A left-wing Christian activist who shouted “who elected him?” at a proclamation ceremony for King Charles III was arrested unlawfully, it has been determined.
Symon Hill, who’s currently training to be a Baptist minister, was arrested in September 2022 after he made the comments while passing a proclamation ceremony at Carfax Tower on his way home from church.
The ceremony was certainly one of many proclamation events held in the times after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. King Charles was not in attendance on the time of the incident.
Hill was charged with using threatening or abusive words or disorderly behaviour more likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, but the next yr the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that the case against him could be dropped.
Hill has now received compensation of £2,500 after difficult the actions of Thames Valley Police with the assistance of civil rights organisation Liberty.
Speaking to PA, Hill said, “I used to be gobsmacked after I was arrested.”
He added, “I worry that rights which have been struggled for for hundreds of years are being threatened by latest draconian anti-protest laws, by unaccountable police behaviour, by each Labour and Tory governments really not upholding civil liberties and human dignity.”
Hill, who claims his anti-monarchy views are inspired by his Christian faith and its teaching that each one persons are equal within the eyes of God, has a protracted history of faith-infused left-wing activism.
In 2013 he was arrested for his involvement in a protest by Christian pacifists at an arms fair. He has also been a spokesperson for CAAT (Campaign Against Arms Trade).
In 2011 Hill walked from Birmingham to London “as a pilgrimage of repentance for my former homophobia”.
Recounting the teachings of his pilgrimage, Hill wrote, “It was a while before I became aware of the extent of hurt that my prejudices had caused, and even longer before I recognised the damage to my very own integrity in denying my very own sexuality.”
