The trial of Richard D Hall has begun; see the link below
for background. Day one is over. It was held at the Royal Courts of Justice
again and this time the court had made more of an effort to accommodate the large
volume of visitors. A second courtroom had been set up with a cloud video
platform, a type of CCTV, so the people who were unable to fit into the main courtroom
have somewhere else to watch. Richard was represented by a barrister this time;
and, as it happened, he turned out to be a right Perry Mason! Mr Price was once
again acting for the claimant. There was a different judge this time, a Mrs
Justice Steyn. The court officials were "robed" this time, wearing
the traditional suits, gowns and wigs. Mr Price began by giving an overview of
Mr Hibbert and his daughter's experience since the alleged bomb attack in 2017.
I found it unfair that the prosecution is allowed to bring up evidence to
support their cause, but Richard is forbidden by the summary judgement. What's
more the claimant has himself criticised the Kerslake Report, the official
story of the Manchester Arena attack, so why can't Richard? Richard's public views
about the incident were described with words like "insulting" and
"upsetting", but being insulting is not a crime. Mr Price stated that
it doesn't matter whether Richard believes sincerely that the Manchester Arena
event was staged; what matters is the damage it does to the people on the
receiving end. The prosecution's opening statement was primarily emotional, not
factual. Mr Oakley, Richard's barrister said pretty much all the things that I
have said before, that this whole case against Richard had the ulterior motive
of censorship. Martin Hibbert was called as a witness and most of the rest of
the day covered the defence's cross-examination of him. Mr Hibbert acted as if
he were still filming with the BBC instead of giving testimony in a courtroom.
He spoke of his emotional trauma and fear for his daughter's safety, but at the
same time he has sought publicity and is quite happy to appear in major media
roles; documentaries, news stories, interviews etc. Nearly all the material
Richard has used as evidence to criticize him is in the public domain, much of it
published by Mr Hibbert himself. The only exception was when Richard went to
Eve Hibbert's home. However, even this is not what it has been portrayed as.
Richard did this in July 2019 while Mr Hibbert only found out about it two
years later, in the summer of 2021. It was the visits by the police and not
Richard that drew the neighbours' attention towards Eve. Mr Oakley also pointed
out that, by his own admission, it is not Richard who has caused all of Mr
Hibbert's trouble. His injury and mental trauma has. Hibbert gives contradictory
dates about when he first heard of Richard as well as vague and uncertain
statements about what effect Richard is having on him and his family. Hibbert includes
a lot of rhetoric about his dislike generally of conspiracy theories. This
makes the barrister question his motives. He brings no evidence at all to the
table that supports his claim that Richard has harassed him.
See here for day two: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/07/rdh-trial-day-2.html.
See here for background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/07/rdh-lawsuit-mini-portal.html.
See here for background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/07/rdh-lawsuit-mini-portal.html.
5 comments:
Thank you for doing this report. It gives a very clear picture of what is happening in the courtroom.
Great resume, Ben :0)
Many thanks, GM and Chrissie. :-) More tomorrow.
Thanks for reporting on this, Ben. Looking forward to your next updates.
GlowTone
You're welcome GT. Day Three is available now.
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