Police Pay £34k for Botched Arrest, Bloggers Win

0:00On April 20th, Hartfordshire Police just shelled out 34,000 pounds to IT director Samuel Smith for a boss to rest over his blog post. A dozen officers stormed his home for an unlawful search, trespassed on his property, and locked him up overnight at Hatfield Station. The court flat out admitted he committed no crime and everything was illegal. This mess kicked off on March 6, 2025 when they seized his devices on suspicions of malicious communications. Six days later, their own logs called the search unlawful and they dropped the whole thing. Smith runs a blog as Matthew Hopkins nodding to that 17th century witch hunter. Bodycam put his cotton shaking in his dressing gown when they showed up, but it was all four minor false comms beef that didn't stick. His arrest records now scroll from the National Police Computer with a clear marker noting false allegations. This follows a similar screw up weeks earlier, where officers held another couple for 11 hours on harassment suspicions. The force settled out of court with a full apology and Smith gave props to supporters

1:04who had his back through the high court, fight proof that. Pushing back on overreach pays off.