Police face lawsuit after former officer arrested over ‘thought crime' tweet
A retired special constable is preparing to sue Kent Police after being arrested over a social media post warning about rising anti-Semitism.
Julian Foulkes, from Gillingham in Kent, was handcuffed at his home by six officers from the force he had served for a decade after replying to a pro-Palestinian activist on X.
The 71-year-old was detained for eight hours, interrogated and ultimately issued with a caution after officers visited his home on Nov 2 2023.
On Tuesday, Kent Police confirmed that the caution was a mistake and had been deleted from Mr Foulkes's record, admitting that it was 'not appropriate in the circumstances and should not have been issued'.
On Sunday, Mr Foulkes accepted an offer from the Free Speech Union to fund a legal challenge against the force for wrongful arrest and detention.
'The FSU and Lord [Toby] Young have generously agreed to fully fund a lawsuit against Kent Police,' he said. 'I'm extremely grateful for such excellent support and would urge anyone concerned about the sustained attack on free speech to please join the FSU. They're fighting hard every day for all of us.'
Mr Foulkes also revealed that Kent Police's Chief Constable had phoned him on Sunday to offer a 'personal apology for the ordeal I endured' and to tell him the incident would be 'thoroughly' investigated. He added: 'I was appreciative of his apology.'
His case is the latest in a series of heavy-handed police responses to lawful expression.
Last year, The Telegraph revealed that its columnist Allison Pearson was questioned at home by two officers over an X post following pro-Palestinian protests.
In March, officers from Hertfordshire Constabulary arrested and detained the parents of a nine-year-old girl after they had complained about her school in a WhatsApp group, before concluding that no further action was required.
Police body-worn camera footage captured officers scrutinising Mr Foulkes''s collection of books by authors such as Douglas Murray, a Telegraph contributor, and issues of The Spectator, pointing to what they described as 'very Brexity things'.
Officers also rifled through private items including newspaper clippings about the death of his daughter Francesca, who was killed in a hit-and-run by a drunk driver in Ibiza 15 years ago.
Though he had committed no offence, he accepted the caution in a state of shock, fearing that any further escalation could affect his ability to visit his surviving daughter in Australia.
'I didn't agree, but I felt I had no choice,' he said. 'In hindsight, it would never have gone to court. The CPS wouldn't touch it with no evidence. But I wasn't thinking logically at the time.'
He said the ordeal had left him with post-traumatic stress-type symptoms and had 'trashed' his memories of volunteering for the force.
'It's like PTSD. You push it to the back of your mind, but it comes back and you relive it,' he said.
His X post, sent two days before police visited his home, was a reaction to news reports of an anti-Semitic mob storming an airport in Dagestan, Russia, looking for Jewish passengers.
It was a reply to an activist threatening to sue Suella Braverman, the then home secretary, for calling London pro-Palestinian demonstrations 'hate marches'.
In the post, Mr Foulkes wrote: 'One step away from storming Heathrow looking for Jewish arrivals…'
He later said it would have been better had it begun 'What next? You are…', but said his meaning was clear regardless.
However, on Nov 1, the Metropolitan Police Intelligence Command flagged the tweet to Kent Police, citing 'concerns around online content'. The post had just 26 views, and had not been reported by the public.
The next day, six officers arrived at his home, armed with batons and pepper spray. He was arrested, booked, fingerprinted, photographed and swabbed for DNA.
'Kent Police decided to interpret my post as anti-Jewish,' he said. 'But it was the exact opposite. If they'd looked at the full thread, they'd have understood. It would have taken two minutes. I told them there was more to it, but they didn't pause the interview to check.'
In the police interview, he denied five times that he intended to cause distress, 'but that was just ignored'.
The force did not initially apologise to Mr Foulkes in its statement to The Telegraph, instead saying the episode had 'provided learning opportunities'. But following publication of the story on Saturday, it amended its statement to add: 'Kent Police apologise to Mr Foulkes for the distress caused and how the report was investigated.'
Mr Foulkes told The Telegraph: 'Up to that point I had had no direct apology from Kent Police – in fact, no communication at all since 2023. Elton John said 'sorry seems to be the hardest word', which certainly seems appropriate in the circumstances.
'This morning, however, I received a call from Kent Chief Constable Tim Smith, who offered his personal apology for the ordeal I endured and vowed to thoroughly investigate the failings. I was appreciative of his apology.'
Mr Foulkes's police record was only deleted after he engaged Matthew Elkins, the director of Legisia Legal Services. He said he was looking for a lawyer 'with a proven track record in removing cautions', and described the successful submission as 'excellent'.
