Ex-mayor posted antisemitic tweets, jury finds

A former North Yorkshire councillor who also served as the mayor of Harrogate posted antisemitic tweets which were likely to stir up racial hatred, a jury has found.

Pat Marsh, 78, who has dementia, faced a trial of facts at York Crown Court as she was deemed physically and mentally unfit to enter a plea and give evidence.

A jury concluded on Friday that Marsh was likely to have stirred up hatred by publishing written material in relation to posts made on X in January and February 2024.

After the verdict Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, concluded the "only option" was to give Marsh an absolute discharge given her health condition.

Unlike a regular criminal case, in a trial of facts a jury cannot find the person guilty - instead the hearing determines if they committed the alleged offences.

Marsh, who has no previous convictions, was arrested on 20 February 2024 after police received four reports about the alleged antisemitic posts.

She did not answer any questions put to her in a police interview later that day, the court heard.

Following her arrest, Marsh, who represented the Stray, Woodlands and Hookstone ward as a councillor in Harrogate, resigned from her post after three decades in public life.

She was also suspended by her party, the Liberal Democrats.

She had denied the posts were antisemitic prior to being charged.

Prosecutor Ashleigh Metcalfe had told the court most of the content which Marsh posted on X while a serving councillor was "concerned with the events in Gaza and was plainly anti-Israel", adding: "Some of it was antisemitic."

"We say it's greater than bigotry in the extreme," she said.

The posts attracted hundreds of views, said Metcalfe, who told jurors they were later picked up by local and national media outlets, thereby expanding their reach.

Eric Watson, defending Marsh, accepted evidence proved the posts existed and were capable of being seen, but suggested this "does not by itself prove who published them".

The jury of nine men and three women concluded Marsh posted or distributed written online material likely to stir up racial hatred.

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