A person who has been silently blocking site visitors for practically a decade has been jailed once more for his weird behaviour.
David Hampson, 53, from Swansea, Wales, has repeatedly stood in the course of a busy highway blocking site visitors till being arrested. In 2021, Hampson was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail after a jury discovered he was responsible of breaking a legal behaviour order by blocking the highway outdoors Swansea Central police station.
When launched in October 2023, Hampson promptly returned to the identical highway outdoors the police station and blocked site visitors on three events – and has now been despatched again to jail, in response to WalesOn-line.
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(Image: Media Wales Ltd)
The identical jury in 2021 discovered he was “mute of malice”, not “mute by visitation of God”, i.e. Hampson was stated to be willingly silent. Over the years Hampson has refused to talk to prosecutors and have interaction with the authorized course of, infuriating court docket workers, magistrates and cops, main a decide to say he believed the defendant’s meant silence was the results of “breath-taking arrogance and insolence”.
Swansea Magistrates Court heard that on October 17 2023, police have been alerted to a person who was stopping site visitors on Grove Place outdoors Swansea Central police station. The defendant was taken apart and spoken to by officers, and shockingly determined to not say something.
Police suggested him to depart the world however he went straight again into the highway earlier than being arrested. The subsequent day Hampson appeared earlier than justices charged with obstructing the freeway however refused to talk or acknowledge the court docket and as he didn’t enter a plea to the cost, a plea of not responsible was entered on his behalf.
(Image: WalesOn-line/Gayle Marsh)
The defendant was bailed pending a trial and left the court docket constructing and went again to standing within the highway. He was arrested once more, charged, and remanded into custody forward of a trial.
Yet once more, Hampson refused to talk when he appeared within the dock for his trial this week, didn’t problem the prosecution case or put ahead any defence, and was convicted of two counts of obstructing the freeway. He was sentenced to 6 months in jail and can serve as much as half the sentence in custody earlier than being launched on licence to serve the rest locally.
Hampson has been a silent highway blocker since 2014, when he obtained a two-year conditional discharge for 4 counts of wilfully obstructing free passage alongside the freeway. In 2015 he was convicted of a public nuisance offence for precisely the identical behaviour and was made the topic of his first legal behaviour order.
This spurred him on, and in 2016, 2017 and 2018 Hampson obtained custodial sentences after being convicted of breaching the court docket order.
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