A man who repeatedly stands in the middle of a busy road and blocks traffic until he is arrested and then refuses to speak to anyone has done it again. David Hampson has been repeating the behaviour for the best part of a decade but his silence means the reasons behind his actions remain unknown.
Hampson was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in 2021 after a jury found he was "mute of malice" not "mute by visitation of God" and found he was guilty of breaking a criminal behaviour order by blocking the road outside Swansea Central police station. After being released from his sentence he returned to the road outside the police station and blocked traffic on three occasions - and has now been sent back to jail.
Throughout the years of offending the 53-year-old has refused to engage with the legal process and has refused to speak to police officers, lawyers, court staff, probation officers, magistrates, judges, and a psychiatrist. A judge has previously said he believes the defendant's deliberate silence is the result of his "breath-taking arrogance and insolence".
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Lucy Mansfield, prosecuting, told Swansea Magistrates Court that on October 17 this year police were alerted to a man who was stopping traffic on Grove Place outside Swansea Central police station. When they went to investigate they found Hampson. The defendant was taken aside and spoken to but he did not engage with the officers. Police advised him to leave the area but he went straight back into the road and so was arrested. The following day Hampson appeared before justices charged with obstructing the highway but refused to speak or acknowledge the court and as he did not enter a plea to the charge, a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf. The defendant was bailed pending a trial and left the court building and went back to standing in the road. He was arrested again, charged, and remanded into custody ahead of a trial.
Hampson again refused to speak when he appeared in the dock for his trial this week, did not challenge the prosecution case or put forward any defence, and was convicted of two counts of obstructing the highway. He was sentenced to six months in prison. The 53-year-old will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
Hampson has been repeating a similar pattern of road-blocking then remaining silent since 2014 when he was given a two-year conditional discharge for four counts of wilfully obstructing free passage along the highway. The following year he was convicted of a public nuisance offence for the same behaviour, and was made the subject of his first criminal behaviour order. However his behaviour continued, and he subsequently received custodial sentences after being convicted of breaching the court order in 2016, 2017, and again in 2018 when he was sentenced to 42 months in prison. For the latest court reports, sign up to our crime newsletter here
On December 3, 2021, Hampson was arrested outside Swansea Central police station after he blocked the road at the junction of Mount Pleasant and De La Beche Street. The defendant was initially detained under the Mental Health Act, and once his identity was established from his driving licence he was arrested for breaching his criminal behaviour order. He made no reply when cautioned nor when he was subsequently charged. Likewise he remained silent the following day when he appeared at Swansea Magistrates Court and the case was committed to Swansea Crown Court.
The defendant remained silent during his appearance at the higher court on May 13, and because he refused to talk when asked to enter a plea, a not guilty plea was recorded on his behalf and the matter went to trial in July. Before jurors could decide whether Hampson had obstructed the highway or not, they had to determine whether he was "mute of malice" or "mute by visitation of god" - that is, whether he could speak and chose not to, or whether there was some physical or other issue which prevented him from speaking. After hearing evidence from prison officers who said defendant had spoken to them while he was an inmate at HMP Swansea the jury found that he was mute of malice, and subsequently found that he did carry out the act of blocking the road and breaching his criminal behaviour order.
Following the jury's findings the judge ordered a psychiatric report into Hampson in the hope it would cast some light on his behaviour and suggest possible help that he could be offered. However, the defendant refused to speak to the court-appointed doctor so no interview could take place. In response to his non-co-operation, the court ordered that his medical records be produced and given to the psychiatrist so some information about him and his background was known.
The case returned court in the August for a report from the doctor, and the medic concluded that though Hampson's mutism was "selective and deliberate" there may be social or financial "stresses" that contributed to his decision not to talk. The doctor said he was not able to diagnose any psychiatric or other condition and so a hospital order could not be proposed as a way of dealing with the defendant.
At that hearing judge Huw Rees said there may well be "social stresses" involved in Hampson's decision not to speak but in his view the defendant's silence was the result of "breath-taking arrogance and insolence" on his part. Hampson, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.
The criminal behaviour order which the defendant was subject to has now expired.
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