British conspiracy theorist gets 5 years for encouraging violence during COVID

Nov. 11 (UPI) - A 55-year-old vaccine conspiracy theorist and COVID-19 denier convicted of encouraging violence over Britain's handling of the pandemic was sentenced Monday to five years' imprisonment.

Patrick Ruane, of West London, was sentenced Monday at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, known as the Old Bailey . His sentence comes with a one-year extended license period.

"This is a dangerous man who was prolific in encouraging violence because of his firmly held beliefs in a conspiracy theory," Bethan David, head of the Counter Terrorism Division at the Crown Prosecution Service, said Monday in a statement .

"He posed a credible threat to the peace and safety of the public, and it is only right that he has been found guilty today."

Ruane was convicted Sept. 13 following a two-week trial at the Old Bailey on two charges of encouraging terrorism.

Prosecutors said that Ruane was a member of Telegram groups known for spreading the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 and vaccines were designed by the government as a form of population control.

For 10 months, Ruane published statements online encouraging violence against the government, including its overthrow, the prosecution said.

Devices seized from his West London residence upon his arrest in November 2021 contained what authorities called "a large number of messages" in which he "actively encouraged people to commit acts of violence due to his dislike of the government's policies."

"Detectives found posts where he was encouraging others to target staff linked to pharmaceutical companies producing the COVID-19 vaccinations," Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

"Ruane also posted about targeting MPs and police, as well as bombing vaccine laboratories and 5G infrastructure."

In handing down the sentence Monday, Judge Richard Marks KC explained to Ruane that he was entitled to share his views, but he had gone "much further" than simply that, the BBC reported.

Ruane's crimes were "extremely dangerous," Marks said, especially given the "volatile and vulnerable" state society was in at the time he was advocating for violence.

"You had developed a compulsive and obsessive mindset about the vaccine," he told Ruane.