Furious victims of Britain’s ‘thought police’ demand forces go further after the Met vows to stop investigating ‘non-crime hate incidents’

Furious victims of so-called ‘thought police’ doorstep visits who were threatened with arrest for social media posts have told of their incredulity that the practice went on at all.

The Met has announced it will end the practice of investigating ‘non-crime hate incidents’ – or NCHIs – after dropping a case against Father Ted writer Graham Linehan over posts about trans activists.

Controversially though they will continue to monitor social media.

And other forces outside London have yet to drop NCHIs which are now used 13,000 times a year – to the horror of free speech campaigners.

The Daily Mail today spoke to those involved in some of the most notorious examples of the sinister policing practice – and found they remain angry about what happened to them.

Caroline Farrow was threatened with arrest for using the wrong pronouns about a trans person.

Mrs Farrow told the Daily Mail: ‘I don’t think the police have gone far enough in saying they won’t investigate these so-called offences.

‘A non-crime hate incident should not even be recorded. It’s not a crime.

‘It should not be recorded. It’s a step towards Big Brother. It is an official record that could affect your employment and all sorts of things.

A police officer allegedly pushed Mrs Farrow’s front door open, despite not having a warrant, and another patted her down 

‘The police are recording if you have a point of view on a particular issue. Actually having a strong point of view does not make you a danger.

‘This is not what anti-terror laws were set up for.’

The Catholic mother-of-five, of Aldershot, Hampshire, whose husband is a Catholic priest, said: ‘The police need to return to common sense.’

The 2019 investigation against her was dropped after five months – and she is now suing Surrey Police.

Newspaper columnist Allison Pearson was visited at her Essex home on Remembrance Sunday last year following complaints about a social media post she had made about pro-Palestine marches in London at the beginning of the war in Gaza.

She welcomed the Met Police’s announcement on NCHIs but warned that there was still ‘potential room for abuse’ of free speech from ‘leftist’ state institutions.

Ms Pearson told the Daily Mail: ‘This has been a shameful period in our history.’

She continued: ‘I welcome the news but I still have reservations – I don’t like the idea that while the police won’t investigate NCHIs, they will continue to record data on people.

‘I think hate crime as a concept has no place in Britain or in a free society because it is completely subjective.

‘I hope other police forces will follow. But I fear there’s still potential room for abuse.

‘The fact is that the police still think they occupy the moral high ground on social justice.

‘The police have a leftist agenda which is based on protected characteristics such as sexuality, ethnicity and religion.

‘This means they take more seriously any crime that they could describe as racially aggravated, which means they are not policing on behalf of the majority of the British people.’

Newspaper columnist Allison Pearson was visited at her Essex home on Remembrance Sunday last year following complaints about a social media post she had made about pro-Palestine marches in London at the beginning of the war in Gaza

Ms Pearson added: ‘Many, many completely innocent people have been prosecuted or made to feel afraid by the police for expressing completely normal values.

‘Some 30 people are arrested a day for offensive online communication.

‘Anyone in a pub or a supermarket can cause alarm or distress without action being taken against them.

‘But with these investigations people are not allowed to ask their accusers about their motivations.’

Essex Police decided to take no further action against Ms Pearson, following an outcry against the infringement on the freedom of speech, which included the intervention of Elon Musk.

Grandmother Helen Jones was visited at her home in Stockport by two senior police officers – just for having made critical comments about two Labour politicians on Facebook.

Her case, first revealed by The Mail On Sunday, saw Greater Manchester Police likened to East Germany’s feared Stasi secret police.

Mrs Jones said today: ‘I think it’s taken too long for the Met Police to decide to stop investigating NCHIS – and Greater Manchester Police should quickly follow suit – because it is ridiculous.’

She went on: ‘Investigating my comment – calling for a councillor to resign – should certainly not have been a priority and should never have resulted in two detective inspectors knocking on my door.

‘The cost of investigating me was ridiculous when there is real crime out there.

