Neo-Nazi Ashley Podsiad-Sharp worked at Leeds men’s prison HMP Armley until his arrest last year

Ashley Podsiad-Sharp possessed a document called the White Resistance Manual. Photograph: Counter-Terrorism Policing North East/PA

A neo-Nazi former prison officer who ran a fascist fitness club has been sentenced to eight years in prison for possessing a terrorist handbook.

Ashley Podsiad-Sharp, 42, from Barnsley was convicted at Sheffield crown court of possessing a white supremacist “murder manual” on an encrypted hard drive.

Podsiad-Sharp, who worked at the Leeds men’s prison HMP Armley until his arrest in May last year, was described as an “extremely dangerous” man who was likely to have eventually committed terrorist acts or incited others to do so.

Counter-terrorism police found he possessed a document called the White Resistance Manual, which contained advice on how to kill people in a race war and how to avoid detection by police.

Calling himself “Sarge”, Podsiad-Sharp also ran White Stag Athletics Club, which was described by judge Jeremy Richardson KC as “a cauldron of self-absorbed neo-Nazism masquerading as a low-grade, all-male sports club”. It was used to “camouflage your real purpose, to incite violence against those you hated”.

New members were asked if they were homosexual, mixed race or had Jewish or Muslim heritage as part of the vetting process for joining the white supremacist group, which Richardson said was for “inciting hatred” and “encouraging acts of violence” among the “ignorant and disillusioned men”.

Podsiad-Sharp called himself the “commander” and talked about his Nazi heroes, who included Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler.

During the trial, the jury watched a video the self-described neo-Nazi made after being fired from his job, in which he said: “They didn’t get rid of me. It’s been a real good ’un this job actually. Kicking arse and taking names basically. It’s been really, really good fun, lots of busts for drugs and a bit of violence.”

The jury was played a video Podsiad-Sharp made on his way home from a shift at HMP Armley, wearing his uniform, in which he said: “They didn’t get rid of me.”

Richardson said he would be writing to Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, as Podsiad-Sharp should never have been able to work as a prison officer with access to vulnerable and disillusioned men.

He said: “I have absolutely no doubt that a man with the perverted and extremely dangerous views you hold should never be employed in the responsible position you held as a prison officer. I have no idea what, if any, vetting was undertaken by the prison service.

“Although the crime was not committed in prison, I regard the fact you were a prison officer to be a very serious matter. You had contact with young white men who were vulnerable and disadvantaged and may have been ripe for selection by you had the situation presented itself.”

Richardson jailed Podsiad-Sharp for eight years, with an extension period of five years where he would be returned to prison if he breached the terms of his licence.

DCS James Dunkerley, head of Counter-Terrorism Policing North East, said: “Tackling extremist and instructional material is an essential part of protecting the public and preventing it from potentially influencing or informing the actions of others.

“We will prosecute anyone found to be in possession of such material and will continue work with our partners to remove content of concern from online platforms.”

The Guardian

A Neo-Nazi already serving a prison sentence for spreading anti-Semitic coronavirus conspiracies has been found guilty of attacking NHS workers at a Norfolk hospital.

Matthew Henegan, 37, assaulted staff at Northside House, a secure mental health facility in Thorpe St Andrew, where he was being cared for.

A consultant, who suffered head injuries, and two nursing staff gave evidence at King’s Lynn Crown Court that he had hit them with a towel containing a hard object.

The jury took just 20 minutes to find him guilty of the three charges of assault and actual bodily harm.

He was sentenced to an additional 15 months imprisonment.

Henegan, from St Neots, Cambridgeshire, is currently serving an eight year jail sentence after being convicted of antisemitic crimes after a trial at the Old Bailey in November 2021.

In that case, he had distributed racially offensive leaflets through the doors of residents in the Cambridgeshire town in March 2020.

He also posted content online including false claims that Jewish people were behind a coronavirus hoax, swastikas and evidence suggesting he admired Adolf Hitler, describing him as a saviour.

Police also found a document entitled ‘how to make armor piercing ammo’.

Henegan had repeatedly refused to be brought from his cell at HMP Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight to appear in court over the Norfolk charges.

