Nicholas Watt: Trial in June after BBC reporter chased

Five people will be tried in June for a public order offence after a BBC journalist was chased by protesters and called a "traitor" near Downing Street.

Social media footage showed demonstrators confronting Newsnight's political editor Nicholas Watt on 14 June 2021.

A trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court was adjourned because two of the defendants were not represented.

All five deny using threatening behaviour with intent to cause alarm.

Christopher Aitken, 62, Martin Hockridge, 58, Djazia Chaib-Eddour, 44, Alexander Peat, 34, and Gary Purnell, 45, deny using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress on 14 June.

Crowds had gathered in Westminster to protest against the Government's extension of coronavirus restrictions in England by four weeks.

Footage showed Mr Watt forced to run through the demonstrators beyond a line of police officers as people shouted abuse at him.

The defendants appeared for the start of their trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, but the hearing was adjourned because Mr Aitken, from Brixton, and Mr Purnell, of Shepherds Bush, were not represented.

Mr Peat, from Wandsworth, arrived for the hearing wearing a T-shirt bearing the message "proudly unvaccinated", which he was asked to remove before entering the courtroom.

The court previously heard Mr Hockridge, from Harpenden in Hertfordshire, does not deny calling Mr Watt a "traitor".

Piers Corbyn, the Covid-19 conspiracy theorist brother of former Labour leader Jeremy, was in the public gallery for the hearing.

The defendants were bailed and will next appear at the same court for a three-day trial from June 29.

A sixth man, Joseph Olswang, 39, denies the same charge but will stand trial separately.

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