'Breathtakingly arrogant' Christian woman flouted planning rules because her only duty was to 'almighty God'

'Frankly I can’t believe a word you say,' judge tells religious couple

Laine and Stephen Shepherd outside court (Plymouth Herald/SWNS)

A judge has criticised a “breathtakingly arrogant” Christian woman for her “strange interpretation of the Bible” after she and her husband broke planning rules and claimed the only authority they recognised was God’s.

Laine Shepherd, 44, and Stephen Shepherd, 46, continued to use their farm as a campsite after being ordered to stop.

Ms Shepherd owned Basset Farm in Chilsworthy, Devon, and kept sheep, chickens and pigs there. Exeter Crown Court heard the couple had moved to there from Surrey in 2015, when Ms Shepherd bought the plot for £101,000.

A complaint was made about a caravan on the site and in 2016 the local council told her not to use the site for residential purposes.

When Torridge District Council issued an enforcement notice in January 2017 she ignored it, saying it would be a “sin” to carry out the “orders of Caesar”.

Ms Shepherd told officers she was “not a member of your society or any other than the society of mankind”. She said her only duty was to “our father almighty God”, not the local authority, pitching three more mobile homes and advertising the plot as a campsite.

The couple were prosecuted and during their trial Ms Shepherd quoted lengthy portions of the Bible, and said she was not a real person, but a “living soul”.

Nonetheless, the jury at Exeter Crown Court found the Shepherds guilty and a judge ordered them to pay a total of £19,000 in fines or be sent to prison.

Judge Timothy Rose said most of the blame for the planning breach lay with Ms Shepherd, and that every time the council had asked her to move a caravan she installed another one on the site.

After the trial, it was revealed that the couple also owed £4,302 in council tax.

Stephen Shepherd said he earned £702 each month from a business in Surrey while his wife said she had no money.

Judge Rose said: “You have made it perfectly clear to me and anyone else in court throughout the conduct of this trial that you, for some peculiar reason based on some strange interpretation of the Bible, think you are not bound by the laws and rules of this country that apply to everyone else.

“You think in some way you are not a person and think you are a so-called free spirit or whatever expression you used.

“Laine Shepherd, you stood before the jury and told them you are not a person who needs to live by the laws of England and Wales and the laws do not apply to you in the same way everybody else who lives in the country.

“Your attitude is breathtakingly arrogant and misguided by your peculiar interpretation of law and religion.

“Frankly I can’t believe a word you say. You sat there saying you had no income and have no money.

“That would imply you would starve. I really do not know what is going on but I certainly know I’m not being told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

Laine Shepherd was fined and told to pay costs of £16,170. She has three months to pay or faces six months in jail.

Her husband must pay £2,888 within three months if he is to avoid 28 days behind bars.

The mobile homes are still at the site and the council is considering taking action to remove them.

Additional reporting by SWNS