Local activist Courtney Heading has had his claim struck out after attempting to sue former Health Minister David Ashford for ‘misfeasance in a public office’ over his actions during the pandemic.

Mr Heading told the court that the impact of coronavirus restrictions had caused damage to himself and his family.

He also alleged that Mr Ashford had made false claims about the isolation [existence], mass testing for, and contagion of the Covid-19 virus.

In his ruling which ended a two-hour court sitting, Deemster Andrew Corlett said that Mr Heading’s claim had ‘simply no real chance or prospect’ of amounting to misfeasance in a public office.

Mr Ashford’s defence advocate Robert Jelski argued that this tort would require Mr Heading to show Mr Ashford had acted in deliberate bad faith (rather than just negligence] and caused him harm. Mr Heading’s claims amounted to ‘sweeping generalisations based on personal beliefs’.

The activist had accused Mr Ashford, who he described as the government’s ‘chief propagandist’, of having used radio and newspaper media to create a climate of fear – and now wanted to see him cross-examined under the penalty of perjury.

Mr Heading said that the former health minister had ‘encouraged the police to come and lock me up if I went walking freely across the island’ and caused ‘societally wide psychological trauma’.

Mr Corlett said that he could not allow a claim to go forward which would be seeking a ‘public inquiry, dressed up as a misfeasance claim which would amount to an abuse of the process of this court’.

As for Mr Heading’s allegations that the Covid-19 virus had not ever been properly isolated in any living organism, and amounted to only a ‘test tube virus’ – Mr Corlett said these would be a matter for political action or a public inquiry held into the pandemic, should there be one – not a civil court.

‘The idea that David Ashford pushed through these measures for no reason is not a matter this court should entertain,’ he added.

He said that in responding to the public health emergency facing the island in 2020, Mr Ashford had ‘acted in accordance with a global body of expert evidence’ – following advice of the likes of the World Health Organisation and the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. In addition, Mr Corlett pointed out that as Health Minister Mr Ashford was not responsible for bringing the coronavirus restrictions into legal force – but rather this was initially the responsibility of the Lieutenant Governor who invoked the 1936 Emergency Powers Act, and later Tynwald, which voted through amendments to it.

He noted that, though Mr Heading had said that he was not pursuing this case for money, that financial damages were another key aspect to a claim for misfeasence and therefore was another missing element from his case.

As is standard procedure for lost civil cases, Mr Heading will now be required to pay the legal costs for Mr Ashford’s defence.

This was also the outcome of Mr Heading’s failed case against Public Health Director Dr Henrietta Ewart.