2018 in review: They fought the law & the law won

On this last day of 2018, we’re taking time to look back over a year that’s brought victories great and small in the fight to debunk the Hampstead SRA hoax and those who’ve continued to promote it.

This time last year, Rupert Quaintance was serving the final weeks of his prison sentence for harassment, and Sabine McNeill had been sprung from remand in prison as her friends were able to raise the £20,000 bail bond within several days.

At the time, we wrote,

If 2017 was a year of legal breakthroughs and the final debunking of the hoax, we fearlessly predict that 2018 will bring further rounds of arrests and charges, as police and courts begin to realise that “do nothing, cover our ears, and wait for the nutters to go away” isn’t a realistic approach to protecting innocent people from the wackadoos online.

It turns out that we weren’t far off: 2018 has been a year of arrests, cautions, and of course, trials.

Sabine found guilty of stalking, restraining order breaches

The biggest story of the year has to be Sabine McNeill’s four-week-long trial, following nine months during which she was remanded in custody for breaching bail conditions on multiple occasions.

Sabine was found guilty on four counts of stalking, as well as six of 17 counts of breaching the restraining order which was put in place by HHJ Worsley following the collapse of Sabine and Neelu’s trial for witness intimidation in July 2016. Her sentencing hearing was cut short due to another trial taking place prior to the hearing, but will conclude on 9 January at Southwark Crown Court.

The full impact of Sabine’s conviction has yet to be assessed, but we think it’s fair to say that 2019 will tell the tale.

Arrests during Sabine’s trial

Two arrests took place during Sabine McNeill’s trial. On separate occasions, Paul Rogers, who goes by the name “Eddie Isok”, and Belinda McKenzie were both accused of breaching the reporting restriction which continues to protect the names of several witnesses in the trial. Both Rogers and McKenzie were arrested from the court’s public gallery.

Rogers was tried the day after his arrest and received a two-month sentence, suspended for one year. Belinda’s trial was delayed until following Sabine’s sentencing, so we expect that she will go before HHJ Sally Cahill QC on 9 January. More to follow on this.

However, it’s worth noting that this is Belinda McKenzie’s second arrest in connection with the Hampstead SRA hoax—her first, which took place in early 2017, resulted in no charges being laid.

Angela raided, equipment seized

In a year dominated by Sabine McNeill’s adventures, one other story stands out as worthy of mention: on 17 August, officer from Kells Gardaí raided Angela Power-Disney’s home, seized her computer equipment and two cars, and invited her for an interview at the station.

The police seem to have warned Angela that it would be in her best interest to curb her seemingly insatiable need to continue harassing those she believes are associated with the imaginary “Satanic cult” in Hampstead. However, since the raid Angela seems to have stepped up her hate campaign, in defiance of both the law and common sense.

Speaking of common sense, she also seems to have convinced herself that the police are scouring her tech equipment for evidence against those of us who’ve been watching and reporting on her activities. Dream on, luv.

Wesley Hall arrested, legs it for Spain

One of the more dramatic moments of 2018 has to have been the self-filmed arrest of Wesley Hall, who was apprehended while boarding a flight to Spain. We won’t soon forget the videos of Wesley, bouncing along in the back of a police van, trying to find out from the driver what’s going on and where he’s going.

It turns out that his name was flagged on the passenger manifest as “wanted for perverting the course of justice”. His tech equipment was seized and he was taken from the airport to a police interview with DC Steve Martin. Wesley claimed to have given a “no-comment” interview.

Before charges could be laid, he left again for Spain, this time seemingly for good. However, this wasn’t the end of the matter: in September, we were alerted to a very strange Facebook post from Wesley, in which he claimed that threats had been made against his daughter, and that he had been “victimised” by an evil doctor and his wife, who had sent him to Spain to seek out farmland on which to grow cannabis for an up-and-coming CBD oil business.

It didn’t take much poking about to discover that Wesley’s story was as full of holes as a holey thing with lots of holes in it.

In fact, it transpired that Wesley had been blackmailing the doctor’s wife with threats of suicide; the alleged threats against his own daughter had been nothing more than doctored screenshots from someone who was attempting to help bring Wesley out of hiding, the “hunting for farmland” story had been yet another of Wesley’s tall tales, and now the police were more interested in him than ever.

Deborah Mahmoudieh leaves the field

In February, we learned from professional blabbermouth Angela that one of the more prolific Hoaxtead campaigners, Deborah Mahmoudieh, had been arrested and cautioned about her online activities.

Angela’s rather garbled version of events was difficult to untangle, but the bottom line is that we’ve heard nothing about Hampstead from Deborah since then, for which we are all thankful.

Frankly, it’s refreshing to see a Hampstead promoter who is able to curb her own behaviour when it’s pointed out that it could land her in serious legal hot water.

Neelu loses her home

In a sad yet inevitable turn of events, in October the bailiffs finally came and repossessed Neelu Berry’s house for failure to keep up her mortgage payments. It’s always difficult to see someone deprived of their home, but in Neelu’s case she and “equity lawyer” Edward W. Ellis worked hard to ensure that the authorities had no other choice.

Neelu failed in her last-ditch attempt to prevent her house being sold at auction, but being homeless didn’t stop her from attending Sabine’s trial at Southwark Crown Court, immediately prior to haring it out of the courtroom when she realised she was about to be done for violating the trial’s reporting restrictions.

What to expect in 2019…

The year will begin with Sabine’s sentencing, which we’ll be watching closely. One aspect of her sentencing which has already been implemented is the Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO), which will see all her references to Hampstead removed from the internet.

While this might be a “too little too late” gesture, we hope it’ll be just the beginning of the courts’ understanding that the material posted by the Hampstead hoaxers goes far beyond the bounds of free speech, and into the realm of harassment and stalking.

We think it’s fair to say that Angela has now firmly entrenched herself as queen of the Hoaxtead dung-heap: we learned during Sabine’s trial that she had sent her newest sidekick, Paul Rogers, to court to do her dirty work for her, and it’s pretty clear she’s been working with confirmed nutters like Andy Devine and the alleged Rev. Dr. Anthony G. Pike, in an attempt to rev up the Hampstead hoax yet again.

This behaviour, in addition to her seemingly compulsive need to keep harassing people she claims are involved in baby-eating in Hampstead, will contribute to her downfall, though we’re not currently taking bets on how long it will take the Gardaí to charge her.

We’ll also be keeping an eye on Wesley Hall, who has started up his antics again—claiming that he’s being “gang-stalked” in Spain and that his life is in acute danger.

We expect that while 2018 was a year of arrests and convictions, 2019 may be the year when the entire hoax comes crashing down, bringing its last supporters with it. Stay tuned!