A judge has sent a Covid ‘sceptic’ to prison in the second pandemic ‘encouragement of terrorism’ case heard at the Old Bailey in just over a year.

Each man called for violence – potentially involving explosions – multiple times on Instagram channels followed by thousands of conspiracy theorists, many of whom believed that Covid 19 was a hoax perpetrated by the authorities as a cover for injecting the public with chemicals that were not vaccines at all.

In the latest case, 60-year-old Paul Martin was sentenced on 18 December to three years and three months in prison for posting a frenzied barrage of 16,000 often violent messages on the social media app, some calling for the use of petrol bombs in an uprising against the state.

Population cull

At the Old Bailey, Judge Richard Marks observed that Martin had denied that there was a Covid pandemic and claimed that the vaccines were actually poisons “designed to kill.” Martin accused the Government of deliberately using them to cull the population.

The expression of such beliefs, regardless of whether they might be considered wild and irrational, is not in itself a crime. However, the judge pointed out that Martin used such claims to justify extreme violence including widespread destruction and killings. He therefore crossed the threshold into criminal behaviour.

Judge Marks added that Martin encouraged the use of crossbows and petrol bombs to resist the authorities. He called on his Telegram audience to be “ready to smash skulls.” He wanted to turn London into “another 1666” (the year of the Great Fire of London). He exhorted people on the group to burn down Parliament and banks and destroy CCTV cameras. He advocated the recruitment of 60 men to carry out such acts of violence.

Inspire violence

These messages were posted on the Resistance UK channel of Telegram, which had 8,000 members, so his audience was – though fanatical – not a tiny clique. The judge suggested, therefore, that there was a real risk that Martin’s relentless outbursts might inspire actual violent acts. Martin had joined this channel in December 2020 and his messages were posted from then until September 2021.

In one outburst Martin exclaimed “fuck the police they can die as well.” Unsurprisingly the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command were investigating his mass of violent messages and saw this one among many others and he was arrested on 28 September 2021.

The judge suggested that there was a real risk that Martin’s relentless outbursts might inspire actual violent acts

Police discovered in his home two crossbows with bolts, a large knife, air guns, drones and a stun gun disguised as a torch. However, he was not finally prosecuted by the CPS until three years later. It has been suggested that the sheer volume of material discovered may have contributed to the delay.

Martin was convicted on 23 October of this year of encouragement of terrorism contrary to section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006, with recklessness as to the effect. He was, however, acquitted of doing so ‘with intent’ and of the charge of collecting weapons for the purpose of terrorism.

Recklessness

At the sentencing hearing, Judge Marks said he felt the jury had been generous to Martin in their verdict on the absence of intent, and felt that Martin had shown a “high degree of recklessness” in his messages.

Martin lived alone in Croydon. He was described in the court by both Judge Marks and his barrister, Dominic Thomas, as an “eccentric.” However, there was no suggestion he had any kind of mental illness or impairment that would render him not responsible for his actions.

Martin’s barrister made a prolonged plea for his client’s sentence to be suspended, which would mean he would not go to jail unless he reoffends. The judge declined this plea, stating that it would be much too lenient. The offence was deemed to be of medium seriousness on the sentencing guidelines scale.

Sentence reduced

However, the judge did reduce the sentence from four-and-a-half years to three years and three months given the mitigations. Martin had not reoffended after his arrest in 2021 and had shown clear signs of rehabilitation.

His age at 60 was also taken into account. He was also given a token one-day sentence for the possession of a stun gun, a charge to which he had pleaded guilty.

This hearing comes just weeks after a similar case involving Patrick Ruane, who was sentenced on 8 November 2024 to five years imprisonment. He too was tried by Judge Marks. This sentence was also for the encouragement of terrorism, and it too was related to the Covid denialist cause.

Among complaints laid against Ruane was that he advocated subjecting the government’s chief medical advisor, Chris Whitty, to a violent attack calculated to “turn [him] into a vegetable for the rest of his life”.

Criminal material

Once again, the Ruane case involved the Resistance UK group on Telegram plus another larger (18,000-user) group named The Great Reopening.

The owner of Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France in August 2024 for allegedly failing to cooperate with the authorities on criminal material that is said to appear in abundance with minimal restrictions on his messaging platform. Durov’s case continues.

Many far-right pundits and social media moguls argue that laws used in the UK in such cases as Martin’s and Ruane’s are an attack on freedom of expression. However, even in the United States, where free speech is all but fetishised, “fighting words” and “true threats” are not protected under the US Constitution or laws.