UK: White Grandmothers Name Cleared After Charge of Racially Abusing Gypsies

Daily Mail
April 2, 2014

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José Hampson has finally been cleared of racially abusing a family of travellers.

A former Sunday school teacher who was convicted of racially abusing a family of travellers has managed to clear her name after nearly a year of fighting in the courts.

José Hampson, a grandmother of three who runs a toyshop, was fined £1,380 for allegedly launching a foul-mouthed race rant after scraping her car on a gatepost.

But she has now been vindicated after a court ruled that she was innocent and wiped her record clean.

The former school governor, who had never been in trouble with the law, said she was ‘absolutely sickened’ by her initial conviction, adding that the experience was ’11 months of hell’.

Mrs Hampson, 78, was convicted of racially aggravated harassment in August last year after Michael Linfoot, who lived on a traveller site near her home, alleged that she had called him and his family ‘dirty f****** gypos’.

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The supposed ‘victim’.

On Friday, she had the conviction overturned at Preston Crown Court, and will not have to pay any of the fines and court costs which were previously imposed on her.

Mrs Hampson has run Hampson’s Toymaster in Chorley, Lancashire with her family for more than six decades, and is considered a pillar of the community.

Speaking after the hearing, the pensioner said: ‘I was absolutely sickened to be convicted over something that was nothing more than a pack of lies and it is a great relief to clear my name.

‘I was made to feel guilty of something I didn’t do even though I always knew I was innocent. When I was convicted I couldn’t believe it, and since then life has been dreadful. It has been 11 months of hell.

‘I could not believe an innocent person could be found guilty in a British court of law and the whole thing has been incredibly stressful.

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Mrs Hampson and her family have run a toyshop in Chorley, Lancashire for six decades.

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