More from Daniel the MouseInTheCourt
DJ Sher has delivered her ruling after spending "significant amount of time" reviewing material. Application by defence for further disclosure from prosc declined.
Application "does not satisfy the disclosure test and there is no basis to order disclosure to the defence"
The crown have opened the case. We're told the charge is one count of Stalking contrary to section 2A(1) and (4) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
Mr Heath's conduct "descended into a campaign of harassment" by posting content on a website and on X/Twitter which was "abusive" and "derogatory in nature". Personal information about Stephanie Hayden was also shared about her online, the court was told
The crown say Article 10 Human Rights Act means the "freedom of the press must be protected" but as a qualified right this means journalists have a duty to behave responsibly
One such communication, said to have been posted by Heath, was "don’t you even dare mate, I’m watching you. Do you want to end up in the ICU?" which was taken as a threat of violence, the court was told
The crown say the defence is that the "posts and investigations were made by the defendant as a journalist" and that "none of the actions constitute a course of conduct"
Stephanie Hayden has entered the witness box and is now giving evidence in chief from behind a screen. She describes herself as "openly transgender" and that she has been involved in legal issues with so-called gender activists
The first communication by Heath to Hayden was on 11th Feb 2024, we're told Hayden says def "contacted me on the Sunday evening by email saying he was writing an article about me which he intended to publish and wanted to offer me, effectively, a right to reply"
The article was a "rehash of allegations" which had been posted on what was described as "an American hate website" concerning an alleged fraud from "7 or 8 years" ago. Hayden had "formed a view" this was an attempt to intimidate her ahead of a high court hearing 3-days-later
Khatib: "The article essentially portrays you as a fraudster, how do you feel about that?" "It’s a load of rubbish" says Hayden
The high court hearing on 14th Feb involved a Mr Doyle. The def, Mr Heath, was acting as Doyle's McKenzie friend in those proceedings, it's said
The publication of the information, including "spent convictions" were "designed to intimidate [and] make you feel powerless"
"If you take legal action against any of us we can dig up dirt from your past and make you feel like hell", was implied says Hayden
Hayden describes a set of "bizarre posts" by Heath, said to say the police had come round after he had breached undertaking not to disclose extracts from Hoyle litigation.
Hayden says no breach did occur and was actually Heath "soliciting online attention and symphothy"
The second article, labelled as "part 3", was a "very very detailed article" which would have require Heath "to have literally spent weeks going back on my twitter or other social media ... collating all that together to present my travel pattens over a 10 year period"
Hayden has been shown a screenshot of a website called KiwiFarms, said to show a forum thread of 300 or so pages about her.
Posts on the forum were said to have been made by Heath
Hayden says this was "part of his modus operandi to solicit support for himself and abuse of me"
Hayden is explaining the circumstances whereby her credit report, or extracts of, had been posted online.
She says Experian told her a subscription has been activated by third party, but closed a few days later by their fraud team.
"I was bloody furious" says Hayden