COVID-19: Anti-vaxxer sentenced for ‘encouraging terrorism’ [Video]

London –

An opponent of vaccines who wrote social media posts urging violence against scientists, politicians and public health officials during the COVID-19 pandemic was sentenced Monday to five years in prison after being convicted of encouraging terrorism.

A British judge said 55-year-old Patrick Ruane had a “compulsive and obsessive” opposition to vaccines and spewed vitriol on the Telegram messaging app. One message described “whacking” England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, over the head.

In a series of messages in 2021, Ruane posted that he was “all for hunting them down and … executing” those who made and delivered COVID-19 vaccines. He encouraged others to “find where they live, put a kill squad together and shoot” them in their beds.

In a discussion about Whitty, the vaccine opponent wrote that hitting someone on the back of the skull with a rounders bat – similar to a baseball bat – or a metal mace “would turn said target …