Archive

Racial Conviction

Two Nazi EDL Thugs in Portsmouth Courts in One Week!

By
July 19, 2013
community order, Racial Conviction, racially aggravated harassment

hylandandsilvesterHyland (left) and Silvester: racist EDL thugs

Two members of the far-right English Defence League have found themselves up in Portsmouth Courts in the same week for racially-aggravated harassment and breach of bail conditions for violent assault

Jacob ‘Jake’ Hyland is one of the more active and extreme fascist members of Portsmouth EDL and the hilariously entitled ‘Pompey EDL Youth Division’. He has even been on the Portsmouth Anarchist blog under the name ‘pompeyagainstanarchists’ arguing that the EDL are not racist. The 18-year-old, of Mayridge, Fareham, been given a restraining order by Portsmouth Crown Court (15/11/11) for religiously-aggravated harassment after making abusive phone calls to Abbas Rahim at the Al Mahdi Centre in Fareham in October and November of last year.

Following the court appearance of baby-faced Nazi Jacob ‘Jake’ Hyland earlier in the week, a second Portsmouth member of the extremist EDL also had his day in court (or should that be YET another day in court, following his previous convictions?!) .

Blaise Silvester, 21, of Stubbington Avenue, North End, was given a two-month curfew and told to do 100 hours of unpaid work after attacking peace protesters at a demonstration outside the Jami Mosque in Victoria Road North, Southsea. A group of football hooligans, neo-nazi extremists and local youths formed to hurl racist abuse, bottles, bricks, fireworks and roofing slates at members of the peaceful Portsmouth muslim community and many others from the local area who had gathered to defend the Mosque.

Sentencing him in June, Judge Graham White said the 21-year-old could normally have gone to jail. But a mistake by the probation service meant the judge’s hands were tied and he had to hand Silvester a community order. Silvester was given a 12-month community order and told to do 100 hours of unpaid work in the community. He also had to wear an electronic tag and stay at home everyday from 9pm to 6am for two months. Silvester should have been offered rehabilitation by the probation service for a previous offence but because he wasn’t, the judge said he couldn’t jail him.

Rather than counting himself lucky and getting on with the unpaid work, Silvester breached the order. On one occasion he shouted and swore at the officer in charge and another time he failed to turn up, Portsmouth Crown Court heard.

Lancaster Unity And Paulie @ Indymedia

EDL supporters fined for on-train racist abuse

By
July 18, 2013
EDL, English Defence League, Fined, Racial Conviction, racially aggravated public order offence, Racist Abuse

Three English Defence League supporters have been ordered to pay more than £350 each after being found guilty of subjecting rail passengers to serious racist abuse.

Tracey Hurley (33), Stuart Parr (28) and a 17-year old youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Wigan Magistrates’ Court on 20 January for trial.

The court heard that, on Friday 25 June last year, the trio had attended an EDL march in Bradford and had been on their way home when they travelled from Manchester Victoria to Wigan on a Northern Rail service. During the journey they became abusive and intimidating, subjecting several passengers to a torrent of racist abuse.

The abuse began when the three sang songs relating to the EDL and Taliban. At Salford Crescent an Asian man boarded the train and was immediately targeted by the group who shouted derogatory remarks about Allah to the man.

PC Tony McGibbon, of British Transport Police, said: “The abuse continued for some time and was directed at anyone on board the train who the three perceived to be anything other than white British. The behaviour of the three was offensive in the extreme, completely unacceptable and made everyone on the train feel incredibly uncomfortable.”

A passenger advised a member of rail staff who reported the behaviour of the three to BTP officers. After witnesses were spoken to the three where arrested and interviewed. During interviews they admitted having been at the EDL march and drinking heavily, but denied making any racist remarks or behaving in a racist manner.

PC McGibbon added: “Despite their initial denials, there is no doubt that these three behaved in a deeply offensive manner and subjected rail passengers to unacceptable and unwarranted abuse. BTP, the rail industry, and the wider criminal justice system, takes a dim view of anyone who behaves in such a way and the sentence handed out should serve as an example and warning to others.”

Hurley, of Kingsley Avenue, Goose Green, was fined £150, ordered to pay £200 costs and a £15 victim surcharge after being found guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence. Parr, of Golborne Place, Scholes, was fined £150, ordered to pay £200 costs and a £15 victim surcharge after being found guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence.

The youth, from Ashton-in-Makerfield, was fined £150, ordered to pay £200 costs and a £15 victim surcharge after being found guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence.