Mr Elkins told The Telegraph that the case 'highlights a need for the police to take stock, and to make freedom of expression their starting point – our freedoms won't be taken from us suddenly, but by the quiet and gradual criminalisation of our conscience'.
In the past 24 hours, Mr Foulkes has received dozens of offers to help fund his case, but asked that donations be made only via an official FSU appeal launched on Sunday.
Lord Young, the FSU co-founder, called the case 'inexcusable' and said: 'He should not have been arrested, he should not have been locked in a cell for eight hours, and he should not have been cautioned.
'Kent Police have acknowledged they made a mistake and expunged the caution, but that isn't good enough. They now need to pay Julian substantial compensation and, with help from our legal team and a top solicitor in the form of Luke Gittos, we're going to make sure he gets it.
'Kent Police need to understand that if they put people through this kind of ordeal merely for exercising their right to lawful free speech, there will be serious consequences. They need to stop policing our tweets and start policing our streets.'
Arresting a 71 year old man and holding him for hours in a police cell over a tweet that was obviously not criminal is completely unacceptable
The Police should spend their time catching actual criminals, not policing offence on Twitter
https://t.co/y5OIDqGPMz
— Chris Philp MP (@CPhilpOfficial) May 10, 2025
On Saturday night, both Mrs Braverman and Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, expressed their support for Mr Foulkes. Mr Philp called the arrest 'completely unacceptable'.
Mrs Braverman said it was an 'outrageous and sorry episode', adding:'Law-abiding people should not be investigated for non-existent thought crimes.'
The FSU is currently supporting several high-profile free speech cases. This month it overturned a six-match ban handed to women's footballer Cerys Vaughan, who had asked a 'bearded' opponent if they were a man.
Next week, it will support Lucy Connolly's sentencing appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice. Ms Connolly, the wife of a Conservative councillor, is serving 31 months in prison for a social media post calling for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire.
Since the last general election, FSU membership has more than doubled, to 29,000. It now employs 28 staff, including a five-strong legal team, and is handling around 250 active cases, 65 involving live legal proceedings.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
18 minutes ago
- BBC News
Illegal work arrests double in year as police target 'unscrupulous' employers
Arrests for illegal work have doubled in a year as police focus on "unscrupulous" employers who exploit undocumented migrants, the government officers arrested more than 6,400 people in the past year in raids at businesses across the UK, data released by the Home Office shows. It said the figure is 51% higher than the previous year. It did not provide numbers as to how many arrests led to charges, convictions or said immigration enforcement officials had "intensified" their work to "tackle those abusing the UK immigration system and exploiting vulnerable people". Officers had visited more than 9,000 businesses - among them restaurants, nail bars and construction sites - to check paperwork and working businesses had often subjected migrants to "squalid conditions and illegal working hours" as well as below-minimum Home Office said there were a range of industries exploiting migrant one case in Surrey, officers arrested nine people at a caravan park who had been working as delivery one one major operation in March, officers arrested 36 people at a building site in Belfast's Titanic Quarter. Some had breached visa conditions while others didn't have working Enforcement director Eddy Montgomery said there were many cases where people travelling to the UK were "sold a lie by smuggling gangs that they will be able to live and work freely in the UK."In reality, they often end up facing squalid living conditions, minimal pay and inhumane working hours," he Angela Eagle, the minister for border security and asylum, said the government would "continue to root out unscrupulous employers and disrupt illegal workers who undermine our border security".The government said it had also returned nearly 30,000 people over the past year who did not have the right to be in the has said it is cracking down on illegal migration, setting out its plans in a White Paper to tighten work visas and those overstaying. It scrapped a special visa for care workers introduced during the pandemic, noting that this had been a pathway exploited by was mixed reaction to the plans, with some business sectors decrying the restrictions on work visas, while some Conservative opponents said the reforms didn't go far enough to stop illegal most recent data shows that approximately 44,000 people have entered the UK illegally in the year to March 2025, more than 80% through small boat journeys.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
'He was going to kill me': More strangulation cases recorded by police but many investigations falter
Around 70% of non-fatal strangulation cases in the last year have been dropped due to evidential issues, exclusive data shared with Sky News shows. It is now three years since it became a standalone offence in England and Wales, in a landmark piece of legislation designed to protect domestic abuse victims. Data from the Institute for Addressing Strangulation (IFAS) shows that police are implementing the offence widely - but outcomes for victims are mixed. Warning: This article contains references to domestic abuse and sexual assault 'Sarah' - whose name has been changed to protect her identity - vividly remembers the first time her ex-partner strangled her, one year into their relationship. She said: "He was drunk, and he climbed on top me. He put his hands around my throat, and he pinned me down with the strength of his body." Terrified, she begged him repeatedly to stop, but he carried on. "I remember I just felt really numb and scared, but it was weird, it felt like an out-of-body experience." Afterwards the only words he spoke to her were 'look what you made me do', she said, and then when the ordeal was over, he carried on with his day as if nothing had happened. This was the beginning of a pattern of abuse that continued throughout the rest of their relationship, happening on at least 30 more occasions, Sarah estimated. It became so normalised He strangled her when she was pregnant. He strangled her whether her children were in the house or not. It always happened during sex, though Sarah was only later able to recognise that this was rape after talking to the police, because for her it had become so normalised. And, always, he told Sarah it was her fault - that she had somehow 'made' him do it. She later went on to suffer a miscarriage because of the physical abuse. 