Journalist banned from speaking to church minister over ‘ludicrous’ claims

Christopher Perry, 65, has been handed the long-running Asbo which prevents him from contacting the Rev Robert Amos, town clerk Richard Wood and former Driffield Mayor Steve Poessl, among others.

Although Perry claimed that in publishing articles on his former website Wolds Eye View he was “doing the job any decent citizen would do”, Judge Fred Rutherford at Hull Magistrates’ Court condemned his “obvious anti-social behaviour”.

Mr Amos said as well as falsely claiming he was a major property dealer who stood to make millions out of a new church building in the centre of Driffield, Perry started posting comments and pictures of him as he went about his business, snapping him as he picked up his lunch and even popping up in his back garden. When challenged, Perry told him: “I am going to bring you down with my journalism.”

The minister said: “It’s ludicrous but it got to such a point where he was taking photos and putting them on a site and talking to people in the local Wetherspooons, about did they know I stood to make a lot of money in a land deal. I’m all for a free Press.. but it just wears you down.”

He added: “I can forgive him. I just think he needs some help.”

Former police inspector Richard Wood, who is Pocklington town clerk, said he and his wife felt “immense” relief at the end of a “two-year tirade of harassment”, adding: “Many other local people have been similarly affected and I think I can speak for them all when I say we are so pleased that justice has at last been done.”

However Perry, of Southfield Close, Wetwang, near Driffield, said he was considering applying for a judicial review after his “disastrous” court defeat.

He said: “I don’t accept that I harassed any of these people. I asked them some very awkward questions and they then used this excuse of harassment to stop my inquiries.”

He said the 10-year ban – which includes any behaviour which causes harassment, alarm or distress – was disproportionate. He said: “I feel I have got to remain under house arrest. I have to be so careful that someone who might have it in for me doesn’t provoke an incident.”