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Humberside Police have been condemned by a judge for investigating who liked a tweet questioning transgender people.

In a damning court ruling, the High Court ruled Humberside Police unlawfully interfered with Harry Miller’s right to freedom of expression by turning up at his place of work over his allegedly "transphobic" tweets.

And Justice Julian Knowles made a contrast between Mr Miller’s freedom of speech and the approach of the “Gestapo or Stasi”, the feared and hated state police of the Nazi and Communist regimes in Germany.

Mr Miller, 54, a former police officer from Lincolnshire, said the police's actions had a "substantial chilling effect" on his right to free speech.

Mr Miller claims an officer told him that he had not committed a crime, but that his tweeting was being recorded as a "hate incident". Mr Miller had not actually created the tweet, a limerick about transgender people, but liked it.

(Image: PA)

In his ruling on Friday, Justice Knowles sitting at the High Court in London found Humberside Police's actions were a "disproportionate interference" with Mr Miller's right to freedom of expression.

The judge said: "The claimants' tweets were lawful and there was not the slightest risk that he would commit a criminal offence by continuing to tweet.

"I find the combination of the police visiting the claimant's place of work, and their subsequent statements in relation to the possibility of prosecution, were a disproportionate interference with the claimant's right to freedom of expression because of their potential chilling effect."

At a hearing in November, Mr Miller's barrister Ian Wise QC said his client was "deeply concerned" about proposed reforms to the law on gender recognition and had used Twitter to "engage in debate about transgender issues".

The tweet that triggered police investigation

He argued that Humberside Police, following the College of Policing's guidance, had sought to "dissuade him (Mr Miller) from expressing himself on such issues in the future", which he said was "contrary to his fundamental right to freedom of expression".

The judge said Mr Miller strongly denies being prejudiced against transgender people, and regards himself as taking part in the "ongoing debate" about reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, which the Government consulted on in 2018.

Announcing the court's decision, Mr Justice Julian Knowles said: "The claimant's tweets were lawful and that there was not the slightest risk that he would commit a criminal offence by continuing to tweet.

"I find the combination of the police visiting the claimant's place of work, and their subsequent statements in relation to the possibility of prosecution, were a disproportionate interference with the claimant's right to freedom of expression because of their potential chilling effect."

Humberside Police's response to the judge's decision We accept the Judge’s decision today and his findings in the Judicial Review. The mere recording of the incident by Humberside Police as a hate incident has been ruled as not unlawful and in accordance with the College of Policing (CoP) guidance. Our actions in handling the incident were carried out in good faith but we note the comments of the Judge and we will take learning from this incident moving forward. The CoP guidance is currently being revised and will hopefully offer further clarity to Forces as to the handling of hate incidents. We will always take hate related offences and reports seriously as they can cause extreme distress to victims and communities, some of whom are incredibly vulnerable members of our society, and people should not suffer in silence.

The judge added that the effect of the police turning up at Mr Miller's place of work "because of his political opinions must not be underestimated".

He continued: "To do so would be to undervalue a cardinal democratic freedom. In this country we have never had a Cheka, a Gestapo or a Stasi. We have never lived in an Orwellian society."

The Cheka were Lenin's secret police during the Russian revolution while the Stasi were the secret police in East Germany under communist rule during the Cold War. The Gestapo were the hated and feared secret police during Hitler's Nazi Germany in the Second World War, later mocked in the British sit-com ''Allo 'Allo!' with it's Herr Flick charatcter.

(Image: PA)

In his judgment, Mr Justice Julian Knowles stated: "I conclude that the police left the claimant with the clear belief that he was being warned by them to desist from posting further tweets on transgender matters even if they did not directly warn him in terms.

"In other words, I conclude that the police's actions led him, reasonably, to believe that he was being warned not to exercise his right to freedom of expression about transgender issues on pain of potential criminal prosecution."

But the judge rejected a wider challenge to the lawfulness of the College of Police guidance, ruling that it "serves legitimate purposes and is not disproportionate".

Rejecting Mr Miller's challenge to the College of Police guidance itself, the judge said he was "satisfied that the aims and objectives of (the guidance) justify the limitation it imposes on freedom of speech".

(Image: Reach Plc)

Mr Justice Knowles said the guidance pursued "extremely important" aims, including "preventing, or taking steps to counter, hate crime and hate incidents" and preventing "the escalation of hate-based hostility from low-level non-criminal activity to criminal activity".

The College of Policing's guidance defines a hate incident as "any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender".

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Humberside Police are expected to comment on the findings later on Friday.