Lockdown opponents including Piers Corbyn have been convicted of breaking Covid-19 laws with a series of mass rallies in central London.
The 75-year-old brother of ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was found guilty alongside Brighton activist Louise Creffield, 36, and Vincent Dunmall, 55, from Orpington over Trafalgar Square gatherings in August and September 2020 and an October 2020 protest in Westminster.
Corbyn was also convicted of holding an illegal gathering on the South Bank on New Years’ Eve 2020, after a trial at Westminster magistrates court.
Prosecutions were brought against the three lockdown critics by the Metropolitan Police, accusing them of “holding or being involved in holding” gatherings of more than 30 people in an outdoor place.
Around 10,000 people are understood to have attended the event on August 29, 2020, where Corbyn gave a speech and Creffield and Dunmall joined him on stage.
“What a joy it is to look out upon an island of sanity in a world of lunacy”, Corbyn told the crowd, as they protested against the Coronavirus Act and lockdown restrictions.
All three defendants were accused of playing leading roles in the rallies, which were said to have inadequate risk assessments around social distancing, overcrowding, and public safety.
The Met said Corbyn, from Bermondsey, was fined a total of £900 and ordered to pay £275 in prosecution costs and £109 in victims surcharges.
Creffield was fined £250 and must pay £50 in costs and £34 in surcharges, while Dunmall was fined £175 and ordered to pay £75 in costs and a £34 surcharge.
“It was saddening to have to deal with these incidents where large numbers of people illegally gathered in breach of Covid regulations during a national emergency period”, said Detective Inspector Chris Rudd.
“At a time when so many members of the public were making considerable sacrifices and abiding by the rules to keep others safe, these individuals acted selfishly and risked spreading the virus.
“However, our policing response demonstrated that we were prepared to take action and issue fixed penalty notices to those deliberately flouted the rules.”
In his judgment, District Judge Timothy Godfrey said the rights to freedom of expression and assembly were “qualified” and could be lawfully interfered with by the imposition of the Covid restrictions.
“The interference with the rights was in pursuit of the legitimate aims of protecting public safety, health and the protection of the rights of others”, he said. “The interference was necessary in a democratic society to achieve those aims.
“It seems to me critical not to lose sight of the fact that the Regulations were emergency legislation, passed to combat the dangers of a pandemic the likes of which the world had not seen for a century.
“It was necessary to prevent large gatherings to protect the vulnerable from risk of death, to protect the NHS, and by necessary implication to protect all potential users of the NHS.
“At the time there were not, unfortunately, less restrictive alternative means available to achieve the aims. A fair balance was struck – in the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic – between the rights of the individual and the general interest of the community.
“Those who objected to the government’s measures were not prevented from voicing their views. They could advance them through and to the media and via social media. They could advance them in a mass gathering so long as they complied with the requirements of the Regulations.”
The judge dismissed charges against all three defendants over a November 28, 2020 rally, after it emerged that the Met Police had wrongly applied the law and pre-emptively banned the gathering.
“There was not a fair balance struck between the rights of the individual and the general interest of the community”, he said.
In May, Corbyn was convicted and fined £250 for accusing NHS staff at a vaccination clinic of “murdering people”.
He turned up at Guy’s Hospital in central London in a group of anti-vaxxers, brandishing a “cease and desist letter”, and insisting that the Covid vaccinations stop.
Corbyn is also currently facing a charge of causing a police officer harassment, alarm or distress outside Downing Street on December 15, 2021. He is due to stand trial over that incident in September.
