A PENSIONER who once claimed to be “the Private Eye of Humberside” by running his own online blog has been slapped with an Anti-Social Behaviour Order for 10 years to protect the public.
Judge Fred Rutherford’s decision, made after a full-day hearing at Hull Magistrates Court, to impose the ASBO on Christopher Perry, 65, was welcomed by Humberside Police and those who had been on the receiving end of articles and photographs published on his website ‘Wolds Eye View’, which was removed last June.
Despite Perry’s barrister, Brigid Baillie, putting forward an argument for the freedom of expression under article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights Judge Rutherford said: “It’s a nonsense to try to hide appalling actions behind article 10 and I have in mind within that ruling the protection of the rights of others from such obvious anti-social behaviour.”
It is thought to be the first time a blogger has been given an ASBO.
But speaking after Friday’s hearing, Perry, of Southfield Close, Wetwang, said the order had effectively gagged him while a spokesperson for the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said the move could possibly pose a threat to other “citizen journalists” who run their own news websites or online blogs.
Under the terms of the order, Perry has been banned from contacting, in any way, several key members of the community - including the Reverend Robert Amos, former town mayor and current town councillor Steve Poessl, and retired Driffield police inspector and clerk to Pocklington town council Richard Wood - who had been the subject of a series of unfounded allegations published on his website.
The court heard that Perry, who claimed to have worked as a journalist, published allegations on the website about Mr Wood being involved in police corruption that were contained in a manuscript written by former traffic warden Christine Newlove, called The Thin Yellow Line.
But Mr Wood told the court that the allegations were not legitimate and he reported them to the police.
“I felt cheated that I hadn’t had the opportunity to actually defend myself, it was just put out as though it was fact and that’s wrong. The authorities that are there to deal with such matters should be left to deal with it.
“All I can do is speak of the hurt and distress I had when I read this on a website. It’s disgraceful,” Mr Wood said.
“Without any evidence at all, he’s just launched into a diatribe to blacken my name,” he added.
The court heard that Perry turned up at Mr Wood’s home and photographed his car as well as his place of work.
While Perry argued that he was enquiring into Mr Wood’s lifestyle after he purchased a personalised number plate for his car, Mr Wood described his behaviour as distasteful.
“This man is making enquiries of other people, it’s like a pincer movement, it really is quite distasteful. The man at one stage came and photographed my car, my work place and made allegations that there should be an enquiry into my means and that’s disgraceful,” Mr Wood added.
One article published by Perry referred to Councillor Poessl, whose father was a mechanic in the German Luftwaffe, as an “Obergruppenfuhrer” - a Nazi party paramilitary rank. Another referred to him wearing jack boots.
When quizzed by Perry’s barrister, Brigid Baillie, about whether or not he was particularly sensitive, Coun Poessl said: “There are certain allegations I’m sensitive about because it relates back to when I was younger and they are racial abuse.”
But Perry denied any racist intentions and said he used the term because it sounded right.
“As someone who is the son of a German prisoner of war I was brought up never to be rude about Germans, or anybody else, so if there’s been offence it was not intentional,” Perry said.
Photographs of Rev Amos, of Driffield Methodist Church, going about his day to day business also appeared on the website as well as allegations that he stood to make money out of a land deal.
Kirsten Mercer, prosecuting on behalf of the Chief Constable of Humberside Police, told the court that Perry had shouted at Rev Amos: “I’m going to bring you down with the power of journalism,” something which he denied in court.
Perry said he took the photographs because Rev Amos “looked extremely evasive” and because he and his mother “had both been badly let down” by him.
In October 2009, Perry received a warning from the police under the Protection from Harassment Act, a move which he said left him “thunderstruck.”
Perry also told the court that he believed he had been the victim of a hate campaign in Wetwang, with ‘BNP flags’ being draped over his garden gate, and the village was subject to a “gang culture” with residents frightened about things going on.
“To put it mildly it has been a nightmare existence,” Perry said.
Perry, who claimed to have attended York University in the 1960s, said he had moved to Wetwang from Winchester, with his 93-year-old mother, to be closer to his university roots.
He said he had worked as a Home Office British Crime Survey researcher from 1997 to 2006 which gave him access to the homes of around 50 police officers and 14,000 other people, as a local government correspondent for a family-run newspaper in St Helens in 1974 and had served as an elected member of Liverpool City Council.
He said he was on a Daily Mirror training scheme in Plymouth before moving to work on the Surrey Comet and, later, on the Liverpool Daily Post before moving into teaching.
The order prohibits Perry from engaging in any behaviour which causes or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one of more persons not of the same household in the Humberside Police area; causing or inciting any other person to engage in behaviour which is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household in the Humberside Police area; entering on foot or otherwise any private land without the express permission of the lawful occupier; directly or indirectly approaching, contacting or communicating with Richard and Diane Wood, Steven and Myra Poessl, William Buckle, Deborah and Polat Akcicek, and the Reverend Robert Amos.