Tory councillor arrested for ‘hate crime’ after sharing video criticising police

A Conservative councillor was arrested for an alleged hate crime after re-tweeting a video criticising how the police treated a Christian street preacher.

Cllr Anthony Stevens, 50, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, told The Telegraph he was arrested at his home this month and escorted to a police station for questioning about tweets from his personal account, which has 76 followers.

One tweet involved a video showing how police had treated the arrest of Christian preacher Oluwole Ilisanmi in Southgate, London, in 2019.

A police officer snatched Mr Ilisanmi’s Bible after the preacher was accused of being Islamophobic. Mr Ilisanmi was later awarded £2,500 for wrongful arrest. The video, shared by Cllr Stevens in May, also showed footage of a police officer apparently stating that a Muslim preacher was allowed to preach on a high street.

Cllr Stevens, a member of Wellingborough Town Council, said he was told by the police officers that the original tweet he had shared had been posted by a member of Britain First, the far Right political party. Cllr Stevens said he had not known this and had not known who Britain First were. He said he only re-posted the video as “disturbing evidence of religious discrimination in law enforcement”.

Police also questioned why the Tory councillor had tweeted his support for Cllr King Lawal, a fellow Northamptonshire councillor, who has been “cancelled” for expressing his Christian beliefs in relation to LGBT issues, according to Cllr Stevens.

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Read also: The Urgent Need to Teach the Police About Free Speech by Carrie Clark, Free Speech Union