Bartholomew's Notes

Last Friday, the former pop-singer Brian Harvey made a preliminary appearance at Highbury & Islington Magistrate’s court in relation to an allegation that he had harassed a man online named Ian Puddick. (1) The hearing was not reported in the media, despite coverage of Harvey’s arrest last November and more recent news stories – Harvey often posts uploads to YouTube that provide easy “celeb news” items for journalists, such as this example.

However, Harvey’s appearance in court was noted on social media, and a number of videos (some of which have since been deleted) show that a crowd of supporters turned up for the event. Some were perhaps simply 1990s pop-music fans, although it appears that there was a contingent of “alt-right”  and “sovereign citizen” enthusiasts.

The appearance of the latter may in part be explained by video uploaded in July, in which Harvey was interviewed by an activist named “Eddie Isok” (var. “Eddie Is OK”) – Isok has an “alt right” following, and his Twitter profile photo shows him with For Britain’s Anne-Marie Waters. As I have blogged previously, Harvey told his interviewer that he had previously been an associate of Bill Maloney, a film-maker who makes extravagant allegations of VIP sex abuse. In late 2013, Maloney and Harvey travelled together to record an interview with a man who accused a long list of celebrities of sex abuse, and Harvey believes (with good cause) that this man was coached and bullied by Maloney into making false allegations. Harvey’s interview also included an appeal for Jon Wedger, who describes himself as a “police whistleblower”, to break from Maloney; this appeal has been rebuffed by Wedger, although Maloney has not made any public statements for some time now.

The various videos uploaded after the hearing show Harvey making a short statement on the steps of the court, standing beside an older man wearing a long white wig in apparent parody of a High Court judge. He then shook hands with and posed with a number of those present.

One video was made by “Red Pill Phil”, an activist who was last year promoted by Caolan Robertson at Rebel Media after he was filmed arguing with Antifa activists (2); according to his account, he and other members of the public gallery refused to stand when the magistrate entered the courtroom, as an expression of their rejection of her authority – a typical “freeman of the land”-type antic. The crowd outside also included one Gordon Bowden, who describes himself as an “ex-RAF whistleblower”.

Harvey afterwards made a new video after he returned home (apparently since deleted), in which he asked for supporters not to attend at his next court appearance. He expressed irritation at some of those present who had positioned themselves so that they would appear in shot behind him when he was speaking, and he was particularly annoyed by the refusal-to-stand stunt in the courtroom, which he believes will only cause him problems.

Footnotes

1. Puddick previously featured on this blog in 2011, after he was himself accused and acquitted of harassment. In 2013 it was announced that none other than David Shayler “is now writing a book about Ian Puddick, who believes he was persecuted by the City of London Police”, although it has not yet been published.

1. Here is a photo of “Red Pill Phil” sitting alongside Robertson and Jack Buckby, who is also now with Rebel Media. The person behind, I’m told, is James Diamond (aka James Windsor) of Generation Identity, an associate of Anne-Marie Waters.

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