Hampshire singer Joe Ward of The Jays cleared of breaching coronavirus lockdown in Bournemouth

The 30-year-old, who’s a part of the band The Jays, was on the march along with his pal Michael James John Stride, 41, once they had been each accused of committing an offence, arrested and brought into custody by police.  

On the time the nation was in lockdown and gatherings of greater than two folks in public had been banned.

However now almost two years after being arrested he has been cleared by a decide.

Talking after the case, Ward stated: “This makes me really feel nice with a not responsible verdict.

“All through the pandemic, this was a really cut up subject by society. 

“I attempt to not push my views onto folks, but it surely felt like, whether or not I stated that is my opinion, you’re pressured to take a facet on this subject.

“Individuals had been always saying to me ‘you are fallacious, belief the science, belief the media, belief the Authorities’, so standing on the opposite facet after being informed, ‘no, these laws do not rise up in a court docket of legislation’ makes me really feel justified being on the market and protesting and letting folks know it is OK, it feels nice.”  

Stride, of Rodwell Avenue, Weymouth, and Ward, of Anderson Shut, Whiteley, each denied collaborating in a gathering of greater than two folks in a public out of doors place in Exeter Crescent, Bournemouth.

They entered the pleas in September final yr and went on trial unrepresented at Poole Magistrates’ Courtroom on Monday. They had been each discovered not responsible by deputy district decide Jodie Mittell.

The decide ordered that each defendants’ prices had been to be paid from central funds.

Mr Ward stated: “We had been arrested underneath regulation 9 and 10 of the Coronavirus Act. 10 is organisation of a protest and 9 is participation of a protest.  

“We had been arrested in Bournemouth the place the protest march was. We had been going across the city centre, the place I used to be arrested with Michael Stride.   

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“Now we have had six totally different hearings as a result of the legal guidelines had been always altering at the moment.

“(At court docket I) argued that I used to be focused by the police for the reason is that they thought I used to be an organiser.  

“They did not arrest anyone through the protest. That they had waited 45 minutes till after the protest to trace me and the opposite man who they thought was the organiser to arrest us.”

He added: “What’s distinctive about this case is we are the first folks to get off of those laws utterly self-represented.”