Susan Riddell’s terrorism charge dropped after a 7pm curfew

The last time Susan Riddell played the Edinburgh Fringe, she did it from her living room in Glasgow, on a 10.40pm slot in Monkey Barrel 4. The set was piped into the venue over Zoom, because her bail conditions banned her from the city altogether. “But alas, I am barred from Edinburgh and under partial house arrest until my trial,” she told that audience. “So I am now forced to do a Zoom gig, which I’m sure we’ll all agree is the worst punishment of all.” Chortle reported the set at the time, and proceeds went to projects in Gaza. Fourteen months later, the charge that put her on a laptop instead of a stage has gone.

What happened to Susan Riddell’s terrorism charge?

It was dropped, and she announced it herself. Chortle reported on 30 September 2026 that the Glasgow comic had posted a video about it. The terrorism charge was no longer being pursued, and she said so in the flattest possible terms.

Good news. I’ve just been to my lawyers there and my terrorism charge has been dropped. Yay!

She followed it with “Fuck’s sake. They’ve decided we’re no terrorists, after a year of [virtual] house arrest.” Then, more cheerfully: “But aye, no longer Susanna bin Laden according to the British Crown.” Fern Brady posted underneath: “YESSSSSSSSSS but I will miss calling you Terrorist Susan.” Chortle reported that Riddell still faces less serious charges, and that the case has yet to be indicted to court. Her own summary: “So now we’re just facing some other, less serious charges … there’s still a trial, so let’s hope the jury are sound.” On the most recent episode of Material Girl, the podcast she co-hosts with comic Amanda Dwyer, she added that she was “looking into suing”.

All of this started on 15 July 2025. A van was driven into the fence of a defence factory in Edinburgh during pro-Palestinian protests. STV named the site as Leonardo UK’s facility in Edinburgh. A pro-Palestinian group, Shut Down Leonardo Edinburgh, took responsibility for the incident, STV reported. Chortle reported that three women appeared at Edinburgh sheriff court the following week, on 21 July 2025. They were Riddell, 42, from Glasgow, Allegra Fitzherbert, 34, from London, and Naomi Stubbs-Gorman, 31, from Glasgow. Around 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside. Each faced a charge of malicious mischief aggravated by reason of having a “terrorist connection”. Riddell also faced dangerous driving on the same aggravated basis. Chortle’s 2026 write-up described the remaining non-terrorism matter as an offence under the Road Traffic Act 1988, similarly aggravated. Afterwards, Amanda Dwyer posted two words: “She’s home.”

A 7pm curfew in a trade that starts at eight

The curfew is the bit anybody who books rooms will wince at. Chortle reported that Riddell was “only allowed out of her Glasgow home between the hours of 7am and 7pm”. She “has been restricted to afternoon gigs because of a curfew as part of her bail conditions”. Comedy doesn’t happen in the afternoon. Doors at seven, first act at eight, headliner somewhere near ten, and a drive home that gets you in at one. A 7pm curfew removes a stand-up from almost the entire paid working week, without anybody being convicted of anything. The only rooms left are matinees, corporates and whatever a Sunday afternoon in a function room counts as.

She kept working inside it, which is the bit I find genuinely impressive. Chortle noted she has been performing material about the issues of dating whilst facing terrorism charges. That’s either excellent commitment to the craft or the single worst opener in Scottish comedy, depending on your view of first dates. The wider context doesn’t help: UK comics are already down to around 2.5 gigs a week, and an afternoon-only act is scrapping over matinees with the children’s entertainers.

The refund line in the Instagram post

The Fringe loss is the clearest number in the story. STV reported that Susan Riddell’s hour, How Do You Sleep at Night?, had a slot at Monkey Barrel at The Tron from 28 July until 24 August. It was originally due to run for a month at the festival. The List reported that a work-in-progress show at The Stand in Glasgow, set for Sunday 27 July, also would not go ahead. Courts had barred her from Edinburgh and handed her “a curfew of 7pm”.

What she posted on Instagram reads like cancellation admin. “Thanks to everyone who has shared my Edinburgh fringe show but unfortunately due to bail conditions I’m barred from Edinburgh for the foreseeable so I won’t be doing my show. If you contact the venue, you can get a refund.” The refund instruction is the part venues usually end up chasing acts for. Anyone who has watched a cancelled run turn into three weeks of customer service will recognise it. Plenty of acts leave ticketholders to work it out from a tweet instead, and I’ve seen it handled worse by people with a lawyer on retainer. The List also reported that a gig night in support of Riddell was set for The Stand in Glasgow on Sunday 21 September.

None of the published reports carry a figure for what the cancelled run cost her, the venue or the ticket buyers. I’m not going to invent one. What I’d say is that a month at Monkey Barrel at The Tron pays for more than August: it’s the budget behind a year of work, the material and the reviews you later turn into a tour pitch. None of that restarts because a charge was dropped in September.

The case that still hasn’t reached court

It matters that the terrorism charge was dropped rather than tested. There was no acquittal and no verdict, because on Chortle’s account the case has yet to be indicted to court at all. The remaining charges are live and untried, and nothing here suggests how they will land. Riddell’s “looking into suing” was a remark on a podcast, and nobody has filed anything.

No Fringe contract has a clause for this. Illness, yes. A van dying on the A1, probably. Pre-trial bail conditions that stop a performer reaching her own venue for a month, with no finding of guilt attached and no obvious insurance line to claim against, nobody drafts for. Bookers plan for acts who pull out. Almost none of them have a contingency for an act a sheriff court won’t let into the city. Riddell, incidentally, wrote and starred in the BBC Studios comedy Dregs for BBC iPlayer. She played a character called Susan “preparing for a life of mortgages, marriage and motherhood”, with Janey Godley and Karen Dunbar in support.

My favourite detail in the whole saga isn’t legal at all. Describing her time in custody, Riddell said a prison officer gave her reading material. As she put it, “you’re allowed reading material when you go to prison … it’s a human right”. The book was The Shining. “I don’t know to this day if he was trying to be a smartarse or he was just a dumb fuck,” she said, “… or if it was like psychological warfare.” Then she conceded: “But it was actually quite good, the book, very different from the film. They don’t say ‘Here’s Johnny!'”

Sources

• Susan Riddell: I’m no longer facing terrorism charges, Chortle, 30 September 2026
• Susan Riddell WILL appear at Fringe despite terror charges, Chortle, 20 August 2025
• Comic Susan Riddell faces terror charges, Chortle, 22 July 2025
• Comedian forced to cancel Edinburgh Fringe show after ‘terror’ charges, STV News
• Comedian Susan Riddell’s Fringe show cancelled after terrorism charges, The List, 24 July 2025
• BBC Scotland unveils female-led comedies, British Comedy Guide