He was initially facing 11 separate charges, including several counts of stirring up racial hatred and causing racially motivated harassment.

A judge had directed not guilty pleas be entered on his behalf to all 11 charges last December.

But on the first day of his trial, King’s Lynn Crown Court was told the Crown Prosecution Service had decided not to proceed with eight of the charges.

Prosecutor Danielle O’Donovan told the hearing eight charges related to racially motivated offences had been dropped.

Recorder David Herbert agreed the trial should proceed in Henegan’s absence.

Eastern Daily Press

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with five terror offences relating to his online activity

A teenager who daubed a Windrush mural with Nazi symbols after being radicalised online is facing jail.

The 17-year-old from South Wales, who cannot legally be named due to his age, is charged with five terror offences.

He possessed a banned publication which includes “pro-violence, pro-antisemitism, misogynist, homophobic ideologies” and disseminated them to another teenager, Cardiff Youth Court was told.

The manual describes bombmaking, derailing trains, attacking power lines and kidnapping police officers, as well as glorifying notorious mass murderers.

The teenager, described in court as “intelligent” and “intellectual” with a desire to go to university, also possessed and disseminated another manual with “step-by-step” instructions on gun-making.

The teenager also faces two counts of racially aggravated criminal damage relating to graffiti that appeared on a mural in Port Talbot which celebrates the town’s Caribbean community, on October 27 and November 5 last year.

Community members were shaken after several swastikas, the phrase “Nazi zone”, white supremacist symbol “1488” and a racial slur were painted on the mural hours after it was completed.

The mural depicts Donna Campbell, a much-loved nurse and daughter of the Windrush generation who died during the pandemic, and her mother Lydia, known as Mrs Campbell in her community, with a merged image of a Welsh dragon and the Jamaican flag.

He also faces one further charge of criminal damage after he damaged a floor at The Queer Emporium in Cardiff on October 31 last year.

He admitted all eight charges at an earlier hearing in June.

His barrister David Elias KC asked for him to be spared prison and instead be given a youth referral order, which would require him to meet a panel of people to help him address his behaviour and sign a contract pledging to do the things listed in it.

He said his client is “vulnerable”, has autism and a personality disorder, and spent “increasingly long hours online” during the pandemic.

He added: “He often feels he doesn’t fit in with his peers, which has a huge impact on his self-esteem, and very much wants to have friends and positive aspirations for the future.”

When Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring asked the defendant about what he had been watching online, he said: “You can see in the videos the arguments are not very deep. They are very banal.

“They are not what I truly believe, they are not what I believe now.”

The judge later told him: “On any view of the seriousness of the offending itself, the custody threshold has been crossed.

“The scope and scale of the offending, including those which might seem relatively minor by comparison, the criminal damage to murals, are not only abhorrent but also extremely serious.

“If you were in an adult court we would be talking about years, not months in custody.

“I am not persuaded that I ought to pass a youth referral order and that I can completely rule out a custodial sentence of more than 12 months.

“I am going to commit this case to the Crown Court where the judge will have a complete blank canvas.”

He said a Crown Court judge may impose a longer youth referral order that lasts longer than a year, which he does not have the power to do.

The teenager will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on September 4.

Evening Standard

Alexander Bolam, of Heaton, targeted Muslims outside Heaton Mosque, threatening to kill them as they picked their children up from an event

Alexander Bolam, jailed for threatening people outside Heaton Mosque

Race hate thug Alexander Bolam threatened to behead and blow up Muslims attending an event for children at a Tyneside mosque – even gesturing as if to cut the neck of a terrified five-year-old.

Bolam was hanging around Heaton Mosque as families collected youngsters on February 6 this year and started engaging with them as they left. He then turned aggressive and made death threats, even bending down nose-to-nose with one youngster and making a hand gesture across his neck, threatening to kill him.

A court heard Bolam had previously posted on social media indicating a hatred for followers of Islam and Newcastle Crown Court heard he may have borne a grudge because a man he believed his former partner had cheated on him with was a Muslim.

