Ex-cop in free speech victory vows to help fight hate law

A FORMER police officer who won a landmark free speech case in England has vowed to stand up for people charged under Humza Yousaf’s hate crime laws.

Harry Miller, 59, was accused of a ‘non-crime hate incident’ (NCHI) by police in 2019 after he tweeted about transgender people, but successfully challenged it on the grounds it interfered with his right to freedom of expression.

Now the Lincolnshire-based campaigner has said he will ‘go to court’ alongside anyone charged under the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act to help them defend themselves.

Mr Miller, who heads up Fair Cop UK, said: ‘The very second that somebody gets on the wrong end of this, we will be there.

‘The current law defies Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. We will go to court and challenge it under Article 10.

‘The Scots purport to love the ECHR but they’re not showing it because they’re defying one of its leading articles.’

He added: ‘I think we are on the verge of losing democracy, because democracy rests upon the ability to voice and challenge ideas. It generates a chilling effect. In offices, for example, you’re going to have to be doubly careful because all it takes is one motivated snitch and you are in trouble.

‘There will be public humiliation for individuals who refuse to toe the line. This has got nothing to do with hate or hate crime, this is to do with politics. This has to do with making people accept a certain style of politics.

‘The police should only be prosecuting people who act in a hateful manner – not those who simply express thoughts which somebody else considers to be hateful.’

In January 2019, Mr Miller was visited at work by an officer from Humberside Police over tweets which they claimed were ‘transphobic’. An anonymous complaint was recorded on police databases as an NCHI.

A judge ruled that the force’s actions were a ‘disproportionate interference’ with his right to freedom of expression. It was also ruled the College of Policing’s guidance, that an NCHI could be logged about ‘any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice’, was flawed.

Mr Miller hopes to use the Article 10 legislation to tackle the Hate Crime Act, which came into force on April 1.

Mr Yousaf said he had no knowledge of Mr Miller’s case but said the Scottish Act could withstand a legal challenge.