'A form of control' "Looking back now I can see it was a form of control. He got off on knowing that he was in control, and he liked seeing me upset," she said. "I thought that he was going to kill me because he used to threaten it to me. It was very, very scary." This fear of death is common among victims of strangulation and is a recognised tool of control and intimidation. A US study found that victims of domestic abuse were seven times more likely to be murdered by their current or former partner if there had been an incident of non-fatal strangulation beforehand. But this form of violence often leaves no obvious external signs of injury, meaning in some cases perpetrators could only be investigated for less serious offences like common assault, which did not reflect the severity of the crime. What are the possible effects on health? The potential health impacts are wide-ranging, including loss of consciousness, voice changes, difficulty in swallowing and breathing, bruising, haemorrhages, headaches, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), miscarriage, risk of suicide, and death (including delayed death). Symptoms can arise weeks or months after the event. It is for these reasons that campaigners fought for the introduction of the standalone offence, which came into effect in June 2022. 'Much work to be done' The IFAS has been monitoring the offence since the legislation was introduced and shared its latest report findings exclusively with Sky News. It said there is still "much work to be done" to better protect victims of strangulation. New figures obtained by IFAS from the Home Office reveal that over 63,000 crimes of non-fatal strangulation or suffocation were recorded by police in England and Wales in the first two years under the legislation. There were 39,360 recorded crimes in 2023/24, on average 66 offences per 100,000 people compared with 50 per 100,000 the year before, an increase of 20%. "Survivors who work with us have recognised time and time again how important it is to be able to see strangulation as a standalone offence and have the opportunity to progress with criminal justice proceedings," Harriet Smailes, co-author of the report, told Sky News. The volume of crimes recorded suggests that the offence is being widely recognised and reported by police - and the number resulting in charges, at 12%, is high compared to some other offences. However, a significant number of investigations result in no further action due to evidential difficulties. This can happen if police or prosecutors do not believe there is enough evidence to proceed, or if the victim does not support the investigation. This was the outcome in three in five investigations overall, including one in five investigations where the victim did support police action. Outcomes were similar in both years of available data. "In around half of cases, there are no external, physical, visible signs of injury. That's not to say that there aren't internal injuries that can't be seen just with the naked eye," said Ms Smailes, who is a research officer at IFAS. "It might be that that visible injury isn't present at the time of evidence capture that might develop over time, or because there's a difference in how individuals show bruising, for example those of different skin tones. That can contribute towards there not being enough perceived evidence to be able to progress with a police case," she said. In some cases where a victim disengages from police proceedings, it may be that they did not feel supported and believed in the process or felt that there were "too many obstacles". On the other hand, not all cases where a victim did not support police action are necessarily negative. "It might be that initial needs have been met in that instance through reporting to the police, for example, initial containment of the risk of that situation, and referrals to specialist health or mental health services," Ms Smailes explained. Police 'determined' to improve Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe is the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for domestic abuse. She told Sky News that securing prosecutions for strangulation is a priority for tackling violence against women and girls, and a key part of national Domestic Abuse Matters training. "For us to do well in prosecutions, we need to understand how perpetrators operate, how they use this is a sinister way of controlling their victims. And we also know that many victims are frightened to pursue prosecution," she said. Investigators not only have to secure detailed evidence rapidly but also present the best possible case so that prosecutors and juries understand how an abuser is operating, she said. "That can be a challenging job, for a police service that's under pressure, trying to deal with a myriad of priorities. I know many investigators are passionate about getting this right." "We know we're up against it when it comes to securing convictions, but we're determined to improve," she added. Fewer than half were convicted Separate research by IFAS has found that in the first year under the new legislation, only around half of the number of offences charged by police were prosecuted, and less than half of those secured a conviction. Overall, 47% of the 1,437 prosecutions of non-fatal strangulation and suffocation offences in the year to June 2023 resulted in conviction, based on data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) from all courts in