Rachel Glover, prosecuting, said when Bolam started talking to one of the victims, he initially claimed he was not racist and wanted to know about the religion. But he then went on to say “You lot hate other people, you lot hate everybody” and “I know people on Shields Road that are terrorists.”

The man went inside to warn the Imam of his conduct and two five-year-olds came outside and were with the man’s brother. Miss Glover said: “(The man) then heard shouting outside and saw the defendant was shouting at his brother.”

After making comments about “you f****** Muslims taking over my country” and saying he was a Christian, Bolam said: “I’m going to cut your heads off, I’m going to behead you all, I’m going to blow you all up.”

Miss Glover said: “He turned to one of the five-year-old boys and did a hand motion across his neck gesturing that he was cutting his neck.”

He then pushed and shoved the man, saying he was a boxer and did mixed martial arts before urinating in the door of the mosque. He was arrested a short time later on Shields Road and was intoxicated.

The brothers said in a victim impact statement said the incident made them extremely sad. They said: “We live normal and peaceful lives and had an honest belief he was going to kill us after the threats.

“Since the incident we are living in fear and the actions have completely changed our lives. The terror we felt when he bent down towards (the five-year-old), nose to nose and doing a hand gesture and making the comments he was making caused a great deal of trauma to all of us.

“Growing up in Heaton we have a sense of community and Bolam has completely ruined it and taken away the safe place for the community and to make it worse he urinated over a place of worship.

“Bolam claimed he spoke for the British public and it was his country and he said it was the right thing to do. That’s not the case. The community generally were concerned for the behaviour and he doesn’t represent them.”

They added that previous online posts on social media by Bolam show he has ill-feeling toward the Muslim community and added: “We believe he is a racist and his disgraceful actions have changed everybody’s lives and it had a devastating effect.”

Bolam, who has 26 previous convictions, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault, racially aggravated damage and making threats to kill. The 33-year-old, of Holystone Crescent, High Heaton, was jailed for four years with an extended licence period of a further three years.

Judge Julie Clemitson also imposed an indefinite restraining order banning him from attending at, or loitering near, any mosque in England and Wales. The judge described it as a “shameful episode” and told him: “Your behaviour has had an effect on the entire community, not just at that mosque but of the surrounding community in Heaton.

“Families were coming and going from the mosque to collect their young children who had been attending inside.” She added: “This whole episode was made substantially more serious by the presence of children, not just those two little boys but all of the families coming and going from the mosque.

“The threats you uttered were bound to cause other people fear when targeted at them because of their religious beliefs in the very place they gathered to practice their religion.”

Judge Clemitson labelled Bolam urinating “a filthy act of desecration” and said his behaviour had a “profound impact”.

The judge added that Bolam appears to have directed hostilities to Muslims because the man he thought his former partner had been unfaithful with was Muslim. And she said social media posts from as long ago as 2013 showed he had a hatred towards followers of Islam.

Matthew Purves, defending, said: “He is ashamed and finds it disgusting, the way he behaved. All he can do is seek to apologise about what he has put them through.

“He was in a drunken stupor and engaged in the most horrific manner with insults towards wholly innocent people going about their lawful, happy lives. He will have terrified them, he recognises that.” The court heard he has mental health issues and a difficult upbringing and references from neighbours and his employer showed a different side to his character.

Chronicle Live

A man who downloaded terrorist bomb-making manuals and looked up how to make gunpowder, before going on the run to Bulgaria, has been jailed.

David Bodill from Buxton in Derbyshire was first arrested at his home in Carlisle Road on 2 March 2022 after police learned he was trying to buy materials that may be used in making explosives.

When police arrived at his home, they found chemicals that could be used to create explosives when they were mixed correctly.

They also found a notepad with details about how to mix them together to create explosives.

After the 29-year-old was arrested, detectives also seized Bodill’s laptop, and they found searches for how to make gunpwder, and downloaded terrorist bomb-making manuals. He had also downloaded extremist material from both far-right and Islamic terror organisations which show attacks, beheadings and bomb-making tutorials.

Bodill claimed to police that the material was used for legitimate usage, and that he had an interest in firearms and was looking to pursue a career in manufacturing them.

