Essex Police cleared in Allison Pearson social media case

A police force “acted reasonably” during a hate crime investigation into a social media post by the Daily Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson, a report states.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) looked into Essex Police’s actions after Pearson claimed she felt “bullied and threatened” when officers visited the columnist’s home on Remembrance Sunday in November 2024.

The force has previously defended its since-dropped investigation over an allegation that a social media post, about the Hamas-Israel conflict, incited racial hatred.

Responding on X, Ms Pearson accused Essex Police of “marking their own homework in my case which was widely viewed as utterly outrageous”.

In his findings, Mark Hobrough, the NPCC’s hate crime lead and chief constable of Gwent, said footage from a body-worn camera showed the investigating officer’s approach to Pearson was “polite and carried out in an exemplary manner”.

The original investigation was sparked by a complaint by a member of the public that a social media post in the early weeks of the Middle East conflict contained critical remarks about the police.

“The posted image was likely to mislead the reader into thinking this was from a pro-Palestine rally, whether intended to do so, or unintentionally so,” the report said.

The report redacts details of the now-deleted post, from 16 November 2023, which the BBC has seen.

It shows an image of two police officers standing next to two men holding what appears to be a flag of the Pakistani political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Pearson’s post tags the Metropolitan Police alongside the words “how dare they?”.

It added: “Invited to pose for a photo with lovely peaceful British Friends of Israel on Saturday police refused. Look at this lot smiling with the Jew haters.”

X added a notice to the post stating that the image was taken in Manchester, not London, and that it was “not related to Palestine”.

The report, which redacts Pearson’s name, stated an officer went to her home and on his recording of the discussion “clearly states he is there to try to arrange a voluntary attendance interview, to assist the investigation into a complaint of inciting racial hatred”.

Pearson “began to challenge the officer’s actions”, the report adds.

“She implied that a complaint would be made to the Chief Constable by the Telegraph newspaper.”

The timing of the visit, early on a Sunday morning, could be judged inconsiderate, but the officer had already made a previous, unanswered visit and was “diligently trying to conduct his workload”, the report added.

“Our view is that the officer’s behaviour during this interaction was exemplary,” the report adds.

“He did not become defensive or challenging and remained calm and polite throughout the interaction.”

The home visit was reported in the media, the report adds, with much of the reporting referring to as a “non-crime hate incident”, “despite a clear explanation [from the officer] that he was investigating an incident or offence of potentially inciting racial hatred online.”

The report praised Essex Police for the way it supported officers and its “valiant attempt to maintain public confidence” with its own media releases.

Pearson did not attend the voluntary police interview and the case was closed when the CPS concluded there was not a realistic prospect of conviction for the offence of stirring up racial hatred under the Public Order Act or the Communications Act.

The report noted that the force, on reviewing the CPS decision, concluded that no crime had been committed.

“We do not take the view that a crime did not take place,” the report states, “rather that there was no realistic prospect of conviction based on the evidence available.”

The NPCC found Essex Police “acted reasonably” in its handling of the complaint but the force should have had a “more active approach” in categorising the crime, to avoid ambiguity.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s PM programme soon after the case was discontinued, Pearson said she did not think her tweet was wrong, and added: “I won’t censor myself but I will be more watchful in the future.”

The police visit to her home was not “standard practice” and was “absolutely unacceptable”, she claimed.

She added: “Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader and many other people in the law, in politics, in normal walks of life, have said that is totally outrageous.”

Posting the BBC’s story on X on Thursday, she said: “Here are the police marking their own homework in my case which was widely viewed as utterly outrageous.

“And was rejected instantly by the CPS.

“A clear breach of my right to freedom of expression.”

Responding to the report, an Essex Police spokesman said: “In November last year we launched an investigation into an alleged offence of inciting racial hatred relating to a social media post.

“We acted appropriately and proportionately and investigated the matter which resulted in us taking no further action.

“We ‘re sometimes faced with allegations of crime where people have strong opposing views and that is why it is essential for us to remain impartial.”

It said the review had been shared “with all interested parties” and had been scrutinised by the Office of the Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner.

In an NPCC statement on Thursday, Mr Hobrough added: “There is a high bar for prosecuting communication offences, which is substantially different than the grounds for recording and investigating an allegation.

“There are strongly held and competing views on hate speech and the criminal justice response to it. This matter demonstrates the complexity within the legal framework around hate crime and communication offences.”