1 min read
The Crown Prosecution Service has agreed to review its decision not to prosecute a far-right activist for allegedly making an antisemitic speech at a rally in 2015.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism had been set to challenge the CPS decision not to charge Jeremy Bedford-Turner at a judicial review at the High Court on Wednesday.
But the CPS said it had now “agreed that the prosecutor’s original decision not to charge should be reviewed by a more senior lawyer” within the organisation.
Mr Bedford-Turner’s speech at a rally in Westminster in July 2015 had been reported to the CPS by the Community Security Trust, which described it as “a compendium of just about every possible antisemitic accusation".
But the CPS decided at the end of 2015 that there would be no prospect of a jury finding his words amounted to racial or religious incitement.
A CPS spokesman said its reconsideration of the case “follows the receipt of new advice from counsel concerning the way in which ECHR [Equality and Human Rights Commission] issues were considered as part of the decision-making in December 2015.”
The spokesman added it would be “inappropriate to comment further” at this time.
It said that tackling hate crime was a “prioritiy” for the organisation which worked “closely with leading organisations from the Jewish community”.
Gideon Falter of the CAA said “we are delighted by this result” but it had been “absurd” that the CAA had to make a legal challenge for the CPS to act.
