Miranda in court

[EweSurname]

I didn't realise Miranda Yardley was in court today over alleged transphobic harrasment.

Debbie Hayton
‏ @DebbieHayton
At Basildon Magistrates Court where Miranda Yardley is on trial for transphobic Harassment. The prosecution applied for reporting restrictions to prevent the complainant Helen Islan from being named. The judge has not granted them. So Helen Islan can be named.

Sending Miranda good luck vibes.

I imagine Islan was in a horrible emotional turmoil, having to choose between failing to give evidence and seeing the case fall, or having to give evidence in the public eye - like most accusers - and deal with the fallout from that. I'm not surprised she cried. But I have to admit, it seems to be a situation she brought about herself, so I don't have any sympathy for her.

Cannot imagine having this ridiculous charge hanging over your head for 10 months would be the most pleasant of experiences. 2 hours being cross-examined is a walk in the park, especially in such a court case.

My sympathy for Helen Islan is precisely zero.

Helen brought this vexatious complaint about, and Helen is absolutely vile to anyone on twitter who even vaguely disagrees with her, and has consistently attacked Mumsnet. I can't go back and check, because her account is locked, but I'm fairly sure she was involved in going after Mumsnet's advertisers.

"Since the judge threw it out and she was accused of blackmailing the court it would appear that her case may be viewed as vexatious?"

She didn't bring the case though. The CPS did. HI only made the initial report (however foolhardy that was).

The police are the ones who investigated it and passed it to the CPS.

The CPS authorised the prosecution.

The police and CPS are the ones that should be in the dock, let's not lose sight of that.

She was crying because she thought she could be anonymous and avoid the bad press, but then she wasn't.
It was probably an "oh shit" moment.

AFAIK "vexatious litigation" has a very precise legal meaning and involves repeated targeting of the same individual - it's not a one-off stupid case.

Adults tend to cry (like this) when they are frustrated because they don’t get their own way.

It’s a kind of unresolved childhood thing of never learning that the world doesn’t revolve around you and that you aren’t always right. Most kids realise this in primary school. It’s self centred behaviour.

Here's the world's smallest violin playing for Helen Islan...

What she did to Miranda was cruel and spiteful. Sometimes, just very occasionally, you reap what you sow. I very much hope Islan takes this opportunity to reflect on whether pursuing malicious prosecutions of people you disagree with is the best way to promote your cause. Unfortunately, I don't think she has much capacity for self-examination.

She didn't bring the case though. The CPS did.

Ah... ok. The CPS need to be asked some hard questions then. There’s a thread on here where a woman has been brutally assaulted and they aren’t pushing the case forward but this goes through? It’s not giving me much faith in the justice system tbh. Although today’s judge seems to be on the side of sanity and reality at least

That makes sense fermats. :) (shows you how little knowledge I have of the law!)

The CPS didn't just do it independently though - Helen made the complaint. Although I agree the CPS is culpable here too - the case should clearly have never been brought.

I hope Miranda can take advice about wrongful or malicious prosecution.

I'm not a lawyer either, Bowl so I may be talking out of my arse! Just seem to remember it coming up in discussion before. (Probably in connection with the litigious lawyer...)

Wasn't it Mermaids, [for whom Islan worked in a marketing capacity] who "trained" the various Yorkshire police services and the CPS? Maybe this is a clue as to why this case proceeded to court?

Nope. No sympathy here either. In fact I hope the tears run all weekend.

Look if you live by the sword you can’t expect the world to play along and go easy on you when you discover that you aren’t on the winning side.

I found this out when I was a very small kid and tryied to wrestle my older siblings - it would never work out well for me as I was tiny but there was no point bleating ‘no fair’ when I was pinned down with a much larger child sitting on me.

The ideologues are a bit silent at the moment aren't they? I wonder how they're going to spin this into an outrageous miscarriage of justice or a marvellous victory for the ideology?

Sounds like Islan was as surprised as anyone that it got this far if she wasn't steeled to give evidence.

I think she was suppose that she wasn’t carried into court shoulder high, given a throne to sit on and praised for being so wonderful.

@FermatsTheorem is it not mostly about repetitive action rather than actions specifically targeted at the one person? It could also be subject related I.e repeatedly bringing the same type of silly challenge rather than just bringing numerous cases against the same person?

I am very, very much looking forward to the press reports on this. I expect James K, Janice T, Andrew G et al are sharpening their pencils at this very moment.

Excellent.

What are you talking about, it was her case

Yes I know but she's been told she is in the right and has believed it. I would imagine that belief has been shaken today

Well I believe that my religious beliefs are correct, they are shared by lots of my friends. But I don’t get the police to charge people who disagree with me. Because I believe in freedom of speech and belief.

I don’t feel remotely sorry for Helen , she brought this on herself by her bigotry and desire for revenge . She has put Miranda through months of stress and to some considerable expense, no doubt.

I'll be buying all the papers tomorrow with the hope and expectation it is covered in depth. If it isn't I'm going to get my tin foil hat on that something [conspiracy theory eyes] is skewing the media reporting (or lack of) of this.
I know the Sunday times, telegraph and especially the spectator cover this but for a case like this, in terms of the extent to which it is genuinely in the public interest, I want to see it splashed all over the place.

They are my demands. Sits down

something [conspiracy theory eyes] is skewing the media reporting (or lack of) of this.

I'm suprised you haven't come to this conclusion already.

God, poor Miranda. How horrible to be put through this. Awful. Very glad about the positive outcome but he should never have been subjected to those stressful ten months.