Sentencing the Innocent

Judge Johnson had proved his fascist credentials through rulings much earlier in the Filton trial than his vicious sentencing. Indeed, he had arguably already shown them when he released Tommy Robinson from a prison sentence, or when as a barrister he had chosen to work for the intelligence services and Ministry of Defence.

But in his incredibly vicious sentencing, Johnson did something quite extraordinary. It was not just that he added a “terrorist connection” to the sentencing - a possibility deliberately kept secret from the jury. But in sentencing he recounted the prosecution version of events in its entirety to justify his sentences, including explicitly setting out all the details of alleged violent disorder of which the defendants had been acquitted.

In short Johnson used the “terrorist connection” to ignore the ruling of the jury and sentence them as though they had in fact been found guilty of all the things that Johnson had systematically rigged the trial to try to get them found guilty of - and failed.

The “terrorist connection” legislation is merely a part of an enormous slough of extreme authoritarian UK legislation passed in recent years - including the Online Safety Act, the National Security Act and many others. It is bad enough in itself, as it defines as terrorism any illegal activity intended to “influence the government” - which makes all civil disobedience terrorism. But even within these broad powers,