Lancaster Unity

Man photographed with stick moments before attack on Kingston Mosque is spared jail

By
July 18, 2013
criminal damage, Fined, Jailed, Public order offence, Racial Conviction, religiously-aggravated offence, Suspended sentence
Henry Hunter

Henry Hunter

A teenager found guilty of violent disorder following an attack on Kingston Mosque has been spared jail.

Henry Hunter, 19, was convicted last month after a gang of young men laid siege to a mosque in East Road, having previously attended a protest march against Muslim extremism, in November 2010.

But he was acquitted of racially aggravated criminal damage.

At Kingston Crown Court this morning, Hunter, from Ashford in Middlesex, was sentenced to six months at a young offenders’ institute, suspended for 12 months.

He was fined £1,000, given 250 hours of unpaid work, and handed a four month curfew order banning him from leaving his home on Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights.

Hunter was also given an exclusion order banning him from Kingston town centre for a year.

Before the sentence was passed, Hunter’s solicitor Michael Green told Recorder Roderick Fletcher that Hunter was a young man of previous good character who had not been in trouble before or after the mosque attack.

Mr Green said Hunter’s attitude had changed considerably in the two years since the attack, and he was now also holding down a job as a fork lift truck driver.

He contrasted Hunter’s police record with those of Martin Pottle and Alfie Wallace, who, along with David Morris, were all jailed for the attack in April.

Mr Green said Pottle had four previous public order offences and had been sentenced to six months in prison for affray in 2010.

Wallace had convictions for violence, robbery, criminal damage, assaulting a police officer and racially aggravated offences.

Mr Green also pointed to the fact Hunter handed himself into the police voluntarily, after his picture appeared on the front page of the Surrey Comet in the wake of the convictions of Pottle, Wallace and Morris.

Mr Green said: “This is a young man who handed himself into a police station after his picture was published in the Surrey Comet on the same day.

“His attitudes have changed considerably, his personal circumstances have changed considerably.

“He hopes to be given the opportunity to carry on working. Things have changed in terms of his employment, and in terms of his attitude.

“There are no new offences. The author of the pre-sentence report has spoken to the police and there is no suggestion he has been involved in any previous activity.”

Sentencing Hunter, Recorder Fletcher said: “You surrendered voluntarily to the police, you are currently in employment and you have a stable home environment.

“You’ve made important changes to your lifestyle and attitude in the past two years.”

“I’ve felt able to take a different course in your case to the course taken regarding Mr Pottle and Mr Wallace.

“Mr Pottle was substantially older than you, and Mr Wallace was marginally older than you.

“Both were convicted of two offences – violent disorder and religiously aggravated damage to property and both had relevant previous convictions.

“In these circumstances I’ve taken what could be considered as an unusual course in relation to your sentence.”

Surrey Comet

Ex-soldier’s anti-Muslim rants on Facebook

By
July 18, 2013
criminal damage, EDL, English Defence League, Racial Conviction

EDL supporter Kenneth Holden posted anti-Muslim messages on Facebook.

EDL supporter Kenneth Holden posted anti-Muslim messages on Facebook.


A SOUTH Tyneside ex-soldier used his Facebook page to make racist comments about Muslims.

Kenneth Holden wrote the anti-Islamic messages after he started supporting the far-right English Defence League (EDL).

The 30-year-old was arrested after police were alerted to the abusive comments that were written on his personal page.

Holden, of Winskell Road, South Shields, pleaded guilty to two counts of sending an offensive message by a public communication network at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court last week.

Magistrates adjourned the case until yesterday for the probation service to write a report about him.

The report recommended that Holden be placed under the supervision of probation so his attitudes towards Muslims could be looked at.

Kevin Smallcombe, defending, asked the magistrates to go along with the report’s recommendation.

Holden was given a 12-month community order with supervision.

Jeanette Smith, prosecuting, told the court that the messages were brought to the police’s attention on April 21.

She said: “After receiving the report, officers searched Facebook, found the defendant’s page and saw the religiously abusive comments.

“He was arrested, and asked the police if it was because he didn’t like Muslims.

“In a second police interview, he posted the comments on his page and accepted that they could be seen as offensive to Muslims.”

At the first hearing, Mr Smallcombe said: “He was in the Army, and has some fairly strong views about Muslims.

“He supports some of the beliefs of the English Defence League and believes that the group was started after some Muslims spat on soldiers who were returning from Afghanistan.

“The comments on Facebook were of a religious nature.

