Businessman launches a landmark High Court battle to overhaul official rules on hate crimes

A businessman investigated by police over a poem about transgenderism is launching a landmark High Court case to overhaul the official rules on hate crimes.

Harry Miller is to seek a ‘judicial review’ of the hate crime guidelines followed by police forces across Britain, claiming they are ‘unlawful’ because they ‘inhibit freedom of expression’.

The 54-year-old company boss, who is a former policeman, argues that the current guidance, published by the College of Policing in 2014, the body responsible for training officers, ‘promotes the recording of hate incidents’.

Harry Miller is to seek a judicial review of guidelines followed by police forces across Britain, claiming that they unlawfully inhibit freedom of expression (stock photo of trainee officers)

His legal team have highlighted a clause in the rules that state such incidents must be recorded by officers ‘irrespective of any evidence to identify the hate element’.

Mr Miller, chairman of a machinery company at Immingham Port, is also challenging a decision by Humberside Police to record his re-tweeting of the poem as a hate incident – despite officers concluding that no crime had been committed.

The businessman was quizzed by Humberside Police in January after posting the verse about men who transition to be women, which included the lines: ‘You’re a man … And we can tell the difference … Your hormones are synthetic’.

He claims he received a call from an officer telling him that someone ‘down south’ had sent the force 30 of Mr Miller’s tweets, which they alleged to be transphobic, and informing him ‘we need to check your thinking’ – a comment police later denied making .

The father-of-three said he was ‘dumbfounded’ by the exchange and ‘furious’ when he found out that his sharing of the verse had been recorded as a ‘hate incident’. 

And, despite his repeated requests, he claims police refused to disclose to him what the 30 ‘transphobic’ tweets actually said.

Last night Mr Miller defended his tweets, saying he had wanted to highlight the dangers posed to women by Government proposals allowing males who have not undergone any medical treatment to ‘self-identify’ as female.

Explaining his reasons for launching legal action, the businessman told the Mail on Sunday: ‘This case is not about being allowed to say anything I want, to anyone without consequence.

‘It is about the ability to have freedom of speech within the law and being allowed to have a debate without one group being able to call on the police to shut another group down.

‘Free speech is being closed down by a climate of fear and secrecy and the police are contributing to this Orwellian culture.’

A businessman who was investigated by police over a poem about transgender people is launching a landmark High Court case to overhaul the official rules on hate crimes (stock photo)

A businessman who was investigated by police over a poem about transgender people is launching a landmark High Court case to overhaul the official rules on hate crimes (stock photo)

Mr Miller, who lives in Nettleton, Lincolnshire, is one of growing number of individuals who have been investigated by the police for debating transgender issues on social media.

Mother-of-four Kelly Jay Keen-Minshull was questioned by West Yorkshire and Wiltshire Police after she was reported by chief executive of controversial transgender youth charity Mermaids, Susie Green.

The complaints centred on comments Ms Keen-Minshull had made online about Ms Green allowing her daughter Jackie to transition from male to female at a young age.

And Catholic journalist Caroline Farrow was questioned by officers when she made similar comments suggesting Ms Green had allowed her child to be ‘castrated’ by permitting her to have sex change surgery at 16.

TV comedy writer Graham Linehan was given a verbal harassment warning by West Yorkshire Police after he referred to trans activist Stephanie Hayden as ‘he’ during a Twitter spat.

Mother-of-two Kate Scottow was arrested by Hertfordshire Police and held for seven hours in a cell for referring to Ms Hayden as a man on Twitter. She was released from custody but remains under investigation.

In response to the rising number of police inquiries against people who have criticised transgender activists, Mr Miller has set up a campaign group called ‘Fair Cop’.

Mr Linehan, Ms Keen-Minshull, Mrs Farrow and Ms Scottow have all signed up as members of the newly formed organisation.

‘Our aim is to remind the police that under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights the public have the right to have debates and hold opinions without interference from the authorities,’ Mr Miller said.

‘Hurting people’s feelings is not a reason for a police investigation.’

The College of Policing and Humberside Police both confirmed they received notice of the planned legal action.

A spokesman for the College of Policing said he was ‘aware of a potential legal challenge regarding its Hate Crime Operational Guidance and will be responding accordingly as part of the process.’

Fair Cop can be found here.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk