The Ditch is defying a court order imposed by two senior British judges forbidding coverage of a human rights lawyer’s fight against contempt of court allegations over a speech he gave representing a Palestine Action client.
Rajiv Menon KC appeared in court today to challenge a High Court decision to pursue him for alleged contempt of court during his closing speech at the end of Charlotte Head’s first trial in January 2026.
Head, along with Irishman Jordan Devlin and four others, was found not guilty of aggravated burglary at the Elbit Systems factory near Bristol, England, in August 2024.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the criminal damage charges against the Filton Six group and a retrial is now taking place before Woolwich Crown Court.
Head was forced to make her own closing statement to the jury without Menon yesterday because of “decisions made by the court”.
"Sadly, despite how unbelievably kind and smart and wise my barristers are, after some decisions made by the court, I no longer feel like they are permitted to represent me in a way that does us all justice. So I’ve had to represent myself,” Head told jurors.
‘There shall be no reporting of these proceedings’
Rajiv Menon KC compared Charlotte Head’s actions to those of the suffragettes and spoke of her work with survivors of domestic abuse in London during the 8 January closing statement to the jury. His voice broke with emotion as he said her decision to sacrifice years of her life and her education to serve others would make any parent proud.
It has now emerged that Menon is himself appearing before the Court of Appeal. The media is prohibited from reporting on the contempt of court case against Menon.
The Ditch contacted the HM Courts and Tribunals Service this morning to query the restrictions and was given a copy of the court orders.
In his High Court order dated 13 March, 2026, lord justice Edis set out the allegation against Menon.
“Contempt in the face of the court may have been committed on the grounds explained in the ruling of Johnson J ("the judge") given in the Crown Court on 12 January 2026 in which he identified the respects in which he considered that Mr Menon had breached rulings he had made in the course of his closing speech on 8 January 2026,” it reads.
Edis ordered that a summons be issued to Menon and that “there shall be no reporting of these proceedings pending the outcome of that (Head’s) re-trial”.
A further order – also restricting media coverage – issued by the Court of Appeal on 10 April reads, “Mr Menon’s application for permission to appeal against the order of Lord Justice Edis”, which is being heard today at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
“There shall be a reporting restriction order pursuant to section 4(2) of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 in respect of this appeal in identical terms to that contained in the order of Lord Justice Edis, prohibiting any reporting of these proceedings until the retrial in R v Charlotte Head and others in the Crown Court at Woolwich has concluded,” ordered lord justice Bean.
Menon is a highly respected human rights barrister and has represented victims of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire and the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster.
The Ditch reported last year that Charlotte Head’s co-accused, Antrim man Jordan Devlin, was being subjected to inhumane conditions in British prisons.
Devlin told jurors yesterday that he does “not regret signing up for this action”.
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