SIMPSON: STUDENT ACCUSED OVER TORY HQ PROTEST TO FACE CROWN COURT

A student activist accused of joining the mob that attacked Tory party HQ was bailed today (thurs) to appear before a crown court judge in September.

Strathclyde University law student Bryan Simpson had earlier elected a jury trial after refusing to be judged ‘by a magistrate who is on 180 grand a year’.

Simpson is charged with violent disorder following the trashing of the Conservative Party building in Millbank, central London, on November 10 last year.

He is alleged to have thrown a megaphone towards police officers but  missed, hitting a fellow protester in the head.

The 22-year-old, who last year ran for president of his university’s student union, is not accused of entering the building.

A judge at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court today (Thurs) committed the case to Kingston Crown Court where he will make his first appearance on September 14.

Simpson appeared in the dock alongside Zenofon Mitchell Kotsakis, 20, who faces a similar charge of violent disorder and will appear with him at the crown court on the same date.

Both spoke only to confirm his name during a brief hearing before District Judge John Zani, having earlier elected jury trials.

Following his last court appearance Simpson told his supporters outside: ‘Our trial is not going to be heard by a magistrate who is on 180 grand a year, and has never understood welfare cuts and living on the dole.’

Simpson, (Flat 21, 37) Glencairn Drive, Glasgow, and Kotsakis, of (304) Latimer Road, North Kensington, w London, deny violent disorder.

Both were released on unconditional bail.

It is expected that the trial will be set by a judge at Kingston Crown Court on the next occasion.
ends