'Investigator' faces jail sentence for targeting McGill's bus tycoons

The 59-year-old has been subject of an interdict to stop further publication of the claims and made a pledge that he would not mention the businessmen again.

But he has now accepted that he made further publications and Lord Braid at the Court of Session has told him that he now faces a potential jail sentence for contempt of court.

Hendry, who calls himself a "citizen journalist" on his social media accounts, has previously been found to have used his platforms to falsely name and shame.

The development has come in the wake of action taken by Sandy Easdale, 55, and brother James, 52, who own Greenock-based McGill’s Buses, said to be Scotland's largest independent bus companies.

The pair moved up the 2023 UK Rich List with their fortune now put at £1.425bn The  Sunday Times list which revealed the 345 richest people in the UK are placed at 126.

The McGill's Buses tycoons also own Blairs Windows, ARC Fleet Services, Clyde Metals and Inverclyde Taxis.

In May each were each awarded £200,000 against Hendry who had been ordered to take down videos and posts which included disparaging allegations and warned not to repeat them.

But the blogger, who used the pseudonym Art Hostage has appeared before the Court of Session after false claims were repeated at the end of last year.

According to court documents, the Easdales have reported the matters to Police Scotland and Sussex Police.

They have told the court that Police Scotland will complete a 'police transfer' to Sussex Police which would allow them to investigate and take any action considered appropriate. The court has heard that the Hendry, who also published a blog relating to felt that he did not believe he had broken the Scottish court order because he was publishing in England and not Scotland.

Hendry, continues to post under the pseudonym on social media, said he hoped that he would get credit and a third reduction on any sentence for taking down posts and "never speak about them again" and had stuck to that "rigidly".

"I don't want to cause any more trouble to the court," said Hendry, whose blog describes him as a former trafficker of stolen art who "assists in the recovery of art and artefacts stolen by others". "All I can do is to concede there was a breach of the interdict. All I can do is bring this to speedy conclusion without using any more of the court's valuable time.

"I don't want to cause any more trouble. I genuinely didn't believe I was breaching the interdict.

"I will never mention the Easdales again."

Lord Braid said that having conceded he made the posts he would have to consider whether that amounts to a punishment of a custodial sentence.

Art Hostage videos involving the Easdales have been placed in 'private' mode.

It is not the first time that the Hendry received defamation complaints.

In a broadcast after receiving separate defamation complaints in November, 2022, he said that the "nature of what I talk about I could get two or three of these week". He said in a video to his subscribers: "People that don't like me can make scurrilous complaints. And obviously people when I expose them, they don't like it."

The Easdales' concerns came in March, last year, when they were concerned that "defamatory" material relating to them was first published on YouTube and X (formerly Twitter).

After winning a £400,000 claim an interdict was served on Hendry forbidding him from defaming the Easdales by "making, publishing or otherwise disseminating within Scotland, statements, whether orally or in writing".

But they say that since November 24, Hendry had been broadcasting a series of live stream videos on YouTube targeting them.

The Easdale's lawyers said during the videos Hendry "repeatedly and wilfully breaches" the court order.

In their petition, the Easdale's lawyers said that Hendry "makes clear that it is his intention to hound the petitioners and to continue to broadcast in similar terms on a regular basis".

They said that Hendry broadcast at least one video each day between November 24 to December 8. They were described as "lengthy and repetitive, sometimes running for more than two hours".

The court has been told that in one video Hendry stated: "But as I said to you before, and will continue to say, as long as I can't go to jail for it, I do not care. I do not care. And I will continue to expose the Easdales... day after day, after day, after day. I'm coming back on her later on tonight. I'll probably do it through YouTube... You can't put me in jail for it, so I don't care."

The petition states that in another video on November 24 he remained unrepentant, saying: "So yes, issue another lawsuit if you want. Issue another lawsuit if you want. Issue ten. I don't care.. this is going to be a new daily Greenock, daily Easdale..."

The Easdale's legal representatives have said that Hendry is "repeatedly and wilfully breaching the interdict. He has expressed a clear intention to continue doing."

They have told the court that Police Scotland will complete a 'police transfer' to Sussex Police which would allow them to investigate and take any action considered appropriate. The offending videos broadcast about the Easdales have since been set to 'private' and tweets have been removed.

According to court documents seen by the Herald, the Easdales had been aware of media reports in August, 2023, that Hendry had been guilty of harassment after making untrue claims that individuals were involved in criminality. He was fined £250 and ordered to pay costs of £660.

The court heard he had at the time been tweeting multiple times a day from the account about various gang-based crime and alleged organised crime members.

Hendry's Art Hostage accounts came to the attention of police in September 2022 when he shifted his focus to the Merseyside area.

He began releasing numerous videos and posts openly discussing a series of recent murders. He passed on the names of people he believed to be involved, apparent motives and alleged facts.

He was issued with a cease and desist order by Merseyside Police concerning his social media posts about the killing of Olivia Pratt-Korbel.

But the 59-year-old was later found to have shared social media posts which police feared would prejudice the trial of Thomas Cashman over the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel.

And in August last year, Hendry of Pevensey Bay near the seaside resort of Eastbourne, was found guilty of harassment in the case.

The court was told he wrongly named innocent people as being linked to other murder cases, leading to a man being assaulted.

Among Hendry's victims was a 40-year-old man who Hendry claimed was a “drug and gun lord”. However, these claims were untrue.

Hendry claimed the man was supplying guns and drugs, was involved in human trafficking and was linked to a criminal cartel. He also implicated the man in shootings on Merseyside by alleging he supplied firearms. The claims led the victim to fear for the safety of himself and his family and affected his employment.

His claims were "nothing but fiction", prosecutors said.

He commented on criminal cases to 11,000 followers on Twitter and on YouTube, where he had more than 7,200 subscribers.

Merseyside Police issued a "cease and desist order" over his posts about the killing of nine-year-old Olivia, who was shot by Cashman after he chased a fellow drug dealer into her home in August, 2022.

Senior crown prosecutor, Thomas Hanlon, said Hendry claimed "to be a form of crime journalist".

"But his social media posts were nothing but fiction claiming to be fact and caused real problems for those involved."

He said Hendry "creates this content to raise the profile of his social media and YouTube channels, feeding his ego, reckless as to the collateral damage his content causes and without conducting due diligence on the information received".

Lord Braid is due to make a decision on what further action to take next week.