Richard D Hall called me this afternoon and told me, regarding the pre-trial hearing that the Judge was receptive to what Richard wanted to say (and he got most of his main points out) and the Judge has reserved judgement on the case for now. Richard said the judge asked a number of pertinent questions.
The Hibberts wanted to prevent Richard from presenting Manchester-related evidence in the hearing to decide on the harassment charge they’ve claimed against him. So the hearing yesterday was to decide on that. The judge has reserved judgement – so that means the Hibberts have not yet been allowed to prevent Richard presenting evidence in the main trial. The Judge could still rule against Richard, but it could be quite difficult for the Judge to get away with doing that, seeing as how many people were in the court etc.
Richard said that a transcript of the hearing will be made available at some point and something should appear on the UK Column website probably tomorrow, as he spoke to a (new) journalist who works for them – he couldn’t remember his name. So it’s a big relief for the moment.
60 people showed up in support, with space for only 30 of them and Richard had to politely request the excess 30 left because they weren’t allowed to be in the court for health and safety reasons. This therefore shows the judge the level of concern here.
I basically said what is above in this video update and added a few more thoughts and some notes on other topics.
