BRIGHTON: An Indian-origin girl and her husband are celebrating after costs that may have criminalised her Hindu prayers on the seashore have been thrown out of courtroom.
Sheila Jacklin (61), a British Telugu designer born to oldsters from Andhra Pradesh, was charged with harassment for chanting Sanskrit mantras and performing mudra gestures on the seashore close to her residence in Normans Bay, a distant hamlet close to Brighton, after neighbours who purchased a second residence subsequent to them in 2014 stated the gestures have been offensive and made round 100 complaints to police.
Sheila’s husband Nigel Jacklin (62), a statistician, was charged with assault and harassment. A 3-day trial was scheduled to begin on Tuesday at Brighton magistrates’ courtroom.
Nevertheless, on the primary day the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) utilized to get the case adjourned. This was refused by the magistrates. The prosecution then supplied no proof and the trial collapsed.
It was the second time a harassment case towards Sheila over her Hindu prayers on the seashore had reached courtroom. The trial had collapsed the primary time in 2019 too. On each events complaints have been made by Stephane Duckett and his American associate Norinne Betjemann, who transformed a workshop subsequent to the Jacklins in 2014.
The couple have been charged this time with pursuing a course of conduct amounting to harassment towards Betjemann by staring into her property, loitering, and intimidating behaviour which prompted misery.
“I’ve been praying on the seashore all around the world for the reason that Eighties. I’m a hippy. I’m not eager about my neighbour’s home,” Sheila advised TOI exterior courtroom.
She stated she had been doing Hindu prayers on the seashore for 22 years earlier than the couple moved subsequent door, pointing on the market was no temple close by and it was widespread to do Hindu prayers within the open air. She stated it was vital to observe in the identical “ashram”. “To conflate one of many many mudras with an offensive gesture is a critical insult to Hinduism,” she stated, referring to at least one grievance that her Aakash mudra was an “offensive” V-sign.
“I ought to have the fitting to practise my faith freely within the UK. The concept I used to be going to be taken to courtroom for harassment for praying is absurd,” she stated.
Nigel added: “We really feel that is racist and Hinduphobic.”
A CPS spokesperson stated:“We requested an adjournment on this case with a view to discharge our disclosure obligations following late submissions by the defence. Sadly, this request was refused by the courtroom and we have been regrettably left with no possibility however to supply no proof.”
A Sussex Police spokesperson stated they “performed an intensive, neutral investigation into a number of stories of harassment, and one reported assault”. It stated “enquiries have been performed with out prejudice” and each suspects have been interviewed. “Proof was submitted to the CPS, which accredited costs of harassment and assault by battery, earlier than no proof was supplied after magistrates declined a request for adjournment from the CPS,”Sussex police stated, including it might proceed to do all it may “to guard our communities and safe justice for victims of crime”.
Sheila Jacklin (61), a British Telugu designer born to oldsters from Andhra Pradesh, was charged with harassment for chanting Sanskrit mantras and performing mudra gestures on the seashore close to her residence in Normans Bay, a distant hamlet close to Brighton, after neighbours who purchased a second residence subsequent to them in 2014 stated the gestures have been offensive and made round 100 complaints to police.
Sheila’s husband Nigel Jacklin (62), a statistician, was charged with assault and harassment. A 3-day trial was scheduled to begin on Tuesday at Brighton magistrates’ courtroom.
Nevertheless, on the primary day the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) utilized to get the case adjourned. This was refused by the magistrates. The prosecution then supplied no proof and the trial collapsed.
It was the second time a harassment case towards Sheila over her Hindu prayers on the seashore had reached courtroom. The trial had collapsed the primary time in 2019 too. On each events complaints have been made by Stephane Duckett and his American associate Norinne Betjemann, who transformed a workshop subsequent to the Jacklins in 2014.
The couple have been charged this time with pursuing a course of conduct amounting to harassment towards Betjemann by staring into her property, loitering, and intimidating behaviour which prompted misery.
“I’ve been praying on the seashore all around the world for the reason that Eighties. I’m a hippy. I’m not eager about my neighbour’s home,” Sheila advised TOI exterior courtroom.
She stated she had been doing Hindu prayers on the seashore for 22 years earlier than the couple moved subsequent door, pointing on the market was no temple close by and it was widespread to do Hindu prayers within the open air. She stated it was vital to observe in the identical “ashram”. “To conflate one of many many mudras with an offensive gesture is a critical insult to Hinduism,” she stated, referring to at least one grievance that her Aakash mudra was an “offensive” V-sign.
“I ought to have the fitting to practise my faith freely within the UK. The concept I used to be going to be taken to courtroom for harassment for praying is absurd,” she stated.
Nigel added: “We really feel that is racist and Hinduphobic.”
A CPS spokesperson stated:“We requested an adjournment on this case with a view to discharge our disclosure obligations following late submissions by the defence. Sadly, this request was refused by the courtroom and we have been regrettably left with no possibility however to supply no proof.”
A Sussex Police spokesperson stated they “performed an intensive, neutral investigation into a number of stories of harassment, and one reported assault”. It stated “enquiries have been performed with out prejudice” and each suspects have been interviewed. “Proof was submitted to the CPS, which accredited costs of harassment and assault by battery, earlier than no proof was supplied after magistrates declined a request for adjournment from the CPS,”Sussex police stated, including it might proceed to do all it may “to guard our communities and safe justice for victims of crime”.
