Britain pensioner paid £20,000 compensation after wrongly arrested for social media post (3 photos)

Retired special constable Julian Foulkes, 71, has been awarded £20,000 in compensation after he was wrongly arrested by police for a social media post. His post was about an anti-Semitic mob storming an airport in Dagestan in search of Jewish passengers.





The incident that led to the British police detaining the retired special constable happened back in 2023. Then Foulkes responded on the X network to an activist's threats to sue Home Secretary Suella Braverman for calling pro-Palestinian marches that took place in London "hate marches".

The post Foulkes made public said:

"On the verge of storming Heathrow in search of arriving Jews..."

The post was about a news story: in 2023, an anti-Semitic mob of several hundred people stormed an airport in Dagestan in search of Jews on board a plane that was landing in Israel.



A few days later, six police officers armed with batons and pepper spray burst into the pensioner's home. They grabbed the man, took his fingerprints, photographed him, and took a DNA swab.

Fowles was then locked in a police cell for eight hours and interrogated on suspicion of malicious communication. At first, the frightened man accepted the charges, but later protested.

In May 2025, local police admitted that the pensioner's arrest was a mistake. Chief Constable Tim Smith personally called Foulkes to apologise for the officers' actions to him, and he was subsequently sent a letter apologising "for the distress caused by the officers' actions".

As well as the apology, the police agreed to a settlement after a pensioner brought a claim, backed by the Free Speech Union, against the force for unlawful arrest. The victim of the unjustified actions of British police officers was paid £20,000 in compensation.