Paddy Hogg on trial for allegedly organising anti-lockdown protests

In September 2020, Paddy Hogg a councillor for Cumbernauld East attended an anti-lockdown protest in Edinburgh. When leaving the demonstration Mr Hogg was arrested, accused of being the organiser behind some of Scotland’s anti-lockdown protests and charged with culpable and reckless conduct.

Since Mr Hoggs arrest Rebel News have been crowd funding his legal fees and appointed one of Scotland’s top legal firms, Levy & Mc Rae, to fight on his behalf.

Mr Hogg is being accused of being culpable and reckless in his conduct. It is alleged that his involvement in the anti-lockdown protest could have endangered the lives of others because he risked spreading coronavirus publicly. A preliminary trial date has been announced and Mr Hogg will appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Courtbefore a judge and jury later in the year.

During the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 the Scottish public faced some of the harshest lockdown restriction enforcement in comparison to other parts of the United Kingdom. Between March 2020 and May 2021 the Scottish police issued more than 20,000 fixed penalty notices (FPNs). Across the UK several Covid fines have since been dropped and many more remain unpaid.

In Scotland alone thousands of people are refusing to settle Covid fines with the total value of almost £300,000 in unpaid penalties. Since the end of the pandemic there has been more scrutiny into how Covid restrictions were enforced and several studies have found that in Scotland, people in deprived areas were more than twice as likely to get fined for breaches of Covid restrictions.

Rebel News has had multiple successful fight the fines cases in the UK and across the world. We’ve been able to fund top-notch lawyers to represent people wrongly persecuted for alleged breaches of Covid restrictions.

With viewer support Rebel News have been funding Paddy Hogg’s legal campaign but we need your help to restore justice and clear Paddy’s name.

1. LEGAL: We have hired a top-notch lawyer to defend Paddy and are crowdfunding his legal defence!
2. CROWDFUNDING: Please donate to offset the cost of Paddy's legal fees on this page. Your generous donations also support our 100% viewer-funded independent journalism.
3. JOURNALISM: Rebel News reporter Callum Smiles will keep you updated every step of the way on the court proceedings — you can follow all our coverage on this page.