{"id":281586,"date":"2025-04-14T11:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T11:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/stop-brexit-man-steve-bray-cleared-over-noisy-protest\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T11:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T11:52:10","slug":"stop-brexit-man-steve-bray-cleared-over-noisy-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/stop-brexit-man-steve-bray-cleared-over-noisy-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Stop Brexit man’ Steve Bray cleared over noisy protest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Joshua Nevett<\/span><\/p>\n

Political reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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An anti-Brexit activist has been cleared of breaching a police ban after playing music on loudspeakers at a protest outside Parliament in London.<\/p>\n

Steve Bray, 56, faced trial over the incident on Parliament Square, which took place before then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was questioned by MPs in the House of Commons on 20 March last year.<\/p>\n

Bray, known as “Stop Brexit man”, denied the charge and had previously told the court playing music was part of his “fundamental right to protest”.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Bray was found not guilty of failing to follow a police order, in a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Handing down his judgement, Deputy District Judge Anthony Woodcock said of Bray: “He admitted that he is ‘anti-Tory’, which is his words.<\/p>\n

“He believes his is an important message to disseminate. He needs the volume that he uses the get the message across from Parliament Street to the Palace of Westminster.”<\/p>\n

The defendant, from Port Talbot, south Wales, looked up to the public gallery and was given a thumbs up by one of his supporters following the verdict.<\/p>\n

Bray is known for playing loud music at protests in Westminster, including D:Ream’s Things Can Only Get Better at the gates of Downing Street when Sunak announced the general election in the pouring rain last May.<\/p>\n

Police approached Bray at about 11:20 on 20 March last year, minutes before Sunak arrived ahead of Prime Minister’s Questions.<\/p>\n

Bray had been playing edits of the Muppets and Darth Vader themes on his speakers.<\/p>\n

The songs were used “as the prime minister came in, which is what we always did for Rishi – apparently he’s a Star Wars fan”, the activist told the court.<\/p>\n

Officers handed him a map and a notice that warned him he was prohibited from playing the speakers in the controlled area under a by-law, the court heard.<\/p>\n

The court heard the music resumed intermittently and shortly after 12:33, officers seized the speakers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bray had been accused of failing without reasonable excuse to comply with a direction given under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 “re prohibited activities in Parliament Square”.<\/p>\n

His trial previously heard Bray had told police their map, illustrating where he could not use the speakers, was incorrect.<\/p>\n

Body-worn footage featured Bray, wearing a yellow and blue top hat, repeatedly telling police “you’ve got the wrong map”.<\/p>\n

He said it was outdated and officers would learn that by asking someone higher up in the chain of command.<\/p>\n

When told he was not allowed to play the music there, Bray stuck his fingers in his ears and said: “No it’s not, it’s not, not here – it’s not wrong here”, the court heard.<\/p>\n

“I know what I can’t do”, he said, suggesting officers stick it “where the sun don’t shine” before lighting a cigarette and looking away.<\/p>\n

Several witnesses described to the court the negative impact of Bray’s music, heard as high as the sixth floor in nearby buildings.<\/p>\n

After hearing this, Bray apologised at an earlier court hearing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joshua Nevett Political reporter PA Media An anti-Brexit activist has been cleared of breaching a police ban after playing music on loudspeakers at a protest outside Parliament in London. Steve Bray, 56, faced trial over the incident on Parliament Square, which took place before then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was questioned by MPs in the House […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[218170,10896,16448,108,2736,9724,8346,759],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281588,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281586\/revisions\/281588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}