Newbon’s widow writes he was ‘secretly pursuing’ court cases that put their family at risk

Pro-Israel lecturer, who posted doctored image of Corbyn and put another man’s life in danger, committed suicide and has been lionised by Zionist right-wingers

Pete Newbon was a Northumbria University lecturer and a director of notorious right-wing, pro-Israel smear group ‘Labour against Antisemitism’ (LAAS) who, during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party, became infamous after he posted an image of Corbyn reading to children that had been doctored to make it appear that he was reading an infamous antisemitic text, instead of Jewish author Michael Rosen’s ‘Bear Hunt’ children’s book.

Newbon later committed suicide and his right-wing supporters have attempted to make him into some kind of Zionist ‘saint’ and to blame his death on left-wingers who were outraged by his abuse of Rosen’s text – and targeted Rosen himself particularly, despite a coroner’s inquest that never mentioned him once. But in May last year, Skwawkbox revealed that an ‘award’ set up by his supporters to honour Newbon earlier this year accidentally exposed his record as a serial troll who was on a final warning from the university because of his appalling online activity and who was being sued, along with two others, by an opponent whom he had smeared and whose life he endangered.

And now Newbon’s widow, author Rachel Hewitt, has written this telling sentence about him in a new article about men having dark and secret lives:

It’s common knowledge that my late husband was secretly pursuing multiple court cases entirely unbeknownst to me, risking my and my children’s financial security and home.

Hewitt has previously remained publicly silent about her former husband’s activities, although the Jewish Chronicle deleted an article about the Newbon ‘award’ deleted its original header image showing Newbon with her without explanation.

James Wilson, the man put in danger by smears from Newbon and others, successfully pursued two other pro-Israel activists, Edward Cantor and James Mendelsohn for the libel and was awarded £30,000 in damages and almost £140,000 in costs. He dropped Newbon’s estate from the lawsuit after Newbon’s death. Skwawkbox has published a full timeline of the case.

Rachel Hewitt fired Mark Lewis, the aggressively pro-Israel lawyer at the centre of a recent attempt to ‘cancel’ comedian Reginald D Hunter, as Newbon’s lawyer on the case. Lewis, a solicitor who was fined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for wishing death on a young left-wing Jew and continued to represent Cantor and Newbon for part of the lawsuit, was heavily criticised by the judge in the Wilson libel trial for his conduct of the case.

Now Ms Hewitt has put on record the ‘secret’ and reckless life of her late husband, a stark contrast with his lionisation by those who want to continue to exploit his death to attack supporters of Palestinian human rights and statehood.

Readers affected by the issue of suicide can obtain free help from the Samaritans here.

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