Judge unmasks trans zealot’s links to shady group behind hacking attack on free speech campaigners
A trans activist was linked to militant trans group Bash Back, one of Britain’s highest courts has found.
Autumn Redpath, 22, was named by Mr Justice Bright as a ‘defendant’ in an injunction imposed on the Free Speech Union (FSU) after it hacked its website and published a list of its donors online.
Bash Back, which campaigns for ‘trans liberation’, is calling on its members to form ‘cells’ and plan criminal damage offenses against high-profile targets deemed transphobic.
The Mail on Sunday exposed these practices last month with an investigation that highlighted plans to carry out a series of attacks on the offices of senior politicians, including the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary.
For months, the group went to great lengths to disguise its organizers, including removing internal metadata from public documents and using ultra-secure email systems.
Now The Mail on Sunday can reveal Redpath is an ‘ethical hacker’ who was born biologically male but identifies as female.
Described on LinkedIn as an ‘autistic, trans, anarcho-socialist, hackergirl’ in a now-deleted account
Born in 2003, the activist grew up in a £635,000 stone house in a leafy suburban village in central England and worked in a cafe in Leeds as a teenager.
Autumn Redpath (pictured), 22, was named by Mr Justice Bright as a ‘defendant’ in an injunction imposed on the group after it hacked the Free Speech Union (FSU) website.
The moment Autumn Redpath graduated from the University of Warwick while calling for a Free Palestine and trans rights
Social media paints a picture of a close-knit, wealthy family. Redpath’s mother proudly displayed the trans flag in the photos, and another family member said she was ‘proud to stand next to the amazing Autumn R every day’.
The activist graduated from the University of Warwick with a degree in cybersecurity last summer, but caused a stir at her graduation ceremony by unfurling a trans flag that read ‘free Palestine’.
‘I am delighted to be graduating from the University of Warwick today with a BSc (hons) in Cyber Security. I am also very happy to use this platform to call for trans rights and a free Palestine,” the activist later wrote on LinkedIn.
Pictures posted online showed the university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Stuart Croft, leaving the stage at the protest while seated robed academics applauded. Redpath is currently studying for a master’s degree in digital media and culture, also at Warwick.
One of 28 Freedom of Information requests, recorded by a person with the same name, asked the Equality and Human Rights Commission to ‘provide all records held in relation to the UK direct action group Bash Back’.
Redpath was linked to the group by FSU-appointed cybersecurity experts who, after initial reluctance from police to investigate the system hack, tracked a digital footprint that was said to link Redpath to the creation of Bash Back’s Wikipedia page.
Just hours after Bash Back published the names of donors and the size of their contributions, FSU obtained an emergency Supreme Court order from Judge Bright preventing the hackers from sharing the leaked information.
On Wednesday morning, Supreme Court documents named Redpath as a ‘defendant’ in the injunction. The student, who appeared in court via video link on Friday, insisted that they were not part of Bash Back and asked the judge to keep his name secret.
In his plea, which was rejected, Redpath said: ‘This group attracts a lot of hostility and I’m afraid there is a possibility of them harming me.
I’m not here to defend ‘Bash Back’ but since I’ve followed them in the past I thought they might argue that publishing this information was justified. As an activist group, they believe their actions are just, even if they involve breaking the law.’
