Stop Brexit Man told police to stick protest map where sun don't shine, court hears

An activist known as Stop Brexit Man, who is on trial for playing amplifiers outside parliament, told police their map illustrating where he could not use them was incorrect and they should stick it “where the sun don’t shine”, a court has heard.

- POL ALLINGHAM

Steve Bray, 55, allegedly flouted a police ban by playing antiConservative and anti-Brexit edits of The Muppet Show and Darth Vader’s theme tunes through the speakers on 20 March last year.

Police approached Mr Bray on the traffic island at around 11.20am, minutes before then-PM Rishi Sunak arrived ahead of Prime Minister’s Questions, City of London Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday.

They handed him a map and a notice that warned he was prohibited from playing the speakers in the controlled area under a by-law, the court heard. The music resumed intermittently, and shortly after 12.33pm, officers seized the speakers, the court was told.

Mr Bray, who is self-represented, is charged with failing without reasonable excuse to comply with a direction given under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 “re prohibited activities in Parliament Square”.

He appeared to become emotional while cross-examining one of the officers who had attended shortly before Mr Sunak arrived, and said: “There is relevance to us for timing.”

“Those couple of minutes, they mean a lot to us”, he told PC Euan Varney.