A man has been found guilty of a public order offence after protesting against a drag queen story-telling event for children at Tate Britain in London.
Lance O’Connor, of Plaistow, east London, was accused of being “aggressive and intimidating” towards organisers and attendees and making a series of comments that were motivated by “hostility relating to sexual orientation and transgender identity”.
The 59-year-old had denied two counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
District judge Neeta Minhas convicted him at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday of the offence against one of the gallery’s operations managers, Matthew Rowan.
But she found O’Connor not guilty of the charge in relation to police liaison officer Anderson De Santis.
The Tate, in Millbank, had been hosting Drag Queen Story Hour UK on February 11, with tales told by Aida H Dee, who was described on the gallery’s website as “the first drag artist in Europe to read stories to children in a nursery”.
People demonstrating against the event were at the scene, as well as counter-protesters.
Westminster magistrates court early heard O’Connor and his associates were blocked from the first-floor gallery where the event was held.
Prosecutor Luke Staton said organisers decided – as a result of protests for and against the event – that only families with children would be allowed inside the room itself.
The court heard Mr Rowan was among those who stopped O’Connor from going into the event.
“The defendant was aggressive and intimidating towards Mr Rowan, standing in close proximity to him and demanding to be let in”, said Mr Staton.
“The Crown says the defendant displayed the same behaviour towards members of the public trying to attend that event.
“At one stage, when a mother and daughter attempted to enter the event room, the defendant said words to the effect of ‘they are indoctrinating children in there – there’s a man dressed as a woman and he is defending paedophiles’.
“The defendant also said to Mr Rowan words to the effect of ‘it’s not appropriate for a man to wear women’s clothing’ and made further comments about grooming and paedophilia.
“The Crown’s case is those words caused Mr Rowan harassment, alarm, or distress.”
Giving evidence, Mr Rowan said when told it was a family-only event the group claimed to be a family, and O’Connor then said one of his associates “identified as a six-year-old”.
The incident was “quite upsetting”, he told the court, saying: “To be in my place of work which should be a safe place for anyone, to have someone who is aggressive and filming me and trying to get a reaction out of me, it was very uncomfortable.”
He continued: “As a gay man, I felt very uncomfortable with the claims of indoctrination, grooming, and talking about paedophilia, they are tropes used against gay people to my knowledge growing up.”
Mr Rowan said the incident has been “ingrained in my mind” since, adding: “Although the claims of indoctrination, paedophilia, and grooming were not directed at me on this occasion, as a gay man it does hurt to hear these kind of accusations against someone else.
“These sorts of things were said to me in the past in the 1980s as I was growing up.”
Mr Staton said PC De Santis arrived to try to defuse the dispute.
“PC De Santis heard the defendant say words to the effect of ‘you are indoctrinating young children into paedophilia”, he said.
“When confronted, the defendant said words to the effect of ‘that’s right, they are indoctrinating their children into paedophilia’.
“The defendant also made comments about gay men wanting to dress up as women and indoctrinating children into paedophilia.”
It was said O’Connor refused to leave the Tate Britain and was then arrested.
O’Connor, from Plaistow in east London, who asked to be referred to simply as “Lance” in court, denied three public order offences. He was accused of causing harassment, alarm, or distress to both Mr Rowan and PC De Santis.
Defence lawyer Sundeep Pankhania told the court O’Connor “is not anti-trans”, he disputed some of the comments attributed to him, and he said he was protesting about Ada H Dee’s alleged link to another drag queen Darren Moore, now deceased, with a “troubled past”.
