Jamie Michael, Ex-Royal Marine Put on Trial for Southport Video, Speaks Out After Being Found ‘Not Guilty’ in 17 Minutes

Jamie Michael, the former Royal Marine who served in Iraq and Sierra Leone, has given an interview to the Telegraph in which he says he felt betrayed by his country after he was charged over a Facebook video in which he “voiced opinions” about illegal immigration two days after Axel Rudakubana murdered three schoolgirls. Thankfully, he had the Free Speech Union in his corner. The Telegraph has more.

As a young Royal Marine, Jamie Michael served in the Iraq War and two tours as a peacekeeper in Sierra Leone.

However, after spending 20 days remanded in prison for posting a video online urging people to exercise their democratic rights over illegal immigration in the wake of the Southport murders, the father-of-two believes his country has now betrayed him.

This week, a jury took just 17 minutes to unanimously clear the Welshman of stirring up racial hatred with a Facebook monologue he recorded after the attack in July.

Mr Michael now fears freedom of speech is under threat from a “two-tier” legal system that has treated “unfairly” those who “spoke out.”

Speaking from his home in Penygraig, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, the 46 year-old massage therapist scrolls through the 12-minute clip he made on July 31st, two days after Axel Rudakubana murdered the three girls in Southport.

“I felt like crying,” he said. In the video he urged people “to get ready”, adding: “It doesn’t mean getting bats and knives and stuff … I’m talking about doing things the right way: getting in big groups, having meetings, going to the council, police, the politicians, the councillors.”

By his own admission, he expressed some views “clumsily”. In the video, he said: “We’re under attack, they’re taking over our country,” and described some illegal immigrants as “scumbags” and “psychopaths”.

He wrongly said Rudakubana, now 18, was not born in Cardiff.

“But, it was because I expressed my fear [that] the Labour Party is helping more migration that I think the video was seen as politically motivated,” he said.

An unnamed member of staff working in the office of Buffy Williams, a Labour member of the Senedd, reported the video to police.

On Aug 9th, Mr Michael was arrested and kept in police custody for three days. He then appeared before magistrates and was denied bail.

“Apparently I was likely to commit ‘further offences’ – it was suggested I even had terrorism intentions,” he said. The lowest point in prison was singing “Happy Birthday” down the phone to his daughter when she turned nine, he added.

“It was all a shock – I [had] never seen the inside of a prison,” he said. His only conviction was for a driving offence 14 years ago.

Upon his release on bail after more than two weeks in jail, he tackled head-on claims he had stirred up racial hatred, reassuring acquaintances that he was not racist.

On Feb 4th, a jury at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court was told that Mr Michael had been “unrelentingly negative” towards migrants in a clip he had distributed to stir up racial hatred.

However, his barrister, paid for by the Free Speech Union (FSU), which campaigns to protect freedom of speech, insisted it was “beyond obvious” he was not referring to all migrants, explaining how his main cut and thrust had been for more security in schools to protect children.

When the jury retired the next day to consider its verdict, Mr Michael bought a cup of tea, anticipating a long wait. The drink was still piping hot when he was summoned to hear their not guilty verdict.

“I let them know how thankful I was,” he said.

“When I voiced my opinions, the full force of the law came down upon me. Millions of other people have the same concerns about unvetted and unchecked males coming into the country after throwing away their passports.

“I think there are many people in jail today who shouldn’t be there.”

Mr Michael remains bewildered as to why the authorities who prosecuted him have yet to remove his video from Facebook. It has now had 17,000 views – 6,000 more than before his arrest.

Referring to how the Prevent counter-terrorism scheme “prematurely” closed its case on Rudakubana and failed to call him a terrorist, Mr Michael added: “Yet I talked about getting people together to talk about these dangers and they say I had terrorist intentions and was in the wrong.”

Dr Bryn Harris, the FSU’s chief legal counsel, said his organisation was “delighted” the jury saw through the “disastrously misconceived prosecution” of a “decent and honourable man who served his country with distinction, and who did no more than exercise his right to speak out on political matters that affect us all.”

He added: “The police and the Crown Prosecution Service now need to ask themselves how so much taxpayers’ money came to be spent on what seems to be a political prosecution.”

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: Watch Luke Gittos, Jamie’s solicitor, talk to Patrick Christys on GB News about why this case should never have been brought.