- Norman Scarth
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Norman Scarth is a British World War II veteran, political candidate, former farmer, and blogger. He has stood for Parliament three times, and has been involved in several legal cases.
Contents
Military service
Scarth served on HMS Matchless in the Arctic convoys of World War II, receiving a medal from the Russian government in 1995.[1][2]
Farming
Scarth was a stud farmer. His horse Gracious Melody won the 1979/80 Henry Tudor Challenge Cup.[3]
Elections
He has been a candidate three times in UK parliamentary elections - in 1997 at Chesterfield (receiving 202 votes), in 2007 at Sedgefield and in 2008 at Haltemprice and Howden. In Sedgefield, police were called to move him when he campaigned outside a supermarket.[1] In Haltemprice and Howden he came joint last with 8 votes.[4] He stood on an anti-crime platform and argued that "modern surveillance methods were as bad as the Nazis'".[5]
Scarth has also stood for his own Anti-Crime Party in local elections in Bradford, first standing in Bingley in 2007.[6] He was arrested for shouting through a loudhailer outside a polling station in 2008, and challenged the election result, in which he received 66 votes, with the election commissioner.[7] A judged ruled that his case was "wholly misconceived".[8]
Legal matters
In 1990, Scarth argued that he was not wearing a seat belt because he was about to commit suicide, but his defence was not accepted by the court.[9]
Scarth was the plaintiff in the case Scarth v. United Kingdom at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR 33745/96) that resolved that private hearings in small claims arbitration at county courts breached Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.[10] Civil Procedure Rules introduced in 1999 avoided further breaches.[11]
Scarth was sentenced in 2001 to six years in jail for wounding, after he attacked a court bailiff sent to evict him with a chainsaw.[2] He was in jail for four years, then spent two years in a psychiatric hospital, which he says was part of a conspiracy against him.[7][8]
In July 2011 he was sentenced to six months imprisonment for contempt of court for recording a court hearing because he is hard of hearing.[12] [13] He did not have legal representation. He tried to get the High Court to grant habeus corpus, but the court decided that this did not apply and an appeal already lodged should proceed.[14] An appeals court reduced the sentence to 12 weeks due to his poor mental health and freed him in September 2011. He was described by the appeals judge as "a conspiracy theorist".[15][15]
References
- ^ a b "Founder of Anti-Crime Party given ticking off". The Northern Echo. 13 July 2007. http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/1542436.founder_of_anticrime_party_given_ticking_off/. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ^ a b "Six years for chainsaw pensioner". Yorkshire Evening Post. 23 June 2001. http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/central-leeds/six_years_for_chainsaw_pensioner_1_2064093. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ^ Country life, Volume 169, 1981
- ^ "A record-breaking by-election?". BBC News. 11 July 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7498330.stm. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ^ Wainwright, Martin (11 July 2008). "David Davis surprises critics with relatively high turnout". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/11/haltemprice.daviddavis?INTCMP=SRCH. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ^ Winrow, Jo (9 April 2007). "Election hopefuls line up for ballot". Telegraph & Argus. http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/1316820.print/. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ^ a b "Candidate ‘shouted abuse with loudhailer’". Telegraph & Argus (Bradford). 6 May 2009. http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/4348072.Candidate____shouted_abuse_with_loudhailer___/. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ^ a b Winrow, Jo (8 May 2009). "Judge brands candidate 'a crazed old man'". Telegraph & Argus (Bradford). http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/4351898.Judge_brands_candidate__a_crazed_old_man_/. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ^ Yorkshire Evening Post, cited in New statesman Society, volume 3, 1990.
- ^ C. E. F. Rickett, Thomas G. W. Telfer, ed (2003). International perspectives on consumers' access to justice. Cambridge University Press. p. 181. ISBN 052182432X. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DK1RLMwCQ5UC&pg=PA181.
- ^ Gazette Committee of Ministers. IV / 2000. Council of Europe. April 2000. p. 15. ISBN 9287143080. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PjH3_0KYqVEC&pg=PA15.
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-14680180
- ^ http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/central-leeds/bradford_man_85_fails_in_jail_bid_1_3718522
- ^ "Bradford WW2 veteran fails in jail release bid". Yorkshire Post. 26 August 2011. http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/main-section/bradford_ww2_veteran_fails_in_jail_release_bid_1_3718480. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ^ a b "Norman Scarth freed as Bradford contempt sentence cut". BBC News. 9 September 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-14854070. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
External links
Categories:- English bloggers
- 1925 births
- People from Bradford
- Royal Navy personnel of World War II
- English people convicted of assault
- British political candidates
- British politicians convicted of crimes
- Independent politicians in England
- Living people
- English farmers
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