But he was charged with an offence under section 4 of the Explosive Substances Act 1883, and was scheduled to appear before magistrates in Westminster on 22 October last year, but he didn’t attend.

Instead he had fled the country to Bulgaria, and told police he had no plan to return to the UK.

He was eventually arrested by Bulgarian authorities in January 2023 and was extradited back to the UK, where he was sent to prison ahead of his trial.

After his trial at Manchester Crown Court, which finished last week, he was convicted, and yesterday he was sentenced to two years and six months in prison.

Detective Sergeant Frank Fraser from Counter Terrorism Policing East Midlands said; “The substances and downloaded bomb making materials possessed by David Bodill are very concerning.

“Not only had he researched and written his own notes on bomb making but had also searched for and downloaded extreme footage from various terrorist groups.

“While he did not appear to have any significantly extreme political views his interest in such matters – combined with his bomb making materials and handbooks – makes for a dangerous individual.

“We welcome both the verdict and sentence and hope it sends a clear message that we will do all we can to ensure the safety of our communities.

“We have seen an increasing number of people being exposed to extremist material online and I would urge anyone who has any concerns about any of the family or friends who may be exhibiting concerning behaviour to report it.”

ITV News

Lance O’Connor, of Plaistow, east London, was accused of being ‘aggressive and intimidating’ towards organisers and attendees

A man has been found guilty of a public order offence after protesting against a drag queen story-telling event for children at Tate Britain in London.

Lance O’Connor, of Plaistow, east London, was accused of being “aggressive and intimidating” towards organisers and attendees and making a series of comments that were motivated by “hostility relating to sexual orientation and transgender identity”.

The 59-year-old had denied two counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

District judge Neeta Minhas convicted him at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday of the offence against one of the gallery’s operations managers, Matthew Rowan.

But she found O’Connor not guilty of the charge in relation to police liaison officer Anderson De Santis.

The Tate, in Millbank, had been hosting Drag Queen Story Hour UK on February 11, with tales told by Aida H Dee, who was described on the gallery’s website as “the first drag artist in Europe to read stories to children in a nursery”.

People demonstrating against the event were at the scene, as well as counter-protesters.

Westminster magistrates court early heard O’Connor and his associates were blocked from the first-floor gallery where the event was held.

Prosecutor Luke Staton said organisers decided – as a result of protests for and against the event – that only families with children would be allowed inside the room itself.

The court heard Mr Rowan was among those who stopped O’Connor from going into the event.

“The defendant was aggressive and intimidating towards Mr Rowan, standing in close proximity to him and demanding to be let in”, said Mr Staton.

“The Crown says the defendant displayed the same behaviour towards members of the public trying to attend that event.

“At one stage, when a mother and daughter attempted to enter the event room, the defendant said words to the effect of ‘they are indoctrinating children in there – there’s a man dressed as a woman and he is defending paedophiles’.

“The defendant also said to Mr Rowan words to the effect of ‘it’s not appropriate for a man to wear women’s clothing’ and made further comments about grooming and paedophilia.

“The Crown’s case is those words caused Mr Rowan harassment, alarm, or distress.”

Giving evidence, Mr Rowan said when told it was a family-only event the group claimed to be a family, and O’Connor then said one of his associates “identified as a six-year-old”.

The incident was “quite upsetting”, he told the court, saying: “To be in my place of work which should be a safe place for anyone, to have someone who is aggressive and filming me and trying to get a reaction out of me, it was very uncomfortable.”

He continued: “As a gay man, I felt very uncomfortable with the claims of indoctrination, grooming, and talking about paedophilia, they are tropes used against gay people to my knowledge growing up.”

Mr Rowan said the incident has been “ingrained in my mind” since, adding: “Although the claims of indoctrination, paedophilia, and grooming were not directed at me on this occasion, as a gay man it does hurt to hear these kind of accusations against someone else.

“These sorts of things were said to me in the past in the 1980s as I was growing up.”

Mr Staton said PC De Santis arrived to try to defuse the dispute.

“PC De Santis heard the defendant say words to the effect of ‘you are indoctrinating young children into paedophilia”, he said.