England and Wales. There are several potential reasons that a prosecution may be unsuccessful, including evidential difficulties or a victim withdrawing from the process. The accused may also have been convicted of a separate offence, but not for the strangulation. Without more detailed data, it is hard to determine to what extent each is contributing to the low conviction rate. Reflecting on the figures, head of policy and public affairs at domestic abuse support charity Refuge, Ellie Butt, told Sky News that victims often face "huge pressure" from perpetrators to drop out of the criminal justice process. "When compounded with lengthy court delays and insufficient support, many survivors are forced to withdraw from the process. Police and prosecutors should be working to build cases that can be taken forward even when a survivor can no longer continue," she said. The Crown Prosecution Service highlighted to Sky News that the number of new prosecution proceedings has been consistently increasing, particularly domestic abuse-related strangulation offences. In the latest quarter, 2,000 cases reached their first hearing at magistrates' court. Kate Brown, the CPS national lead for domestic abuse, said: "Three years on, we have continued to bring more charges quarter on quarter, with over 2,000 seen in court in the past three months. "This standalone offence has shone a light on those who seek to use these violent acts to exert power over another person and harm them. We are determined to continue bringing abusers to justice for victims." A gendered crime The new data from IFAS reinforces that strangulation is a gendered crime. Around 80% of victims whose gender was recorded by police were female, while 88% of suspects were male. The data also shows that while people from all ages are impacted, most victims are younger, with three in five aged 34 or under. The age profile of suspects was slightly higher, with three in five suspects aged between 25 and 44. 'I want to say it's not your fault' Sarah's case ended in evidential difficulties. Though her case was reported before 2022, when strangulation became a specific offence, she said she did provide substantial physical evidence to the police and she feels "let down" by the justice system. She said she has been diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and other health issues. "I live with it every day. It can be a song that comes on the radio or a sign or somebody's name and it would just bring everything back to me to that point, that moment," she said. "I want to say it's not your fault. Nobody has the right to control you, nobody has the right to abuse you, rape you, strangle you. "I would urge anyone to speak out and if you feel like you haven't been heard and your voice has not been listened to, speak out again."
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Trans lobby groups 'lied for years' that anyone self identifying as a different gender could access women's' toilets, equality chief says
Transgender people were misled about their rights to female only spaces by lobby groups, according to a senior member of an equality watchdog has said. In April a Supreme Court ruling confirmed the terms woman and sex in the 2010 Equality Act 'refer to a biological woman and biological sex'. Akua Reindorf, a barrister who is one of eight commissioners at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said trans people had been deceived about their rights were. Speaking in a personal capacity during a debate about the recent ruling, she said there must be a 'period of correction' to acknowledge women's right to women-only spaces. The decision made it legal for trans people to be banned from women-only sports teams, and from using bathrooms and changing rooms for the gender they lived as. These terms were later supported by interim non-statutory advice given by the EHRC last April. When an audience member at the debate raised fears about the recent Supreme Court ruling and how it could strip away trans peoples rights, barrister and panellist, Naomi Cunningham said: 'It can't be helped, I'm afraid.' In agreement with her fellow panellist, Ms Reindorf said she believed trans lobbyists were at faults for the misunderstanding. 'Unfortunately, young people and trans people have been lied to over many years about what their rights are,' she said. 'It's like Naomi said – I just can't say it in a more diplomatic way than that. They have been lied to, and there has to be a period of correction, because other people have rights' She claimed it boiled down to the law prior to the Supreme Court ruling being misunderstood due to groups contending trans people who self-identified should be treated as their preferred gender. However, this was only the case for the those who had obtained a gender recognition certificate (GRC). The barrister said the amalgamation of different rights made the Equality Act nonviable from a personal capacity. 'The catalyst for many to catch up, belatedly, with the fact that the law never permitted self-ID in the first place,' she said. As such, the feeling of a loss of right of trans people was due to an overwhelming product of 'misinformation' perpetrated by 'lobby group and activists'. Author JK Rowling backed the barrister's recent comments, saying lobby groups lied 'about what the law said'.' However, the head of gender justice at Amnesty International UK, Chiara Capraro, hit back Ms Reindorf's comments. She said: 'The EHRC has the duty to uphold the rights of everyone, including all with protected characteristics. We are concerned that it is failing to do so and is unhelpfully pitting the rights of women and trans people against each other.' A spokesman for the EHRC told The Guardian: 'Akua Reindorf KC spoke at this event in a personal capacity. This was made clear at the event and in the video recording published online. 'As Britain's equality regulator, the Equality and Human Rights Commission upholds and enforces the Equality Act 2010 to ensure everyone is treated fairly, consistent with the Act. 'Our board come from all walks of life and bring with them a breadth of skills and experience. This helps us take impartial decisions, which are always based on evidence and the law.'
