A British IT consultant says he has lived a dystopian nightmare after being arrested for posting photos of himself holding firearms during a trip to the United States.
Jon Richelieu-Booth, owner and principal of Phoenix Evolution Consulting, told Fox News Digital that the problems started after he visited friends in Florida on the Fourth of July to celebrate the holiday and his 50th birthday.
During the visit, he said he was invited to shoot a gun for the first time.
“They were shooting and they offered me the opportunity – as a British person who had never handled guns before – to handle a gun,” he said.
After returning home to Britain, he posted a series of photos from his trip on LinkedIn.
A day or two after he shared the messages, police came to his home to tell him that someone had filed a complaint.
They warned him to be careful what he posts online.
About 10 days later, Richelieu-Booth said, police returned, entered his home at 10:30 p.m., and arrested him.
He was told the arrest stemmed from the gun photos and that a separate post authorities said amounted to “stalking and harassment.” He was interrogated and held overnight before being released.
About seven weeks later, he said he was arrested again on charges of violating bail, which he said was based on a false complaint.
The complaints were related to a dispute with a former client, Richelieu-Booth said.
“I contracted with this gentleman’s company to do work for the government, and the work was still unpaid two years later,” he said.
He explained that a business associate had taken a photo outside the man’s home while delivering a final notice, a move he said was legal because the photo was taken from a public place.
“The arrest was based on two separate social media posts,” he said. “One was the picture of me with the shotgun, which you can see I’m terrified of. It’s the first time I’ve held it and you can see how I’m holding it. And the second was my LinkedIn banner at the top of the page.”
“I used the photo my business partner took in his building as a header photo on LinkedIn, with the intention that he would look at it and say, ‘Why is this guy posting that? I better call him and find out, instead of avoiding me,’ as he had for months,” he said.
“There was never any geolocation or evidence that I had been to that address, yet I was arrested at it anyway,” he added.
After his release, he said he was charged with a public order offense over a third post from August that authorities said could cause “intimidation, fear, alarm and anxiety.” He said the charges, along with the previous charges, were later dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Richelieu-Booth said the experience took a heavy toll, both professionally and personally.
“I deactivated my LinkedIn, which meant I lost my LinkedIn Premium trial, which I used to find clients,” he said. “I lost the opportunity to run a Teams show called Coffee the Hashtag Guy, which I run to support other contractors. I lost the opportunity to go networking. I was very scared and ashamed. I hid from everyone. I felt left out by my neighbors, my community. I hid from the world for pretty much the entire period and contemplated suicide.”
He is considering taking legal action against West Yorkshire Police.
“Free speech in Britain? That doesn’t exist,” he said. “That’s really not the case. People are being locked up because of tweets and memes. It’s shameful. It’s George Orwell, it’s ‘1984.’ That was not a manual.”
Richelieu-Booth said he no longer feels safe in the United Kingdom and has been thinking more seriously about moving to the United States.
“I lost my parents in a car accident in 2023,” he said. “On one terrible day, my entire family was gone. My American adoptive family was very welcoming and it made me think more seriously about America… You have the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, it’s the land of opportunity, and I don’t feel safe in Britain anymore.”
“If I were to move to America and if that is God’s plan for me, I would welcome it,” he added.
His story received international attention after the Yorkshire Post first reported it.
Elon Musk also participated on Xwriting, “This is why we have the First and Second Amendments in America.”
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said Richelieu-Booth was charged with a public order offense following a complaint about the LinkedIn posts before the case was dropped.
“Police received a complaint of stalking involving serious alarm or fear, in part related to social media posts, several of which included photographs of a man posing with a variety of firearms, which the complainant perceived as a threat,” police said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Police investigated and charged a man with a public order offence, but the case was subsequently dropped by the CPS.”
Fox News Digital has contacted Crown Prosecution Services for comment.
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