With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.Revelation 17 : 2
Mr Elkins told The Telegraph that the case “highlights a need for the police to take stock, and to make freedom of expression their starting point – our freedoms won’t be taken from us suddenly, but by the quiet and gradual criminalisation of our conscience”.
Julian Foulkes handcuffed at home by six officers in 2023 after replying to pro-Palestinian activist on social media
2876Gift this article free
Janet EasthamSenior News Reporter11 May 2025 6:50pm BST
A retired special constable is preparing to sue Kent Police after being arrested over a social media post warning about rising anti-Semitism.
Julian Foulkes, from Gillingham in Kent, was handcuffed at his home by six officers from the force he had served for a decade after replying to a pro-Palestinian activist on X.
The 71 year-old was detained for eight hours, interrogated and ultimately issued with a caution after officers visited his home on Nov 2 2023.
On Tuesday, Kent Police confirmed that the caution was a mistake and had been deleted from Mr Foulkes’s record, admitting that it was “not appropriate in the circumstances and should not have been issued”.
But Romanism as a system is no more in harmony with the gospel of Christ now than at any former period in her history. The Protestant churches are in great darkness, or they would discern the signs of the times. The Roman Church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world, to re-establish persecution, and to undo all that Protestantism has done. Catholicism is gaining ground upon every side. [ GC88 565.3
On Sunday, Mr Foulkes accepted an offer from the Free Speech Union (FSU) to fund a legal challenge against the force for wrongful arrest and detention.
“The FSU and Lord Young have generously agreed to fully fund a lawsuit against Kent Police,” he said. “I’m extremely grateful for such excellent support and would urge anyone concerned about the sustained attack on free speech to please join the FSU. They’re fighting hard every day for all of us.”
Mr Foulkes also revealed that the chief constable of Kent Police had phoned him on Sunday to offer a “personal apology for the ordeal I endured” and to tell him the incident would be “thoroughly” investigated. He added: “I was appreciative of his apology.”
His case is the latest in a series of heavy-handed police responses to lawful expression.
Last year, The Telegraph revealed that its columnist Allison Pearson was questioned at home by two officers over an X post following pro-Palestinian protests.
In March, officers from Hertfordshire Constabulary arrested and detained the parents of a nine-year-old girl who had complained about her school in a WhatsApp group, before concluding that no further action was required.
Police body-worn camera footage captured officers scrutinising Mr Foulkes’s collection of books by authors such as Douglas Murray, a Telegraph contributor, and issues of The Spectator, pointing to what they described as “very Brexity things”.
Though he had committed no offence, Mr Foulkes accepted the caution in a state of shock, fearing that any further escalation could affect his ability to visit his surviving daughter in Australia.
“I didn’t agree, but I felt I had no choice,” he said. “In hindsight, it would never have gone to court. The CPS wouldn’t touch it with no evidence. But I wasn’t thinking logically at the time.”
A recent writer [Josiah Strong, D.D., In “Our Country,” pp. 46-48.] speaks thus of the attitude of the papal hierarchy as regards freedom of conscience, and of the perils which especially threaten the United States from the success of her policy:—
“There are many who are disposed to attribute any fear of Roman Catholicism in the United States to bigotry or childishness. Such see nothing in the character and attitude of Romanism that is hostile to our free institutions, or find nothing portentous in its growth. Let us, then, first compare some of the fundamental principles of our government with those of the Catholic Church.
“The Constitution of the United States guarantees liberty of conscience. Nothing is dearer or more fundamental. Pope Pius IX., in his Encyclical Letter of August 15, 1854, said: ‘The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience, are a most pestilential error—a pest, of all others, most to be dreaded in a State.’ The same pope, in his Encyclical Letter of December 8, 1864, anathematized ‘those who assert the liberty of conscience and of religious worship,’ also ‘all such as maintain that the church may not employ force.’
“The pacific tone of Rome in the United States does not imply a change of heart. She is tolerant where she is helpless. Says Bishop O’Connor: ‘Religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world.'” “The archbishop of St. Louis once said: ‘Heresy and unbelief are crimes; and in Christian countries, as in Italy and Spain, for instance, where all the people are Catholics, and where the Catholic religion is an essential part of the law of the land, they are punished as other crimes.'” GC88 564.2 – GC88 564.5
He said the ordeal had left him with post-traumatic stress-type symptoms and had “trashed” his memories of volunteering for the force.
“It’s like PTSD. You push it to the back of your mind, but it comes back and you relive it,” he said.
Mr Foulkes’s X post, sent two days before police visited his home, was a reaction to news reports of an anti-Semitic mob storming an airport in Dagestan, Russia, looking for Jewish passengers.
Advertisement
null
It was a reply to an activist threatening to sue Suella Braverman, the home secretary at the time, for calling London pro-Palestinian demonstrations “hate marches”.
In the post, Mr Foulkes wrote: “One step away from storming Heathrow looking for Jewish arrivals…”
If we desire to understand the determined cruelty of Satan, manifested for hundreds of years, not among those who never heard of God, but in the very heart and throughout the extent of Christendom, we have only to look at the history of Romanism. Through this mammoth system of deception the prince of evil achieves his purpose of bringing dishonor to God and wretchedness to man. And as we see how he succeeds in disguising himself, and accomplishing his work through the leaders of the church, we may better understand why he has so great antipathy to the Bible. If that book is read, the mercy and love of God will be revealed; it will be seen that he lays upon men none of these heavy burdens. All that he asks is a broken and contrite heart, a humble, obedient spirit. GC88 570.1
He later said it would have been better had it begun “What next? You are…”, but said his meaning was clear regardless.
