A UK gentleman who didn't think masks had any purpose learned that they are effective against going to jail.
Unfortunately, Benjamin Glynn, a self-described "sovereign, living man" against whom the law had "no effect", didn't learn that important fact until after he was sentenced to 6 weeks in jail for refusing to wear a mask on a train and for behaving in a truculent and bellicose manner toward authorities who asked him to wear one.
As an added treat, the feisty 40-year-old father of two will be kicked out of the country upon release.
Before he was sentenced Glynn scolded the court for inconveniencing an important personage such as himself: "I'm a man of God, no man puts any fear into me … Hopefully, I will be in the book of life, and it's scary how there's total disregard for common law in Singapore because you are not my master and I am not your slave."
Blimey!
From Channel News Asia:
District Judge Eddy Tham said Glynn was "completely misguided" in his beliefs that he was not subject to Singapore's mask-wearing laws and was instead under "some higher law".
He said the laws were set out by the Government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and that Glynn knew very well the regulations were in force.
"It's not open to him to say he is above the law," said Judge Tham, adding that allowing an individual to state so regardless of his beliefs would "completely undermine" the enactment of such laws.
Glynn continued to say there was "no jurisdiction" over him while the prosecutor pushed for seven weeks' jail, citing his "defiance" and how he openly flouted the law by removing his mask after just being charged for a similar offence.