“Some people say it is part of free speech, but by his guilty plea Mr Holden accepts he crossed the line.

“Most of our country has fair and tolerant views but some are extremists, on both sides of this argument.”

Holden was also sentenced for a separate criminal damage charge relating to his grandfather’s home.

The case goes back to June 28 when police found him in the house while his grandfather was in hospital.

He had broken into the home through the back door.

Holden was ordered to pay £60 compensation to his grandfather and £160 court costs for both cases.


Jarrow and Hebburn Gazette

Nottingham pig’s head mosque race abuse men sentenced

By
July 18, 2013
EDL, English Defence League, Fined, Racial Conviction, Suspended sentence

Three men have been fined for placing a pig’s head near the site of a proposed mosque in Nottinghamshire.

Wayne Havercroft, 41, of Bestwood Village, was fined £585 by Nottingham magistrates for racially aggravated public order offences.

Nicholas Long, 22, of Arnold, and Robert Parnham, 20, of Clifton were fined £300 over the incident in West Bridgford in June.

The court heard “No mosque here, EDL Notts” was sprayed on the ground.

In July, Christopher Payne, 25 of Hucknall was given a six-week suspended sentence and fined £335 and given 100 hours of community service for the same offence.

Crown Prosecution Service spokesman Brian Gunn said: “This kind of targeted abuse based on the grounds of religion or race has no place in our community.”

Mr Gunn added: “The actions of this group were highly offensive and would obviously have caused significant distress to the community in West Bridgford had it not been discovered at an early stage.”

The court was told the men had been drunk at the time and had since said they were ashamed of their behaviour.

BBC News

Neo-Nazis jailed over anti-Jewish internet posts

By
July 18, 2013
EDL, English Defence League, hate crime, Jailed, Racial Conviction
Heaton and Hannington wanted to rid Britain of ethnic minoritie

Heaton and Hannington wanted to rid Britain of ethnic minoritie

Two white supremacists who posted racist internet messages calling for Jews to be destroyed have been jailed.

Michael Heaton, 42, of Leigh, Greater Manchester, and Trevor Hannington, 58, from Hirwaun, described Jews as “scum” and encouraged people to kill them.

The self-proclaimed neo-Nazis were both cleared of soliciting murder. Heaton was convicted of stirring up racial hatred – a charge Hannington admitted.

Heaton was jailed for 30 months and Hannington for two years.

‘Race war’

Justice Irwin told Heaton his words were of the most “insulting and extreme nature” marked by “violent racism” and said only a significant jail term was acceptable.

The 42-year-old food packer admitted in a police interview that he was a founder member of the Aryan Strike Force (ASF), whose goal was “the eradication of ethnic minorities from Britain”, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

“Your sustained racist rants were intended to bolster that group.

“You wanted to start a race war.

“You are clearly filled with racial hatred and also with violent and angry beliefs.”

The court was told that Heaton had posted 3,000 messages on his ASF website between January and June 2008.

He wrote: “I would encourage any religion or race that wants to destroy the Jews, I hate them with a passion.”

In another posting he said Jews were “leeches” and “scum” and that black people were “less intelligent than other species”.

Hannington, from Hirwaun, Cynon valley in south Wales, was described as a loner by the judge, who told him: “You are a long-standing racist who has never hidden your views, which are violent and vicious in the extreme.

“You are a lonely man with little in your life.”

The 58-year-old builder admitted he was an administrator for the ASF website and one of his posts read: “Kill the Jew, Kill the Jew, burn down a synagogue today! Burn the scum.”

When police raided the homes of both men they found a whole collection of knives and firearms.

Heaton’s bedroom was adorned in flags with symbols of far-right movements, and a samurai sword hung above his bed.

Elsewhere around the house officers found nunchucks, batons, knives and knuckle dusters hanging on the walls, and a BB machine gun was also recovered.

Flags bearing swastikas were strewn around Hannington’s house and police found a personal armoury including an air rifle and daggers.

‘Anarchist’s Cookbook’

David Fish, mitigating for Heaton, said the defendant had been banned from accessing the internet while on bail and was no longer involved in the BFF.

He said: “Heaton has, in effect, shed the habit and lost interest in putting up these posts.”

Hannington’s defence claimed he was a “fantasist” and the jury’s verdict accepted the posts were made without a great deal of thought.

However, Hannington also admitted owning the Anarchist’s Cookbook, Kitchen Complete and The Terrorist Encyclopaedia, all of which are considered useful tools to someone preparing or committing an act of terrorism.

