Covid hoaxer who falsely claimed hospitals were empty is fined £200
Mother-of-two Covid hoaxer, 30, who took pictures inside four hospitals to falsely claim they were ’empty’ in anti-lockdown campaign is fined £200
- Hannah Dean, 30, posted photos purporting to show empty hospital corridors
- She told people they were being ‘isolated and controlled by your government’
- Said, ‘Free-range humans are seriously selfish’ and vaccine was ‘causing injury’
- Boasted that she ‘hadn’t heard from police in a week’ before being hit with fine
A hoaxer who went into hospitals and took photos of staff and patients before claiming wards were ’empty’ has been fined £200 over the ‘highly disrespectful and misleading’ stunt.
Hannah Dean posed as a journalist to gain entry to several hospitals before sharing photos on social media of quiet corridors and claiming the government was ‘lying’ about the pandemic.
But the 30-year-old fitness instructor was taking pictures of areas which were not on the frontline in the fight against the virus.
The mother-of-two’s Facebook account has been heavily criticised by the NHS for the post, in which she urged people to go along to hospitals and film their own videos.
Hannah Dean posed as a journalist to gain entry to several hospitals before sharing photos on social media of quiet corridors and claiming the government was ‘lying’ about the pandemic
The 30-year-old urged people to go along to hospitals and film their own videos
The photos of corridors claimed to be taken at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, Hampshire, Southampton General hospital, the Princess Royal University hospital near Bromley, Kent and St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester, West Sussex.
In a bizarre post earlier this month Dean wrote: ‘Free-range humans are seriously selfish!’
Dean, who claims to be a ‘registered journalist’, wrote: ‘QA Queen Alexandra… hospital is the quietest I have ever seen it. I know this is hard to get our heads around, but the government are lying to us.’
Police said the photos were not of parts of the hospital involved in treating patients with Covid.
Portsmouth Police said the post had caused ‘angst in the community’, and Hampshire Police confirmed Dean had received a £200 fine for not having a valid reason for leaving her home.
Dean, who describes herself as a ‘registered journalist’, boasted that she ‘hadn’t heard from police in a week’ before being fined, and said officers had ‘no grounds to detain me’.
NHS Chief Sir Simon Stevens said last week that claims hospitals were empty were ‘simply untrue’ and told a Downing Street briefing: ‘When people say that coronavirus is a hoax, it is a lie.
‘If you sneak into a hospital at 9pm and film an empty corridor and then stick it on social media claiming it ‘proves hospitals are empty’, you are responsible for changing behaviour that will kill people.
‘It is also an insult for the nurse coming home from 12 hours working in critical care having worked her guts out under the most demanding and trying of circumstances.
‘There is nothing more demoralising than having that kind of nonsense spouted when it is most obviously untrue.’
Police said the photos were not of parts of the hospital involved in treating patients with Covid
Boris Johnson added: ‘The kind of people who say Covid is a hoax, they need to grow up.
‘You’ve heard from the head of NHS England the pressure the NHS is under. We’ve got to do our bit to protect it.’
In a bizarre post earlier this month Dean wrote: ‘I can’t wait until our government hears my desperate crys and puts full restrictions on my movement, restricting me from certain areas of my cage…. it can’t come soon enough [sic].
‘Free-range humans are seriously selfish! Thank god for this new rushed through vaccine that nobody will be held accountable for in the event of it causing injury or even death! Because the way I see it is, A few deaths caused by vaccines, is a small price to pay to save a few lives. [sic]’
Portsmouth Police said in a post: ‘Some of you will have seen the reports of persons attending local hospitals, taking photos of parts of the hospital that are not on the frontline in the fight against COVID-19, and using the images to suggest are hospitals are not being stretched.
‘These actions have caused angst in the community, and have prompted a number of calls to us reporting the posts.
‘We have identified the source of the posts and have today issued a fixed penalty notice to the person responsible under the Health Protection Regulations 2020.
‘Our colleagues across the NHS are working flat out to fight this virus, and we are all grateful for their continued efforts.
‘There has been lots of publicity this weekend about us all doing our bit to stick to the rules and guidelines to support our NHS – we urge each and everyone of you to do the same.’
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