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Gina Miller racist threats: police arrest second man Gina Miller racist threats: police arrest second man
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A second man has been arrested in relation to alleged threats against the Brexit court campaigner Gina Miller. A second man has been arrested in relation to alleged threats against Brexit court campaigner Gina Miller.
Officers from the Metropolitan police’s Operation Falcon arrested the 50-year-old man at an address in Knightsbridge, central London, on Wednesday on suspicion of racially aggravated malicious communications. Officers from the Metropolitan police’s Operation Falcon arrested the 50-year-old at an address in Knightsbridge, central London, on Wednesday morning on suspicion of racially aggravated malicious communications.
Miller, 51, has complained of receiving racist messages after her decision to lead the legal challenge, which resulted on Tuesday in a supreme court defeat for the government over article 50, the formal notification of intention to withdraw from the EU. Miller, 51, has complained of receiving a series of racist messages following her decision to spearhead the legal challenge that resulted on Tuesday in a historic supreme court defeat for the government over Brexit.
Police said the arrest followed a complaint made on 6 November by a 51-year-old woman relating to online threats, as well as to a second unrelated comment believed to have been made by the same suspect in August 2016. Eight people have already been issued with “cease and desist” notices by police which, according to the Met “advise recipients that continuing with their current actions or behaviour could result in police action”.
The arrested man is in custody at a central London police station. The police said that among those who received the notices were a 38-year-old man from Fife, a 51-year-old man from Inverness-shire, a 57-year-old man from London, and a 54-year-old man from Hemel Hempstead who received the notices in December.
As part of the same investigation, officers have issued eight “cease and desist” notices to individuals in various parts of the UK, warning that police could take action against them unless they stop their behaviour. On 4 January, a 30-year-old man from Manchester was also served with a notice.
The new arrest followed the detention of a 55-year-old man in Swindon, Wiltshire, in December, also on suspicion of racially aggravated malicious communications directed at the businesswoman. In December, a 55-year-old man was arrested in Swindon on suspicion of sending racially aggravated malicious communications. He was released on bail and the Crown Prosecution Service decided to take no further action.
Speaking after her legal victory on Tuesday, Miller said she and her legal team had faced “extraordinary and unprecedented criticism” in what had been a challenging period for them. “The police have been fantastic,” Miller said. “What is amazing is that these people imagine that they can’t be tracked down and when they are they are so shocked and it stops.”
Miller became the face of the first successful legal battle against Brexit, but said in a radio interview that it had resulted in her becoming “apparently the most hated woman in Britain”. In an interview with the Guardian, Miller said she did not take the threats personally and that the abuse she had endured following the case was “worth it”. However, the abuse has forced her to hire personal bodyguards when appearing at public events. She has also stopped going into her office and using public transport.
She successfully challenged Theresa May’s plan to use prerogative powers to trigger withdrawal negotiations under article 50 of the EU treaties. Following her historic supreme court victory on Tuesday, she said she hoped people in positions of power would do more to speak out against those that break the boundaries of common decency.
As a result of her victory, May must now obtain the approval of both Houses of Parliament before beginning the two-year process of pulling the UK out of the EU. “I’ve been told that ‘as a coloured woman’, I’m not even human, I’m a primate and only a piece of meat and I should be hunted down and killed,” she said in an interview with the Guardian.
She also hoped her experience would help other women realise how the police can help hunt down internet trolls.
She believes the issue is not the internet or the masks of fictional names and images that people hide behind; it is more fundamental than that and goes to the heart of what values society wants to live by.
“The idea that this abuse is the work of keyboard warriors is just not the case,” said Miller. “These people take the time to make posters with vile images, put them in envelopes and post them. They go to the trouble of finding my email address or office number. This is really premeditated stuff.
“It’s the message, it is the content that is what is important here. It’s that these messages can be allowed, it doesn’t matter whether it’s an email or a letter or an attack in a public place, it’s still abuse.”