Mr Justice Irwin ordered the weapons to be destroyed, along with the defendants’ home computers.

Stuart Laidlaw, the Crown Prosecution Service’s Counter Terrorism Division lawyer, said: “As members of the ASF, Hannington and Heaton were closely associated with Ian Davison who was recently convicted of terrorism offences and of producing the poison ricin.

“They enjoyed similar links with his son, Nicky Davison, who was also recently convicted of terrorism offences.

“We considered this to be a very serious case and on the evidence presented to us by police, the public interest required a prosecution.”

The judge told him: “You saw yourself as the leader of a potentially significant and active National Socialist group.

BBC News

Four locked up for slashing teen in Thornhill Lees

By
July 18, 2013
Jailed, possessing an offensive weapon, Racial Conviction, racially-aggravated common assault

A JUDGE has condemned a gang which got embroiled in a ‘spiral of violence’ in Dewsbury.

This week four men were jailed for an attack on two teenagers, which Leeds Crown Court heard was the result of heightened racial tensions in Thornhill Lees.

Two of the defendants, Josh Foster and Jordan Williams, were seeking revenge after being beaten up by a group of Asian males in October.

Melvin Watts, 19, told police the pair called for him on November 3 and told him, ‘Tonight’s the night’. Watts thought this meant they were going to find the men who had attacked them. He said he took a craft knife for self-defence.

The trio called for Dale Oakley, 21, and all four went to Thornhill Lees where they set upon two Asian teenagers in Lees Hall Road.

Williams hit one of the teenagers with a stick and Watts slashed one of them across the face.

Abdul Iqbal, mitigating, said the other men started attacking the two teenagers before Watts got involved.

Mr Iqbal said: “He took that as a tacit confirmation that these were the people they were looking for.”

But David Bradshaw, prosecuting, said neither of the victims were linked with the assault on Foster and Williams.

He added that Williams, 18, had told officers that Watts had invited friends on Facebook to go ‘muzzy hunting’.

Mr Iqbal said there had been heightened racial tensions in Thornhill Lees after Jack Carter had been killed by an Asian man in August. But Richard Canning, mitigating, said Foster did not see the attack as racist.

Sam Andrews and Robin Frieze for Williams and Oakley said both had shown remorse.

Watts, of Mountain Road, Thornhill, was given five years in a young offenders’ institute for wounding with intent and possessing an offensive weapon.

Foster, 18, of Grange Crescent, Tadcaster, was given 15 months in a young offenders’ institute for wounding and racially aggravated assault.

Oakley, of Thorn Avenue, Thornhill, was jailed for 18 months for the same offences.

Williams, of Partridge Crescent, Thornhill, was sent to a young offenders’ institute for 18 months for wounding, racially aggravated assault and possessing an offensive weapon.

Judge Colin Burn said: “I have heard about the death of Mr Carter and it is clear it is a part of a cycle or spiral of violence in your area. You four, with some enthusiasm, decided to get yourselves involved.

“What you did was completely unacceptable in any civilised society. Both complainants were traumatised by what happened to them and in the case of one, he has been left with a permanent facial scar.

“It’s an absolute miracle that his eye was not put out.”

Dewsbury Reporter

Three men sentenced over arson attack on Sussex mosque

By
July 18, 2013
Arson, EDL, hate crime, Public order offence, Racial Conviction
James Everley, James Smith and Joshua Morris were sentenced to three years for the arson attack

James Everley, James Smith and Joshua Morris were sentenced to three years for the arson attack

Three men have been sentenced for an arson attack on a newly-renovated mosque in West Sussex.

James Everley, 20, of Crawley, James Smith, 20, of Burgess Hill, and Joshua Morris, 20, of Haywards Heath, were all sentenced to three years at a young offenders institute.

The fire at the mosque in Wivelsfield Road, Haywards Heath, was started at about 02:10 GMT on 13 February.

Police believe the attack was a religiously-aggravated hate crime.

The men had pleaded guilty at Hove Crown Court to arson, theft of paraffin and a public order offence, which involved racially or religiously aggravated fear of violence.

Ch Insp Jon Hull, district commander for Mid Sussex, said: “The mosque was occupied at the time this fire was started and it could have had devastating consequences if it hadn’t been put out quickly.

“Thankfully only damage was caused to the building.

