Mr Hill has reportedly been paid £2500 in compensation.