‘It went too far and got silly. The whole investigation seems unreal now when I look back. Investigating non-hate crimes is absolute nonsense.’

Retiree Julian Foulkes was detained by six officers from Kent Police – the force he had worked for for ten years – after he challenged a supporter of pro-Palestine demonstrations in a social media post in November 2023.

Mr Foulkes, 71, was handcuffed on the doorstep of his home in Gillingham by uniformed officers equipped with batons and pepper spray.

The police officers searched his home and made comments about his ‘very Brexity’ book collection before detaining him for eight hours.

Grandmother Helen Jones was visited at her home in Stockport by two senior police officers – just for having made critical comments about two Labour politicians on Facebook

Doorbell security footage shows police officers visiting Helen Jones’s house on February 18

Today Mr Foulkes welcomed the decision by the Met Police to no longer pursue NCHIs.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘I’m very pleased, it’s a step in the right direction.

‘I’ve had to go through this for the past two years.

‘Obviously getting rid of NCHIs is a step in the right direction but it does show the state of the country today that it’s come to this.’

Kent Police later admitted arresting Mr Foulkes and issuing him with a caution had been a ‘mistake’ and Chief Constable Tim Smith offered him an apology for the ‘distress caused by the actions of his officers’. 

Kent Police also paid him £20,000 in compensation after he sued the force for wrongful arrest and detention.

The Met’s decision to no longer investigate non-hate crime incidents came after prosecutors dropped a case against Father Ted creator Graham Linehan which saw him arrested on suspicion of inciting violence in relation to his social media posts about transgender people.

Mrs Farrow added: ‘Graham is a personal friend of mine. He’s been through a similar ordeal as me.

‘Arresting him with five armed officers was just disgusting and a complete waste of time and resources.

‘I think it’s wrong how trans activists can influence the criminal justice process to this extent.

‘The transgender status appears to be prioritised over other protected characteristics. I’m a Roman Catholic and I have opinions on a number of topics, it doesn’t mean that it’s hateful.

‘I don’t hate people, but just saying “I don’t agree” or “I’m not sure” is seeing you classified as a terrorist.’

Retiree Julian Foulkes was detained by six officers from Kent Police – the force he had worked for for ten years – after he challenged a supporter of pro-Palestine demonstrations in a social media post in November 2023

Ms Pearson added: ‘It is interesting that it was the Graham Linehan case that caused international uproar with Britain gaining the reputation as a free speech pariah.

‘Elon Musk tweeted about my case.

‘This has all caused a lot of embarrassment to the police.’

A ‘no-crime hate incident’ or NCHI is defined as an incident that falls short of being criminal but which is perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards a person with a particular characteristic.

Police forces are supposed to record them only when there is a serious risk of significant harm that could escalate into criminality, and not just because someone feels offended.

But last year more than 13,000 NCHIs were recorded across England and Wales and campaigners have warned of their chilling effect on free speech.

The Met announced it would drop the practice on Monday night and other forces are expected to follow.

A couple notoriously held in a police cell for eleven hours over a ‘trivial’ WhatsApp group dispute about their child’s head teacher described NCHIs as a ‘massive waste of time’.

Maxie Allen, 50, and Rosalind Levine, 47, had sent a few light-hearted comments about the recruitment process of a new headteacher at the primary school attended by their eldest daughter before they were arrested in January.

Mr Allen told the Daily Mail: ‘I think that investigating NCHIs is total waste of everybody’s time.

‘It’s a vast waste of police resources, causing ridiculous stress to people who’ve just aired their opinions and used some words.’

He added: ‘And as a society, we need to have a thicker skin and more common sense.

‘If people say things we don’t like we’ll have to just forget about it and move on.’

Meanwhile Ms Allen said: ‘It’s like a small child going to their mum when their sibling has said something mean about them.

‘The police should stop pandering to people.’

The TV producer couple, of Borehamwood, Herts, had the police case against them dropped after five weeks.