A British court has heard how Matt Hancock feared for his safety and was left “shaken up” after being shoulder barged by an anti-covid vaccination protester.
Hancock told the court he was conerned that he would be pushed down an escalator by the protester who accused him of murdering people during the covid pandemic.
62 year old Geza Tarjanyi from Lancashire has denied causing harassment without violence to the former health secretary on two separate occasions in January.
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Giving evidence, Hancock, aka Midazolam Matt, said he had a pretty good impression that Tarjanyi “had been taken over by these ridiculous conspiracy theories.”
MSN reports: On the first occasion, close to Parliament, Mr Hancock was “accosted” by Tarjanyi, who made physical contact, aggressively questioned him and verbally abused him.
Nutan Fatania, prosecuting, said Mr Hancock passed an anti-vaccination protest before Tarjanyi filmed him, asked him why he had “killed so many people” and shoulder-barged him.
A few days later Tarjanyi followed Mr Hancock through Westminster underground station and onto a train where he again accused the MP of murdering people, it was alleged.
Ms Fatania said: “Mr Hancock felt shaken up by both incidents and concerned for his personal safety.”
Mr Hancock, giving evidence, said: “I had a pretty good impression he had been taken over by these ridiculous conspiracy theories.”
Parveen Mansoor, defending, said Tarjanyi denies any physical contact and believes it was Mr Hancock who “barged into him”.
She added: “He denies assaulting him in any way shape or form.”
Mr Hancock, 44, was health secretary when the coronavirus pandemic struck and was a key figure in the lockdown restrictions and vaccine rollout that followed.
He resigned after leaked CCTV images showed him kissing an adviser in his office, in breach of his own social distancing guidance.
Mr Hancock later angered colleagues and constituents by flying to the Australian jungle to appear on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! in November 2022.
Having been stripped of the Conservative whip over the appearance, he said he will not contest his seat at the next election when he will step down.
The trial continues.
