Who are we?

Edward Cantor and I both campaign against antisemitism. Edward began to fight it when he saw antisemitic tropes appearing regularly on his timeline. I’m best known for my work on the Stephen Sizer scandal.

How did this start?

I (James) used to work with someone called James Wilson. It’s fair to say that we didn’t get on. Years later, I saw him regularly arguing with Jewish people on Twitter over the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, which he rejects. One of those people was the late Pete Newbon.

What happened next?

In July 2020, I shared with Pete a screenshot of a Facebook post. It was written by a mother with whom Mr Wilson had argued over leaving her engine running when dropping her daughter off near a school. I thought nothing more of it, but, a few weeks later, Pete posted eight tweets which included that screenshot. He deleted them all the following morning. Edward posted one further tweet which included the screenshot. That tweet was “liked” only once and received zero retweets. I never tweeted it at all!

In April 2021, James Wilson sued all three of us for libel, harassment, invasion of privacy, and breach of his data rights.

What happened to his claim against Pete?

Pete died tragically in January 2022. Two months later, Mr Wilson settled with his estate. We would encourage you to read the details of that settlement in paragraph 9 of this court report.

What’s happened since?

In March 2022, the court considered the meaning of the Facebook post. Mr Wilson said it meant that we had called him a paedophile. We said it meant he is a weirdo who harasses people. The judge found in our favour. This means that to defeat the libel claim, we need to demonstrate that it is reasonable to hold that opinion of him, based on the incident with the mother outside the school.

Several people who claim to have been harassed by Mr Wilson are willing to give evidence on our behalf.

In January 2023, we applied to have Mr Wilson’s case dismissed without the costs of a full trial: we tried to win in ten moves. However, the court ruled against us, meaning that there needs to be a full trial on most points: we need to win in fifty moves instead.

Do you have lawyers?

We were previously both represented by Mark Lewis. In May, however, James Wilson forced Mark into a position where he felt he had a conflict of interest and could no longer represent us. We are currently litigants in person - we are conducting our own case, without solicitors.

Didn’t you have a crowdfunder before?

Yes - on Crowdjustice. This carried Mark’s name, so we took it down when he stopped acting for us. We received £15,689 of pledges, of which £10,282 is left. (I can share invoices etc upon request.) That money is in a ring-fenced account.

Pledges to this page will go to the same account. We want to pay barristers directly, to cross-examine Mr Wilson at trial.

What’s next?

Recently, there was a hearing on a procedural point. We represented ourselves. Mr Wilson was represented by his barrister. The judge granted some of our requests, and some of Mr Wilson’s - a result we had anticipated. Our own costs were minimal, but Mr Wilson would have had to pay his barrister upfront - thereby depleting his own resources for little gain.

There’s likely to be a full trial in late 2023 or early 2024. This will establish whether the incident outside the school happened as the mother described. Therefore, we are once again requesting help. We appreciate that many of you have already donated, for which we are hugely grateful. We also recognise that it would cost far more for us to instruct barristers than we received previously. We are realistic, but we also believe in miracles! Therefore, we want to continue to offer people a way to support us. Should you know anyone who might be willing to make a particularly generous donation, we would be grateful if you could draw this to their attention.

What are your prospects?

Two specialist KCs, and a highly rated junior barrister, have all advised us that we are likely to win, as has Mark Lewis.

What if anything is left?

We’ll allocate any surplus to others fighting similar cases. We’ll then post final accounts and close this page.