Expert legal advice supports law graduate in crowdfunded private prosecution of Dominic Cummings
Mahsa Taliefar: there is a case against Dominic Cummings and she needs your help to take it to court.
Dominic Cummings could find himself facing an unlimited fine for breaching the Covid-19 lockdown after expert lawyers said there is a case against him.
Law graduate Mahsa Taliefar launched a funding campaign to help her bring a private prosecution against Cummings over his now-notorious trip to Durham at the end of March this year.
She sought legal advice from Benjamin Douglas-Jones QC and Nathaniel Rudolf on the practicalities of bringing a prosecution.
Their opinion is that he could indeed be prosecuted under Regulation 6 of the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020
Prosecutions.
These state that “during the emergency period, no person may leave the place where they are living without reasonable excuse”.
The lawyers’ advice states: “The published guidance… in our view reinforces the conclusion that there is a realistic prospect of conviction in relation to this conduct.”
The penalty, if such a conviction is won, would be an unlimited fine.
Concerns had been raised that Regulation 11 of the same law prevents private prosecution. It states: “Proceedings for an offence under these Regulations may be brought by the Crown Prosecution Service and any person designated by the Secretary of State.“
The advice states: “At first blush this may be seen as preventing a prosecution by anyone other than the CPS or a person designated by the Secretary of State. In other words preventing a private prosecution.
“The regulation is not drafted with any precision: a literal (and absurd) reading would be in that in the absence of anyone designated by the Secretary of State the CPS may not prosecute.
“It seems to us that… permitting the Secretary of State to designate people who can prosecute the section simply clarifies that this does not oust the ability of the CPS to do the same. It does not go further.
“If Regulation 11 were to be read as excluding private prosecutors, it would also exclude the police from prosecuting, unless the police were designated by the Secretary of State as persons who can prosecute. As far as we can tell no such designation has taken place.
“Our view is that the Regulation 11 is sufficiently clear so as not to warrant, at this stage, our consideration of whether the right to bring a private prosecution had been prevented by its language. A private prosecution may be classed as a ‘constitutional’ right founded in statute (or common law). It would require the most explicit language to extinguish that right.”
So not only could Cummings face a large fine if found guilty of breaching the regulations, but it seems entirely possible that a private prosecution may be launched against him, in order to ensure that he does so.
As This Site has already reported, Ms Taliefar is already crowdfunding for this purpose and her site may be found here.
If you agree that Cummings should be brought to book, feel free to contribute to the fund.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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Is this not a hate campaign!
Not unless you are referring to Cummings’s (and the Tory government’s) campaign of hate against the UK’s population.
Cummings is as bent and corrupt as a 2 Bob note hes as manipulative as Hitler , evil sadistic and needs to be locked up
He has proved over & over how he believes hes in charge of this country and I did not vote for that evil b*****d
House rules: no swearing. Don’t do it again, please.
Ha you have no case and it will be laughed out of court
I certainly hope this is one of Cummings’s lawyers. With that kind of attitude and attention to detail, he’ll end up paying a fortune.