“When confronted, the defendant said words to the effect of ‘that’s right, they are indoctrinating their children into paedophilia’.

“The defendant also made comments about gay men wanting to dress up as women and indoctrinating children into paedophilia.”

It was said O’Connor refused to leave the Tate Britain and was then arrested.

O’Connor, from Plaistow in east London, who asked to be referred to simply as “Lance” in court, denied three public order offences. He was accused of causing harassment, alarm, or distress to both Mr Rowan and PC De Santis.

Defence lawyer Sundeep Pankhania told the court O’Connor “is not anti-trans”, he disputed some of the comments attributed to him, and he said he was protesting about Ada H Dee’s alleged link to another drag queen Darren Moore, now deceased, with a “troubled past”.

Evening Standard

A hate speaker who was “obnoxious and abusive” when pulled over by the police for driving on the wrong side of the road has been jailed again.

William Charlton, known as Billy, was jailed for 21 months in 2019 over speeches he gave at a series of planned demonstrations in Sunderland.

He was jailed again last February, for three years, after he sent a video clip to 40 contacts over WhatsApp that featured a child having intercourse with a donkey,

Charlton had insisted he did not view the 18 second video, which featured a boy aged between 10-14 with the animal, before he forwarded it on and had no reason to suspect its contents were illegal.

Prosecutors accepted he did not gain any sexual gratification from the video but he was convicted of distributing a Category A image of a child.

Today, he has now been given another prison sentence after being convicted of dangerous driving.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that Charlton was on his way home from an evening of socialising with friends in Sunderland when he was spotted on the wrong side of the A19 near Seaham, last January.

Prosecutor Matthew Simpson said that police saw him behind the wheel of a red Daihatsu and attempted to pull him over but he refused to stop and a stinger device was deployed.

Even then, Charlton failed to co-operate with officers, who had to use Pava spray to detain him following the chase, which covered around six miles.

Mr Simpson said: “As they approached the Seaham A19 turn off with Seaton Lane on the B1404 their attention was drawn to a red Daihatsu which was driving on the wrong way down the slip road off the A19, against the direction of travel.

Mr Simpson said the officers activated blue lights but Charlton, who had a passenger in the car, continued to drive.

The 58-year-old, of Barmston Court, Washington, also ignored a Highway Maintenance vehicle which indicated for him to pull over.

Mr Simpson said Charlton “disregarded police attempts to stop” him and he continued to the junction with the A1231, where more officers became involved.

The court heard after a police officer got out of the police vehicle, Charlton turned his car around and continued driving, this time in the correct direction.

He told the court: “Having exited the A19 Mr Charlton finally stopped due to the deployment of a stinger on the westbound carriageway of the A1231, this was to pierce the wheels of the vehicle, causing it to stop.”

Mr Simpson said one of the officers approached Charlton’s car and removed the keys from the ignition.

The officer told the court: “He was swearing at us, told us to **** off and grabbed hold of the steering wheel.

“He said he wouldn’t be getting out.

“At that point a traffic officer used his Pava spray to distract the driver so he could extract him out of the driver’s door.”

The officer said Charlton was “obnoxious and abusive”.

Charlton denied dangerous driving and said the charge was brought simply to suit the police “agenda” but was found guilty.

Defending himself at the sentence hearing today, via video-link from custody, Charlton denied being a “high risk” to the public.

He said he maintained the police had “lied” during their investigation.

Judge Julie Clemitson told him: “You inadvertently turned your Daihatsu car in the off slip so you were driving on the wrong direction towards the A19 carriageway.

“The jury must have accepted the police evidence in order to convict you of dangerous driving.”

Judge Clemitson accepted there were “relatively few” road users out at the time, but said only immediate custody could be justified.

She sentenced him to ten months behind bars.

She added: “You ignored your passenger’s request to pull over. When you did pull over you ignored the police officer’s request to get out of the vehicle.”

Charlton was also banned from driving for 17 months and must pass an extended test.

Sunderland Echo

A man from Somerset has appeared in court charged with terrorism offences.

Gabrielle Budasz, 23, pleaded guilty to collecting information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism at Westminster Magistrates court on Saturday.

