Self-described woman rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen appears to have been doused with tomato soup as she prepared to host her latest edition of her Let Women Speak open-mike event.
The British provocateur who argues against allowing transgender people access to space that align with their gender was delivering her Let Women Speak event in the British city of Sheffield.
Footage posted to social media showed her supporters chasing after a man, while a voice can be heard shouting “he just attacked a lady and chucked milk over her head.”
Police apprehend the man being perused and he is handcuffed and arrested. When Keen started the live stream of her event, she appeared with her wet hair slicked back.
Keen later posted to social media saying the substance she’d been attacked with was tomato soup.
South Yorkshire police said a 34-year-old man has been charged with two counts of assault by beating following an incident in Sheffield city centre earlier today (21 September).
Ben Lindsay, of Fitzwilliam Street, Barnsley, was arrested by officers earlier this afternoon during a demonstration in Barkers Pool. He has since been released on conditional bail and will appear before Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on 25 November.
The activist was previously assaulted during her tour of New Zealand in 2023. During her attempt to host her event in Auckland and protester infiltrated the ranks of her supporters and poured tomato juice over Keen which also hit another woman standing nearby.
Eli Rubashkyn was found guilty of two cases of assault earlier this month. Rubanshkyn pleaded guilty to the charges, but her lawyer requested a discharge without conviction arguing that the gravity of her offending was low and that she had been making a statement about Keen’s anti-transgender views.
The judge hearing the case disagreed, highlighting that the attack on Keen had been premeditated and Rubanshkyn had not submitted any apology in submissions to the court.
At the event in Sheffield Keen and her supporters were surrounded and outnumbered by counter-protesters who played loud music drowning out the speeches.
At one point during proceedings Keen took to the mike to complain about the way police were separating the counter-protesters from her group.
Describing the counter protesters are “arseholes” and “twats”, Keen said if the tables were turned, and the counter protesters were standing in her position she believed a different approach would have been deployed.
“Perhaps we should be violent and aggressive.” Keen told the crowd. “Perhaps we should break the law, perhaps we should be nasty, prejudicial arseholes, because then I reckon, we’d get some protection.”
As Keen delivered her thoughts, the counter-protests could be heard repetitively chanting “We love women, you spread hate.”
Kellie-Jay Keen is scheduled to return to Australia next month to appear at the C-PAC conference in Brisbane.
