From the Daily Telegraph:
BBC presenter Chris Packham has been criticised after urging people who bank with Barclays to stick their heads in a bucket of petrol and set themselves on fire… He said: “But, if anyone here is banking with Barclays, then, I suggest you stick your head in a bucket of fuel and set fire to it because you’re burning our planet down. And, it’s time to put this stuff behind us.”
A complaint about Packham’s comments was also made to Derbyshire Constabulary.
The complainant, a country sports enthusiast who wishes to remain anonymous, wrote to officers asking how the BBC presenter’s comments could be legal “given the recent spate of civil unrest which we have seen across the country” and those “inciting people to take direct action.”
A police spokesman said: “The video has been reviewed and no offences have been committed.
“Each incident that takes place is reviewed based on the language used as well as the specific set of circumstances in which the comments are made.
“In this instance, while there is legislation covering individuals encouraging or assisting a person or persons to cause serious harm to themselves, there is no suggestion that this is a serious attempt to influence anyone to commit any such acts.”
This preposterous non-story, bylined to Simon Trump and Steve Bird, is just the latest installment in an ongoing series of lame attack articles aimed at Packham, in each case bolstered by a convenient anonymous accuser.
Back in April 2023, the same duo reported on speculation that a vehicle working on Packham’s Springwatch programme may have been responsible for running over a badger nicknamed Bernie in Suffolk… in 2015. How did this become “news” eight years later?
The mystery surrounding the badger’s death only came to light after a keen naturalist recently posted a message on social media asking whether the BBC would ever reveal what happened to Bernie.
Details of where to find the message were not provided. This was followed by another item in August:
When Chris Packham appeared on The One Show with three goshawk chicks, the naturalist took great pride in showing how a bird of prey once near extinction in Britain is at last thriving.
But, that BBC recording is now at the centre of a police investigation over whether a wildlife crime – including the somewhat unusual practice of bird sniffing – was committed before the nation’s very eyes.
The clip, broadcast in June following a morning of filming, prompted a complaint to police that a filming licence may not have been obtained.
…The man who complained – a shooting enthusiast who does not want to be named for fear of reprisals – said: “I watched the programme and was struck by the way Mr Packham was handling and sniffing the birds. These birds are Schedule 1 protected and it is a crime to ‘intentionally or recklessly disturb at, on or near an active nest’.”
The matter was dropped in October:
Hampshire Police has written to the man who complained – an amateur shooting enthusiast who does not want to be named – to say that no charges will be brought and the case has now been closed.
It is tempting to suspect that the “country sports enthusiast”, the “keen naturalist” and the “amateur shooting enthusiast” are all the same person – or if not, that there is some coordinating intelligence behind them. Does this individual really “fear reprisals”, or is it rather that the two hacks for some reason would rather obfuscate who it is they are repeatedly relying on for their stream of easy copy?
As well as the above, in 2022 the paper also published a more serious story about Packham – this time, it was written up by the paper’s crime correspondent Martin Evans, but as with the more recent examples an unnamed individual was at the heart of it:
A mystery businessman has offered a £50,000 reward to help capture a gang who carried out a terrifying arson attack at the home of the BBC TV nature presenter Chris Packham.
Suspicion immediately fell on pro-hunting supporters who were thought to be targeting Mr Packham because of his vocal opposition to bloodsports.
But there was also fevered speculation online that the attack might actually be the work of animal rights activists who were trying to set up and discredit their opponents.
…The mystery benefactor, who claims he is not a hunting, shooting or fishing enthusiast, has appealed on a website to a number of potential parties, which he believes could help.
The website was being sued by Packham for libel (mentioned by Evans in passing), and there is no evidence that Evans did anything to verify the existence of this “mystery businessman” for himself. In his witness statement, Packham detected bad faith (para 179):
The clear message from these articles is that in addition to writing myself a death threat letter, I also fabricated the arson attack in order to, presumably, elicit further publicity and/or public sympathy. I understand that the final date for the reward to be claimed is 2 May 2023 which is the first day of listing for trial in this litigation, making a mockery of the idea that the reward is not associated with my defamation claim.
Packham’s advice to Barclay’s customers was captured by a website called Fieldsports TV, which had settled a separate libel action last November.
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