However, on Nov 1, the Metropolitan Police Intelligence Command flagged the tweet to Kent Police, citing “concerns around online content”. The post had just 26 views, and had not been reported by the public.
The next day, six officers arrived at Mr Foulkes’s home, armed with batons and pepper spray. He was arrested, booked, fingerprinted, photographed and swabbed for DNA.
“Kent Police decided to interpret my post as anti-Jewish
There is a striking similarity between the Church of Rome and the Jewish Church at the time of Christ’s first advent. While the Jews secretly trampled upon every principle of the law of God, they were outwardly rigorous in the observance of its precepts, loading it down with exactions and traditions that made obedience painful and burdensome. As the Jews professed to revere the law, so do Romanists claim to reverence the cross. They exalt the symbol of Christ’s sufferings, while in their lives they deny him whom it represents. GC88 568.1
“Kent Police decided to interpret my post as anti-Jewish,” he said. “But it was the exact opposite. If they’d looked at the full thread, they’d have understood. It would have taken two minutes. I told them there was more to it, but they didn’t pause the interview to check.”
In the police interview, he denied five times that he intended to cause distress, “but that was just ignored”.
The force did not initially apologise to Mr Foulkes in its statement to The Telegraph, instead saying the episode had “provided learning opportunities”. But following publication of the story on Saturday, it amended its statement to add: “Kent Police apologise to Mr Foulkes for the distress caused and how the report was investigated.”
Mr Foulkes told The Telegraph: “Up to that point I had had no direct apology from Kent Police – in fact, no communication at all since 2023. Elton John said ‘sorry seems to be the hardest word’, which certainly seems appropriate in the circumstances.
“This morning, however, I received a call from Kent Chief Constable Tim Smith, who offered his personal apology for the ordeal I endured and vowed to thoroughly investigate the failings. I was appreciative of his apology.”
Mr Foulkes’s police record was only deleted after he engaged Matthew Elkins, the director of Legisia Legal Services. He said he was looking for a lawyer “with a proven track record in removing cautions”, and described the successful submission as “excellent”.
Mr Elkins told The Telegraph that the case “highlights a need for the police to take stock, and to make freedom of expression their starting point – our freedoms won’t be taken from us suddenly, but by the quiet and gradual criminalisation of our conscience”.
In the past 24 hours, Mr Foulkes has received dozens of offers to help fund his case, but asked that donations be made only via an official FSU appeal launched on Sunday.
Lord Young, the FSU co-founder, called the case “inexcusable” and said: “He should not have been arrested, he should not have been locked in a cell for eight hours, and he should not have been cautioned.
“Kent Police have acknowledged they made a mistake and expunged the caution, but that isn’t good enough. They now need to pay Julian substantial compensation and, with help from our legal team and a top solicitor in the form of Luke Gittos, we’re going to make sure he gets it.
It is Satan’s constant effort to misrepresent the character of God, the nature of sin, and the real issues at stake in the great controversy. His sophistry lessens the obligation of the divine law, and gives men license to sin. At the same time he causes them to cherish false conceptions of God, so that they regard him with fear and hate, rather than with love. The cruelty inherent in his own character is attributed to the Creator; it is embodied in systems of religion, and expressed in modes of worship. Thus the minds of men are blinded, and Satan secures them as his agents to war against God. By perverted conceptions of the divine attributes, heathen nations were led to believe human sacrifices necessary to secure the favor of Deity; and horrible cruelties have been perpetrated under the various forms of idolatry. The Romish Church, uniting the forms of paganism and Christianity, and, like paganism, misrepresenting the character of God, has resorted to practices no less cruel and revolting. GC88 568.4
“Kent Police need to understand that if they put people through this kind of ordeal merely for exercising their right to lawful free speech, there will be serious consequences. They need to stop policing our tweets and start policing our streets.”
On Saturday night, both Mrs Braverman and Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, expressed their support for Mr Foulkes. Mr Philp called the arrest “completely unacceptable”.
Mrs Braverman said it was an “outrageous and sorry episode”, adding: “Law-abiding people should not be investigated for non-existent thought crimes.”
The FSU is currently supporting several high-profile free speech cases. This month it overturned a six-match ban handed to Cerys Vaughan, the woman footballer who asked a “bearded” opponent if they were a man.
Advertisement
In the days of Rome’s supremacy, there were instruments of torture to compel assent to her doctrines. There was the stake for those who would not concede to her claims. There were massacres on a scale that will never be known until revealed in the Judgment. Dignitaries of the church studied, under Satan their master, to invent means to cause the greatest possible torture, and not end the life of their victim. The infernal process was repeated to the utmost limit of human endurance, until nature gave up the struggle, and the sufferer hailed death as a sweet release. GC88 568.4
Next week, it will support Lucy Connolly’s sentencing appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice. Mrs Connolly, the wife of a Conservative councillor, is serving 31 months in prison for a social media post calling for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire.
Since the last general election, FSU membership has more than doubled, to 29,000. It now employs 28 staff, including a five-strong legal team, and is handling around 250 active cases, 65 involving live legal proceedings.
Adventist Angels Watchman Radio 