Businessman, 54, investigated by police over Twitter poem about transgender people launches a landmark High Court battle to overhaul official rules on hate crimes
- Harry Miller is to seek judicial review of guidelines followed by UK police forces
- Mr Miller, a former policeman, is challenging guidance from College of Policing
- He was investigated by police over a poem about transgender people
A businessman who was investigated by police over a poem about transgender people is launching a landmark High Court case to overhaul the official rules on hate crimes.
Harry Miller is to seek a judicial review of guidelines followed by police forces across Britain, claiming that they unlawfully inhibit freedom of expression.
Mr Miller, himself a former policeman, is challenging guidance from the College of Policing which states that reported hate crimes must be recorded ‘irrespective of any evidence to identify the hate element’.
A businessman who was investigated by police over a poem about transgender people is launching a landmark High Court case to overhaul the official rules on hate crimes (stock photo)
He also wants to reverse a decision by Humberside Police to record his retweeting of the poem as a hate incident, despite officers concluding that no crime had been committed.
Mr Miller, the 54-year-old chairman of a machinery company, was quizzed by officers in January after posting the verse claiming that transgender women remain men.
He said one officer told him that someone ‘down south’ had sent the force 30 of his tweets, which they alleged to be transphobic. He added that he was told ‘We need to check your thinking’ – a comment police have denied making.
The father-of-three said he was ‘dumbfounded’ by the exchange and ‘furious’ when he found out it had been recorded as a ‘hate incident’.
Harry Miller is to seek a judicial review of guidelines followed by police forces across Britain, claiming that they unlawfully inhibit freedom of expression (stock photo of trainee officers)
Last night Mr Miller – who has set up a campaign group called Fair Cop – defended his tweets, saying he had wanted to highlight the dangers posed to women by Government proposals to allow men to ‘self-identify’ as female.
He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This case is not about being allowed to say anything I want without consequence.
It is about the ability to have freedom of speech within the law and being allowed to have a debate without one group being able to call on the police to shut another group down.
‘Free speech is being closed down by a climate of fear and secrecy and the police are contributing to this Orwellian culture.’
The College of Policing said it was ‘aware of a potential legal challenge’ and ‘will be responding accordingly as part of the process’. Police in Humberside confirmed they, too, were aware of the action.
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