Counter Terrorism Policing South East said the charges were linked to extreme right-wing ideology.

Mr Budasz, of Drove Road, Weston-super-Mare was remanded in police custody.

He also pleaded guilty to dissemination of terrorist publications to encourage others to engage in terrorism or provide information that could be useful to terrorists following the investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing South East.

Avon and Somerset Police and Counter Terrorism Policing South West also worked on the investigation.

He will appear at Central Criminal Court, also known as the Old Bailey, on 1 September.
BBC News

Harry Vaughan was spared jail as a teenager but has now been imprisoned for three years and two months after admitting further offences.

Undated handout photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of Harry Vaughan who was spared jail in 2020 after admitting 14 terrorism offences and two child abuse image offences.
(PA Media)

Harry Vaughan, from Twickenham, south-west London, was 18 when he admitted 14 terror offences and two of possessing indecent images of children.

He developed an interest in right-wing extremism, Satanism, the occult, and violence after disappearing “down a rabbit hole of the internet” from the age of 14, the Old Bailey heard previously.

In November 2020, Mr Justice Sweeney handed Vaughan a two-year suspended sentence along with a 60-day rehabilitation order and a terrorist notification order for 10 years.

The court previously heard that the defendant was arrested at his family home on June 19 2019 in a counter-terror probe into Fascist Forge – an online forum used by extreme, right-wing militants.

In an application to join the System Resistance Network – an alias of the banned neo-Nazi group National Action – in March 2018, he wrote: “I could handle myself in a fight. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to further the cause.”

Police found 4,200 images and 302 files, including an extreme, right-wing terrorist book and documents relating to Satanism, neo-Nazism and antisemitism, on his computer and other devices.

Vaughan had originally pleaded guilty to one count of encouragement of terrorism, one count of disseminating a terrorist publication, 12 counts of possessing a document containing information of a kind likely to be of use to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism, and two counts of making an indecent photograph of a child.

In June this year, 21-year-old Vaughan, who now goes by the name of Harry Blake, returned to the Old Bailey and pleaded guilty to making an indecent photograph of a child in September 2022.

He also admitted three charges of possessing extreme pornographic videos, three counts of failing to comply with a Serious Crime Prevention Order and three breaches of his notification order.

The breaches, which began just a month after his original sentence, related to failing to tell authorities about an email address and details of cryptocurrency accounts.

Now in relation to the newer offences, Vaughan has been jailed for 38 months and was handed a serious crime prevention order of five years at the Old Bailey on Thursday.

Perspective

An internet troll whose house was adorned with Nazi flags, fridge magnets and a portrait of Adolf Hitler has been jailed.

Samuel Doyle, 40, called for the killing of LGBTQ+ and Jewish people in online posts.

Officers then searched his home in Highfield Road, Glossop, and found fascist and racist manifestos and books, Derbyshire Police said.

He was jailed for three years at Manchester Crown Court on Monday.

The force said Doyle, of Highfield Road, came to the attention of officers from Counter Terrorism Policing East Midlands (CTPEM) after intelligence about his online activity was passed to them.

Further inquiries then uncovered a large number of posts made by a username linked to Doyle, which led to his arrest in February 2022.

‘Posts are abhorrent’

Following two no-comment interviews, Doyle was charged and admitted five counts of distributing or publishing written material to stir up racial hatred.

Det Insp Chris Brett, of CTPEM, said: “Freedom of speech is an important part of our shared British values – and something that is enshrined in law.

“However, those freedoms are not without limit and it is clear that the views Samuel Doyle expressed online stepped well over the line into criminality.

“The posts he wrote are abhorrent – calling directly for violent action to be taken against a number of minority groups.

“Some may say that posting online is different to expressing these views in person, but that is absolutely not the case.

“We have seen across the world how online posting of this nature has had serious ‘real world’ outcomes – including, sadly, fatalities.

“In recent years we have seen an increasing number of cases involving people who have been pulled into online hate speech and extremist views, and I would urge people who are concerned about family, friends or colleagues to come forward and report their behaviour.”

BBC News