A MAN has been charged with sending racially aggravated messages directed at Brexit court campaigner Gina Miller.
Rhodri Colwyn Philipps, 50, from Knightsbridge, was yesterday charged with sending malicious communications with racially aggravated factors, the Metropolitan Police said.
Ms Miller, 51, complained of receiving a series of racist messages following her decision to spearhead the legal challenge, which resulted in an historic Supreme Court defeat for the Government over Brexit in January.
READ MORE: Each peer costs the taxpayer £83,000 per year
The Guyana-born mother-of-three became the face of the first successful legal battle against Brexit, but said in a radio interview that it had resulted in her becoming “apparently the most hated woman in Britain”.
Philipps was arrested by officers from the Met’s Operation Falcon on January 25 after a complaint was received concerning alleged threats made online against a 51-year-old woman.
Rhodri Philipps is also known as the 4th Viscount St Davids and holds the titles Lord Strange of Knockin, Lord Hungerford, and Lord de Moleyns.
He has been bailed to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on April 4.
Ms Miller, a partner in an investment management firm, was the lead claimant in the legal fight to get Parliament to vote on whether the UK could start the process of leaving the EU.
READ MORE: Each peer costs the taxpayer £83,000 per year
By a majority of eight to three, the Supreme Court ruled that Prime Minister Theresa May could not trigger Article 50 without an Act of Parliament authorising her to do so.
In an interview last month Ms Miller said the threats she had been receiving were not just from “keyboard warriors” on social media, but people “who have taken the time to address an envelope, put a first class stamp on, walk down the street, put it in a postbox.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article