Sabine McNeill on trial: Day 6

Sabine McNeill’s trial on 17 charges of violating a restraining order and four charges of stalking ground to a complete halt today, for reasons completely unconnected to her transportation to and from Bronzefield Prison. 

Rather, the problem today originated with a person who has until now had almost no connection to the Hampstead SRA hoax. Some readers might remember “Eddieisok”, the would-be Tommy Robinson supporter and YouTuber whose interview with Brian Harvey last summer consisted of him nodding and saying, “Go on…”.

Well, it seems that he has taken it upon himself to “investigate” people accused of being connected to the alleged cult.

Yesterday this took the form of Eddie standing just beyond the court precinct (at the foot of the stairs outside) filming people with his iPhone as they went into and out of the court. He claimed to be looking for “trolls” who he wanted identified and investigated, and chief among those he listed was EC, who he had divined (from being in the same room but not speaking to her) is “very full of herself”. Uh-huh.

Anyway, back to the trial…

A waiting game

Outside Courtroom 11, supporters for both sides sat in the hallway…and sat…and sat…and sat. A sign on the courtroom door informed us that HHJ Sally Cahill QC was in chambers, and another hand-scrawled sign said, “Please do not come in”. 

Various officers of the court bustled in and out, with no sign of any change in the situation. We had no clue what was up, and there was much grumbling to be heard. 

The assembled groups included Belinda McKenzie; Mary Rooney; a woman we refer to affectionately as ‘Cardi Lady’ for her large and rather beautiful Kaffe Fassett cardigan; another lady named Margaret; Barbara Collier (formerly known as Babs, who has apparently decided that the gossip on the other side of the hoaxer fence is more rewarding…for now); various people unknown to us, and Eddieisok himself. 

On our relatively sparse side: a gentleman we’d never met; Postnein, and EC. 

A trip to the office

At one point late in the morning, a court guard approached Eddie and asked him whether he had been taking photos in the court precinct. Eddie denied this, but when the guard asked EC and Postnein whether we knew anything about it, we described yesterday’s videos, as well as a third one which Eddie had made earlier this morning. At this point, the guard told us to come with him to an office on the first floor, and asked us to tell the nice lady at the counter what had happened.

We did so, and the lady went off into an inner office for a bit. Eventually a court police officer came and told us that the police were already aware of Eddie’s escapades, that it was being handled, and we were free to go back upstairs. 

In the public gallery

And then it was back to waiting. At one point Neelu Berry made an appearance with Edward W. Ellis in tow; and whither Neelu goes, Lee Cant cannot be far behind. In fact, Neelu was still lingering at the other end of the hallway when the court doors opened and we were told we could come inside. Neelu remained outside the court, but Lee Cant did come in, along with Eddie and the rest. 

The public gallery was nearly full for the first time since this trial began. At 2:50 p.m. (a new record for late starts!), the court usher called the dock officer to the court. The dock officer arrived with Sabine, but the usher indicated that Sabine was not wanted at present, so she was sent back to wait. 

The waiting game explained?

The court clerk then indicated that the person they wished to deal with was Paul Rogers, aka Eddieisok. He was asked to step into the now-empty dock, which he did, seeming a bit confused.

Judge Cahill informed him that on 15 December 2017, Judge Beddoes had made an order governing this case, that no people should be named whose identification could lead to the identification of any children who might be involved. We have referred to this reporting restriction on several occasions. 

The judge said she was aware that Rogers had uploaded clips to YouTube yesterday in which he had named a witness who testified last week. She asked him to read a document he had been given, which outlined the charges against him, and stated that he had the right to immediate legal advice if he wished. 

Rogers declined this offer, and started to explain: “I was outside the court, and I did a video. I just wanted to film people identified as trolls”.

However, it appeared that the court was not interested in his filming, but in the actual content of one of his videos.

Judge Cahill stated that while it would be premature to do anything today, she was satisfied of the need to protect the integrity of Sabine’s case. Therefore, she said, Rogers would be remanded in custody overnight. 

As he was led out of the dock to the cells, Rogers called over his shoulder, “Thank you, Karen Irving”. Apparently it had not yet sunk in that this arrest had nothing to do with his filming outside the court, and everything to do with contempt of court. 

Neelu’s lucky escape

Once Rogers had been taken away, Miranda Moore QC told the judge that Neelu Berry had been spotted in the building. Indeed, she had started to come into the court with the rest of us, but had changed her mind and left. 

The judge rose whilst a search of the building was carried out, to no avail. At 3:35, Moore asked Judge Cahill to formally refer the matter to the court Attorney, which she did.

The public gallery was once again cleared, as the court needed to determine whether members of the jury might have been compromised by Rogers’ filming outside the court. 

Court is set to resume at 10:30 tomorrow morning, at which point we hope to learn of the court’s decision. 

We have to say we are less than impressed with Eddieisok’s performance today, as his conspiranoid shenanigans managed to lose this trial a full day’s worth of testimony.

Not only has he delayed matters at court, but if his goal is to assist Sabine (whom he rather comically persists in calling “Sabeel”), he has failed miserably. Instead, what he has done is drawn out an already long trial, and ensured that she will have to endure yet another round trip on the dreaded prison bus. 

Good going, mate.