UK: COVID Critic Receives 5 Year Sentence

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Facts

  • COVID critic Patrick Ruane was on Monday sentenced to five years in prison for terrorism offenses, after using social media to encourage violence against England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, among others, during the COVID pandemic.[1]
  • Referring to Whitty, Ruane had said that "whacking" the back of his skull "would turn said target into a vegetable for the rest of its life." About former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he stated that there was an Irish Republican Army "play book" that "nearly took out Thatcher."[2][3]
  • Ruane was first arrested in November 2021 and later released on bail, but was then charged in August 2023. The UK's Metropolitan Police stated that "large numbers" of his Telegram posts encouraged violence "all because he didn't like the government's response to the pandemic."[4]
  • Prosecutors had alleged that Ruane was "all for" hunting down and executing those who were part of a pandemic "hidden agenda." He backed the burning of the offices and plants of pharmaceutical firms, alleging their conspiracy was "not going to stop until we start killing them back."[5]
  • Ruane, an audio producer, had a total reach of 26K individuals through two Telegram channels named "The Resistance UK" and "The Great Reopening." It was noted that, during the pandemic, Ruane had struggled with alcohol abuse.[6][7]

Sources: [1]BBC News, [2]Daily Mail, [3]The Guardian, [4]My News Desk[5] Sky News, [6]The Telegraph and [7]Independent.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by National Centre for Social Research. Since the COVID pandemic, the UK has seen an alarming rise in harmful conspiracy theories, including those that encouraged the horrific violence in Southport over the summer. To mitigate this dangerous trend, the UK government must better regulate social media, raise public awareness through education, and provide greater support for marginalized individuals vulnerable to this type of content.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by The Light and UK Column. While the establishment is quick to silence anyone who questions the official line concerning COVID, a host of legitimate questions about its origins and purpose, and the potential relationship between the vaccines and excess mortality rates, remain. A large segment of the public continues to blindly follow the government narrative, much to the disadvantage of the pursuit of answers.