“Everyone who lives, works or visits Sussex has a right to go about their lives without becoming the victim of a hate crime because of their disability, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The mosque had been renovated and had reopened three months before the attack

BBC News

Pair spared jail for mosque abuse

By
July 18, 2013
EDL, English Defence League, Racial Conviction, racially aggravated public order offence
Steven Dryden,left, and Brian Mackey leaving South Tyneside Magistrates Court.

Steven Dryden,left, and Brian Mackey leaving South Tyneside Magistrates Court.

TWO men who hurled a tirade of racial abuse at Muslims leaving a mosque in South Tyneside have been spared jail.

Brian Mackey and Steven Dryden went to a South Shields mosque after a night out in the town to air their racist views to worshippers who were leaving the building after late-night prayers.

Magistrates heard the duo filmed themselves on a mobile phone pledging their allegiance to far right group the English Defence League (EDL) during an onslaught of abuse outside the Baithul Mamur Jame Masjid Mosque, in Baring Street, South Shields.

The attack happened on September 5 last year after they had been discussing terrorism and religious extremism in Vogue nightclub, in nearby Ocean Road. Yesterday, the pair were back at South Tyneside Magistrates Court to be sentenced.

Bench chairwoman Dorothy Gibson gave each an 18-month community order and also made them subject to a curfew between 7pm and 7am for four months.

She told them: You cannot be proud of yourselves. It is only your previous good character that has saved you from jail.

Mackey, 26, of Emlyn Road, South Shields, and Dryden, 24, of Fife Avenue, Jarrow, both pleaded guilty to a racially aggravated public order offence when they appeared in court on January 28.

At that hearing, magistrates heard how the men did not believe they were being racist and were within their rights to air their political views.

Yesterday, their solicitor Jenny Coxon said: Mr Dryden acknowledges that his views can be seen as racist and understands how his actions are in line with the charge he has pleaded guilty to.

He said hes not going to join in with any EDL rallies again, because its those beliefs that got him where he is today.

Mr Mackey has the stronger views of the two, but they are something that both of them will work on with the probation service.

Jarrow and Hebburn Gazette

English Defence League member found guilty of threatening Muslim taxi driver because of his religion

By
July 18, 2013
EDL, English Defence League, Jailed, Racial Conviction, religiously-aggravated offence

dickie

A MAN who claims to be a member of the English Defence League has been found guilty of threatening a Muslim taxi driver because of his religion, after “refusing” to attend court to mount a defence to the charge.

Charles Dickie, aged 23, was due to appear before magistrates in Northampton yesterday to stand trial over an incident in Daventry earlier this month, but he would not get into a prison van to transport him to the hearing, the court heard.

After hearing the case in his absence, chair of the bench, Mabel Lilley, found the case against Dickie proved, and said the magistrates were minded to impose a 20-week prison sentence when Dickie could be brought before the court.

Taxi driver Sultan Ahmed said he had worked in Daventry for the past three-and-a-half years. He said that on Friday, March 2, he had been waiting for a customer in Brook Street at about 4.30pm when he was approached by Dickie.

Speaking through an interpreter, he said: “He said we are here, all over this place, in this country, and you are not welcome here.”

Dickie then sang a song insulting both Islam and Mr Ahmed and uttered expletives, before moving in closer and pointing to his genitals.

Mr Ahmed said: “He looked very angry and aggressive. He looked as if he was about to fight with me.”

Giovanni D’Alessandro, prosecuting, said Dickie had told police officers when arrested: “I’m not racist. I don’t like Muslims.”

He also talked continuously about the EDL and made threats towards a planned mosque in Daventry, the court was told.

Magistrates heard Dickie, of Tennyson Road, in Daventry, was previously convicted of making racially-aggravated threats in 2007, and they were shown evidence from his Facebook site to support the prosecution case.

Sentencing, Mrs Lilley said: “We feel this was a particularly nasty incident directed towards Mr Ahmed.

“There was a certain amount of planning on Mr Dickie’s part. He deliberately insulted Mr Ahmed and used abusive and insulting words towards him.”

In a statement to the court, Mr Ahmed said he had been “deeply upset and hurt” by Dickie’s actions, adding: “I can’t understand why Mr Dickie felt the way he did, to voice such hatred.”

Magistrates revoked a community order previously imposed against Dickie for an assault in Blackpool in May last year and for failure to surrender to bail.

Mrs Lilley said she was minded to sentence Dickie to four weeks in prison for the assault and two weeks for the bail offence, along with the 20 weeks for the religiously-aggravated offence against Mr Ahmed.

However, sentencing was adjourned to a date yet to be set

Northampton Chronicle