Rutland County Council are the Legal Bullies of the Year

It may be a tiny authority, but Rutland has triumphed in Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs Awards 2013.

Here is the magazine's citation in the Legal Bullies of the Year category:

Winners Rutland county council,which set aside £90,000 of taxpayers' money to seek an injunction against three of its own councillors (the "Rutland Anti-Corruption Party") who had been asking awkward questions. 

The council tested the water by prosecuting another critic, blogger Martin Brookes, for "harassing and stalking" chief exec Helen Briggs. District Judge John Temperley found Brookes not guilty, declaring: "freedom of expression is an essential function of a democratic society. It is applicable also to those who offend and shock." A hero on the bench!

This blog has covered the cases of Martin Brookes and the Rutland Three, so I congratulate Private Eye on its choice of winner in this category.