A protester who was demonstrating against a drag queen story-telling event for children has been found guilty of a public order offence after the judge said his words went, “beyond freedom of expression into hate speech.”
Lance O’Connor, 59, was convicted of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress towards Matthew Rowan, an operations manager at the Tate Modern art gallery in London.
But district judge Neeta Minhas, sitting at Westminster Magistrates Court, acquitted him of the same offence towards police liaison officer Anderson De Santis.
The hearing heard Mr. O'Connor being “aggressive and intimidating” towards the organisers of the Drag Queen Story Hour UK event on Feb. 11, 2023.
Among those at the event was Aida H. Dee, who was described on Tate Modern’s website as “the first drag artist in Europe to read stories to children in a nursery.”
‘Aggressive and Intimidating’
Prosecutor Luke Staton said Mr. O'Connor was “aggressive and intimidating” towards Mr. Rowan, who was standing outside the door to the event.Mr. Staton said: “At one stage, when a mother and daughter attempted to enter the event room, the Crown say that the defendant said words to the effect of ‘They are indoctrinating children in there. There’s a man dressed as a woman and he is defending paedophiles.'”
“The defendant, the Crown say, also said to Mr. Rowan words to the effect of ‘Do you think it’s appropriate for a man to wear women’s clothing?’ and made further comments about grooming and paedophilia,” added Mr. Staton.
After being arrested Mr. O'Connor was interviewed by police and told them, “Gay people dressed as women are paedophiles.”
Mr. Rowan gave evidence to the court and said, “To be in my place of work, which should be a safe place for everyone, to then have someone who is aggressive and filming me and trying to get a reaction out of me, it was very uncomfortable.”
He added, “As a gay man I felt very uncomfortable with the claims of indoctrination, grooming and talking about paedophilia as they are tropes that have been used against gay people, to my knowledge, growing up.”
Mr. O'Connor’s lawyer, Sundeep Pankhania, said his client “does not hold any non-trans ideologies” and was because of a “link” he believed existed between Aida H. Dee and another drag queen Darren Moore.
Mr. Moore, a convicted paedophile who used the stage name C.C. Quinn, was found dead in an alleyway in Cardiff in January. He had been jailed in 1999 for raping a boy under 16.
Giving evidence in court on Monday, Mr. O'Connor referred to Aida H. Dee’s “very close links” to Mr. Moore.
“He done a eulogy for him on the internet and also he done a GoFundMe page (for his funeral),” Mr. O’Connor testified.
He said he wanted parents attending the event at the Tate Modern to be aware of the links and claimed his motivation was, “trying to protect the children.”
‘I Don’t Tell Lies’
He said: “My hand has been on my Bible every question I have answered. I don’t tell lies. I’m a truthful man ... I consider myself an honourable man.”But the judge ruled his comments to Mr. Rowan went “beyond freedom of expression into hate speech.”
British police have been encouraging the public to report NCHIs, described as “any non-crime incident which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by hostility or prejudice,” on official hate crime sites.
But critics have called NCHIs an “Orwellian device” that encourages conduct that violates freedom of expression.
Mr. O’Connor will be sentenced next month.
