Thread by @nickwallis

Welcome to Killymead House Belfast where accredited journalists have been given permission to tweet Morrison v Belfast Film Festival (BFF). Day 1 has just got underway. The claimant Sara Morrison (SM) has just been sworn in. She is the only witness for her claim. 🧵

SM is about to be xe'd by Sean Doherty (SD) for BFF.
SD before i come to your speech at the Let Women Speak (LWS) event in April 2023, let's have a look at your contract with BFF.

SD you are "inclusion/audience development co-ordinator"
SM yes

NB PLEASE NOTE ALL MY TWEETS ARE SUMMARIES OR DESCRIPTIONS OF WHAT IS HAPPENING OR BEING SAID IN COURT. NOTHING IS A DIRECT QUOTE UNLESS IN "DIRECT QUOTES"

[SD is telling her that she's only entitled to stat sick pay and that her employer can reclaim any overpayment SM agrees]
SD you cannot do any paid or unpaid work which might "directly conflict with the business of the employer"

SM yes
SD and when you took some work with the Green Party you asked for permission and you got it
SM yes
SD so you were aware of it

SD takes her to "summary of role" - "to engage local communities... working with partner orgs" - so partner orgs
SM yes
SD job is to "maintain current relationships and build new ones among participants and stakeholders".
SM yes

SD BFF had a relationship with Belfast Pride in 2023
SM no
SD it started working with them
SM about two weeks beforehand
SD were you a steward at LWS
SM no - I was helping out
SD so unpaid work
SM no
SD you were wearing hi-viz

SM yes
SD to look like a steward - you had a role at the event
SM no [then agrees]
SD "you say you didn't intend to speak, but you did prepare notes for a speech in advance"
SM yes
SD you knew about a counter demo
SM diff location yes

SD Ryder Sq
SM yes
SD yes where LWS was going to be
SM yes
SD you know LWS was controversial
SM your political view is that transwomen are not women
SD yes you can't change sex

[oops got the last two lines of that tweets the wrong way round sorry]
SD you know many people "vehemently disagree" with that perspective
SD yes, but I was speaking in a personal capacity and I didn't give my name and I was the only person being targeted.

SD "belfast being belfast people know who you are"
[SM accepts. We go to a new part of the bundle where SD lists the organisations SM mentioned in her speech - you can watch SM's speech here - she starts at 1hr 4mins in ]

SD giving you having a role of building partnerships and maintained partnerships, criticism of them at LWS is not fulfilling your role
SM I've asked them lots of times to get involved and never even got a reply. My criticism of them was about their suppression of their free...

... speech.
SD your criticism of them was not a political opinion
SM yes
SD seriously
SM yes! They're taxpayer funded organisations trying to shut down free speech, that's what they're trying to do.

SD you are criticising them not expressing a political opinion
SM it is political - and the irony is after I expressed my opinion look what happened to me.
SD we'll get to that later.
SD you criticised a politician in your speech who was it
SM Anthony Flynn

SD BFF needs funding from gov - do you think criticising politicians is a problem for your employer
SM do you think it's acceptable to harass and intimidate women
SD it could jeopardise BFF funding
SM no

SD you think they'd just forget about it
[SM accepts it might cause a problem]
SD when you told Michele Devlin [BFF CEO] about the harassment you were getting online - she was initially sympathetic
SM yes - she saw I was in a state
SD helped you print off some of the...

... online abuse.
SM yes
[Michele Devlin will be MD]
[SD takes her to one of the emails sent by Ruth from Outburst Arts which complaints about SM sharing a platform with Joelene Bunting...]

[... and explaining why that to Outburst is a problem]
SD "do you accept that by speaking at the same event as JB people might think you share her views"
SM yes - people can believe what they want

SM "I am very pro LGBT"
SD "saying a trans woman is a man is hardly supporting T is it"
SM "a trans man is a woman - that has nothing to do with the rights of trans people"...which I support wholeheartedly
SD that's actively not supporting Trans rights

SD saying a trans woman is not a woman
SM you can't change sex. I support the right to single sex spaces for women.

[SD takes her to a tweet with pic of SM speaking asking "if BFF is anti-trans it should come out and say so" - having SM say the woman's groups is a racket is not helpful]
SD this is dragging the BFF into this
SM yes - this tweet was one of the ones the CEO of a domestic...

... abuse charity wrote. The police got involved.
SD no one was charged
SM no - I wouldn't want anyone charged over a tweet.

[more tweet examples - tweeters going after BFF funders saying they don't feel safe, that their own inclusion officer is a transphobe and that she spoke

... at an event with anti-trans campaigner and an actual Nazi... etc etc]

SD you accept your actions had the potential to damage BFF's rep
SM yes

SM but I didn't mention trans people in my speech
[SD mentions a inclusion officer]
SM inclusion means everyone including people with sex realist view
[I will ask the parties to supply me with the tweet screenshots that are being mentioned in court]

[we were scheduled to go to 4pm, we have gone to 4.15pm because of the late start]
[Hearing ends. Judge requires SM not to talk about her evidence. Judge requires her back for a 10am "sharp" start tomorrow].

Thank you for following this thread. I am going to write up a precis of what happened in court every night this week. As there wasn't much action today I'll hopefully get tonight's done before 9pm if not before. If you would like to receive the newsletter which...

... will contain the report, please consider making a one-off donation which will see you subscribed to the GenderBlog newsletter for this week and onwards. Thanks to everyone who has done so so far. Here's the link: genderblog.net/donate/

And here's the link to Sara's story, which will continue to be tested by Sean Doherty in court tomorrow.

I'll start a new tweet thread then, but I've got loads of photos and I'm hoping to receive the tweets and emails that were mention in court today so the newsletter should...

... be a good one!

Newsletter sent. Night all. Back at 9.45am-ish tomorrow.