Arrested in the UK for TOUCHING a gun in the US: my dystopian nightmare after social media post
Serious questions remain for West Yorkshire Police to answer following the arrest and subsequent four-month-long ordeal of a prominent businessman.
For several months, IT contractor Jon Richelieu-Booth was pursued by the force after posting a holiday photograph of himself on social media, handling a gun, legally and safely, alongside friends whose permission he had to do so, in the United States.
Time and time again, he was visited by West Yorkshire Police. He had technical equipment and devices needed to run his business seized and confiscated, and at one point held prisoner in a cell overnight. The repeated knocks at the door by officers caused his friends and neighbours to be wary of him and to shun him, leaving him feeling fearful, isolated and ashamed.
Now, though, the Crown Prosecution Service has assessed and thrown out the case, this newspaper has learned, citing the scant possibility of any conviction as the reason for doing so. Mr Richelieu-Booth, in the circumstances, could be forgiven, then, for feeling a sense of relief and vindication, yet those are not his overwhelming emotions instead likening what happened to him as a vexed witch hunt.
He says the experience was dark and Orwellian. A dystopian nightmare brought about by an innocuous post on social media – from halfway across the world, whilst enjoying a holiday – inflicted upon him by West Yorkshire Police which, analysis shows, was second only, in 2023, to the Metropolitan Police for arresting people for posts on social media.
On the evidence seen by The Yorkshire Post, there was never a scintilla of a chance of a successful prosecution, and so serious questions remain about the policing standards and motivations applied in this case, and the leadership who permitted his pursuit until the day after this newspaper applied to cover the impending court case. It is not good enough, as it has, for West Yorkshire Police to hide behind its completely inadequate response that Mr Richelieu-Booth might complain about how they treated him, and so will not comment. His ordeal is one that will be deleterious to confidence in the police for the wider public, and one that will have a chilling effect on freedom of speech. More answers must follow.