A man who denies that the virus which causes Covid-19 exists has reappeared in civil court, having revised his legal arguments against former Health Minister David Ashford to ’misfeasance in public office’.

Courtenay Heading is making the case against Mr Ashford based on statements which he said the minister made regarding the isolation of the Covid-19 virus.

Mr Heading had been advised at his last court appearance by Deemster Corlett to amend his case, as his original claim against Mr Ashford for ’misconduct in a public office’ is not an offence under Manx law.

Mr Heading said that at a meeting of the Positive Action Group in Douglas in July Mr Ashford had made comments to the effect that the SARS-Cov-2 virus had been isolated in its pure form, and argued that this was untrue and showed the Health Minister’s ’wilful ignorance’.

Mr Heading claims that more than 100 health authorities around the world have been unable to isolate ’the whole natural genome of the SARS-Cov-2 virus (which causes the Covid-19 disease) and talked about the implications for society should the virus not actually exist.

However, Deemster Andrew Corlett advised that the tort of misfeasance required Mr Heading to show that Mr Ashford had acted with ’directed malice’ or ’intention to injure’ him.

He advised Mr Heading to amend his written case to state the mental requirements [of Mr Ashford] for misfeasance in office, adding that as it currently stood his case was ’not satisfying the legal requirements’.

For argument’s sake, Deemster Corlett said that even if Mr Ashford had made a mistake in claiming that the virus had been isolated, this would constitute negligence, not misfeasance - for which one ’must be aware the act is unlawful, or be consciously indifferent to his unlawfulness’.

At one point during the directional hearing, Deemster Corlett held up a university students’ law book on torts, and advised Mr Heading to get a copy for himself to study.

Defending Mr Ashford, Solicitor General Walter Wannenburgh once again sought to strike out Mr Heading’s claim, on the grounds that it had no legal basis - because of the need to show that Mr Ashford acted with intent to injure or show malice.

emails

He added that the case ’shouldn’t trouble the court for very long’.

Mr Heading also sought access to Mr Ashford’s emails, saying that this would help to expose Mr Ashford’s mental state and intentions, but Deemster Corlett said that he was not able to do this.

Mr Heading said that the former Health Minister had acted with ’huge, enormous, wilful ignorance of the science that people are terrified will be heard in court’, and demanded that he appear in court to take the stand and be cross examined under oath.

Deemster Corlett said that he ’did not want 100 pages of scientific research’ from Mr Heading, and asked for his arguments to be kept concise.

He also advised Mr Heading that his arguments would perhaps be better suited to the upcoming independent review into the government’s handling of the pandemic, rather than a court of law.

The date for the next court hearing is set to be determined, with Mr Wannenburgh having requested December 30 to provide his skeleton arguments by.

Mr Heading also notified the court that he had paid £750 in legal costs for the defence of the director of public health, Dr Henrietta Ewart, which he had been ordered to do after he withdrew his claim against her at the last court hearing.