UK police reportedly arrested man who posted photo holding gun during US visit: What we know

• In November 2025, a claim circulated online that police in the United Kingdom arrested a man who posted a photo of himself on social media holding a gun during a visit to the United States.
• According to reports in British media, West Yorkshire Police first suspected Jon Richelieu-Booth, a British consultant, of stalking and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence after he posted pictures from a trip to the U.S. that showed him posing with or standing near guns. Police reportedly arrested Richelieu-Booth in August 2025 but released him on bail until late October 2025.
• Police reportedly later dropped those allegations and instead rearrested and charged Richelieu-Booth with displaying writing with intent to cause harm and distress, a public order offense. The Crown Prosecution Service reportedly scheduled, then canceled, a court appearance for Richelieu-Booth on that charge, telling local media there was “not enough evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.”
• At the time of this writing, Richelieu-Booth appeared to have been cleared of all charges. A West Yorkshire Police spokesperson said in a statement the force “investigated and charged a man with a public order offence but the case was then discontinued by the CPS” but did not confirm either reported arrest.

• According to its statement, West Yorkshire Police did not investigate Richelieu-Booth because the photo showed him holding a gun but rather because a complainant interpreted his online posts as a threat to their safety. Gun ownership is legal in the U.K. only with a police-issued license.

In November 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that police in the United Kingdom arrested a man who posted a photo of himself on social media holding a gun during a visit to the United States.

An Instagram user who posted a video about the alleged arrest wrote, “A British IT consultant took a trip to the U.S., legally shot some guns, posted a single picture on LinkedIn…and when he got home to the UK, he was ARRESTED.”

Claims about the alleged arrest also circulated on Facebook (archived), X (archived), Bluesky (archived) and Reddit (archived). X owner and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk further spread (archived) the claim, writing, “And this is why we have the first and second amendments in America.” Snopes readers also wrote in, asking whether the claim was true.

According to reports in British media citing British consultant Jon Richelieu-Booth, West Yorkshire Police, a force in the area of Yorkshire in northern England, arrested Richelieu-Booth twice in relation to posts he made on his LinkedIn profile. The first of these arrests, reportedly on Aug. 24, 2025, was in response to pictures Richelieu-Booth posted online that showed him posing with guns during a visit to the U.S. (archived, archived, archived). 

Reports said police arrested Richelieu-Booth on suspicion of stalking and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. 

The Yorkshire Post, a local newspaper, reported that its editor (archived) had seen bail documents issued after Richelieu-Booth’s first arrest. Snopes had not independently verified these documents as evidence that West Yorkshire Police had indeed arrested Richelieu-Booth.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesperson said in an emailed statement:

Police received a complaint of stalking involving serious alarm or distress, relating partly to social media posts, several of which included pictures of a male posing with a variety of firearms which the complainant took to be a threat. Police investigated and charged a man with a public order offence but the case was then discontinued by the CPS.

Though West Yorkshire Police confirmed the department “investigated and charged” Richelieu-Booth in connection with complaints “relating partly to social media posts,” it would not confirm whether this investigation included arrests. Therefore, we leave this claim unrated.

According to its statement, West Yorkshire Police did not investigate Richelieu-Booth because the photo showed him holding a gun but rather because a complainant interpreted his online posts as a threat to their safety. Gun ownership is legal in the U.K. only with a police-issued license.

We reached out to the Crown Prosecution Service, the public body that prosecutes criminal cases in the U.K., to ask it to confirm that it dropped a public order offense charge against Richelieu-Booth and why. We also reached out to Richelieu-Booth to confirm aspects of the story and The Yorkshire Post to review Richelieu-Booth’s alleged bail documents. We await replies to our queries.

Richelieu-Booth investigated over LinkedIn posts

According to Richelieu-Booth’s LinkedIn profile, he made three posts on Aug. 11, 12 and 13, 2025, that showed him standing by or posing with guns.

All three posts featured largely unrelated captions about his work but included sentences about a “delinquent client.”

That phrase appeared to be a reference to an ongoing dispute between Richelieu-Booth and Hortor Limited, a British company that had reportedly failed to pay Richelieu-Booth and other clients for their services. Hortor reportedly demanded Richelieu-Booth pay the company £2.3 million (around $3 million) in damages in August 2024 after he allegedly made “multiple LinkedIn posts about the firm’s problems in providing payment to his company and others for work they had carried out.”

On Aug. 15, 2025, after Richelieu-Booth posted the pictures standing by or posing with guns, he wrote (archived) on LinkedIn that he “had a visit from the Authorities responding to a compaint from >Redacted<; one of the Directors of the failed Leeds-based Consultancy Hortor.”

The post continued, “It appears a post with a snap from my recent vacation (of me with a Shotgun while I was being instructed by a former Special Forces Operative in Baker, FL) has triggered (pun not intended) >Redacted<“

Richelieu-Booth also wrote:

Apparently >Redacted< has made slanderous statements that I have made threats towards him, his Son (>Redacted<) & his Grandchildren and he feared for his safety. Unsurprisingly the person at my Door could not prove any such threats had been made, instead relying on me “seeing how the Picture may cause alarm” proving my point this is theatrics by >Redacted< to try paint himself as a victim. 

From Richelieu-Booth’s writings, it appeared he believed the complainant from West Yorkshire Police’s statement to be a director at Hortor. West Yorkshire Police did not confirm this in its statement.

The Yorkshire Post reported that after warning Richelieu-Booth that a complainant had raised concerns about one of his pictures on social media, police returned Aug. 24, 2025, and arrested him on suspicion of stalking and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

After police held Richelieu-Booth overnight and questioned him about images on his social media profile, officers released him on bail until late October, The Yorkshire Post reported.

Second arrest and charge

Then, in October, West Yorkshire Police reportedly arrested Richelieu-Booth again, this time on suspicion of breaking bail conditions, according to news reports. The Yorkshire Post reported that police did not charge Richelieu-Booth with the alleged breach and told him it “would not progress” allegations about firearm possession and stalking. 

Instead, the force reportedly charged Richelieu-Booth with a public order offense, which is a suspected crime committed under the U.K.’s Public Order Acts. The acts created offenses including causing another person “harassment, alarm or distress.” 

According to the Yorkshire Post, the public order offense charge was in relation to a different social media post Richelieu-Booth had reportedly made. Richelieu-Booth was due to appear at a court in Bradford on Nov. 25, 2025, reportedly charged with “an offence of displaying ‘any writing/sign/visible representation with intent to cause harassment/alarm or distress.'” That offense could carry up to a six-month prison sentence, a fine or both.

The CPS canceled that appearance on Nov. 18, 2025, one day after The Yorkshire Post had reportedly applied to remotely attend the hearing. According to the paper, the CPS canceled the appearance because there was “not enough evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.”

At the time of this writing, police and CPS appeared to have dropped all investigations or charges aimed at Richelieu-Booth relating to his social media presence. Writing (archived) on LinkedIn on Dec. 1, 2025, Richelieu-Booth called West Yorkshire Police’s actions “Orwellian over-reach” and said he would “file an action” against the force.

West Yorkshire Police did not comment to Snopes about whether Richelieu-Booth had filed a complaint against the force.