A BBC journalist was targeted by anti-vaccine protesters who mobbed him and told him that he would “hang” yesterday.
Philip Norton, a BBC Look North reporter, was targeted by the protesters while reporting on Bank Holiday crowds in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.
A shocking video of the encounter shows Norton being approached by a protester with a loudspeaker, who told him he would “hang” and the “trials would be coming on the first of September”.
"You will hang for what you’ve done to this country, and so will the clown, and so will the despicable MPs that you are supporting. The nooses are ready, trust me,” he said.
"We’ve been watching you for a long time, you are criminals.
"We're not going to be violent, we're not going to intimidate you, but you have no place to be out here right now.”
The angry anti-vaxxer said that he had travelled 50 miles “just to get” to the BBC team.
“You ain’t gonna be able to walk the streets, trust me,” he added.
Norton shared the video online, along with two tweets explaining why he had shared the aggressive scenes with his followers, and another video, the news report he produced that day.
“Today I went out to work in Scarborough, with a great team, and produced this piece for @BBCNews. I’m always incredibly proud of my work as a journalist, of its accuracy, and of our standards. It’ll be on again later,” he said.
“This is what we were subjected to in our roles as #journalists today. Ambushed and cornered by protesters, death threats, labelled as paedophiles and murderers,” he said.
“We’re all ok and well supported, but sadly this is happening more and more as we try to do our jobs.”
“I’ve called this out because in recent years, it’s almost become ‘part of the job’ to get abuse in the streets. Most weeks I cop for some, as do my colleagues,” he continued. “That’s not right. We appreciate everyone has views- but this really isn’t the way to get people to listen.”
The video of Norton being ambushed continues to show other protesters in the background shouting "scumbags" and "complicit".
One woman in the background is wearing a blue shirt printed with the slogan ‘unmasked, unmuzzled, unvaccinated, unafraid’.
Toward the end of the clip, Norton pans around the crowd, capturing more protesters yelling at him from all sides.
* This article has been amended after publication to clarify that Mr Norton was in Scarborough reporting on Bank Holiday tourists, not to report on the protest.
