Family members with a “long-standing allegiance” to neo-Nazism who created music calling for racial violence have been jailed.

Robert Talland organised a gig in Leeds in 2019 where his children Stephen, 36, and Rosie, 33, performed their songs to an audience who responded with Nazi salutes, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

The 59-year-old, from Essex, managed the band and was a leading figure of a neo-Nazi music network known as Blood & Honour, a jury was told.

On Thursday, Robert Talland was jailed for four years for terror offences and multiple counts of stirring up racial hatred. His son was jailed for two years and his daughter for 18 months on multiple counts relating to inciting racial hatred.

Sentencing the trio, Judge Andrew Lees said: “At the time of your offending, I am satisfied that each of you had a long-standing allegiance to the neo-Nazi cause.

“That is most clearly evidenced by the racist and anti-semitic messages, videos, memes and other materials you posted via social media.”

Judge Lees said the family’s concerts provided a forum encouraging racial hatred and neo-Nazi ideology with “extreme right-wing” symbols like Nazi flags and banners on display.

The court had heard that Robert Talland, of Waltham Abbey, also ran a record label, Rampage Productions, which distributed CDs by neo-Nazi groups.

According to Counter Terrorism Policing North East (CTPNE), a search of his home found hundreds of CDs distributed under the label, Blood & Honour merchandise and banners “covered in neo-Nazi imagery”.

The albums encouraged racial violence, the trial jury heard.

Members of the audience at the gig at the Corpus Christi Club in Leeds in 2019 were captured on CCTV making Nazi salutes to lyrics which threatened, and called for the death of, individuals belonging to certain groups, the trial was told.

The gig was also a memorial for Ian Stuart Donaldson, frontman of the white power band Skrewdriver and founder of Blood & Honour, who died in September 1993.

Blood & Honour, which promotes white power ideology through music, was hit with a UK asset-freezing order in January over its suspected terror links.

The trial heard that Robert, Stephen and Rosie Talland were all arrested on 1 October 2020, after a year-long investigation by CTPNE.

Following a nine-week trial, all three defendants were convicted of conspiracy to incite racial hatred.

Rosie Talland and Stephen Talland, both of Harlow, were also each convicted of inciting racial hatred.

Meanwhile, Robert Talland was also found guilty of possessing racially inflammatory material and two further counts of disseminating terrorist publications.

After sentencing, Det Ch Supt James Dunkerley, head of CTPNE, said the family had been part of a network encouraging “violence and extreme right-wing terrorism across Europe for decades”.

“Robert Talland dismissed the group as an ‘old man’s drinking club’, but through the gigs and events they organised, they promoted music which glorified acts of murder to audiences which included young children,” he added.

“In doing so, they encouraged attitudes of hatred, intolerance and violence which have no place in our society.”

Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: “Although people have the right to robustly communicate and exchange views, even when they may cause offence, the encouragement of terrorist acts and racist abuse are criminal offences.

“The members of this family created hateful lyrics and music as an attempt to incite racial hatred, encourage white supremacism and promote the use of serious violence.

“These were not idle fantasies but designed to encourage real world violence. Each of these defendants have received prison sentences for their hateful actions.”

BBC News

The YouTuber Anthony Styles is a child sex offender who was sentenced to four and half years in jail after indecently assaulting a schoolgirl

An anti-migrant YouTuber who claims to promote the “protection of women and children” by filming protests outside asylum hotels is a convicted paedophile.

Anthony Styles, whose channel AJ Audits amassed thousands of subscribers, became a fixture of far-right activism by livestreaming demonstrations against grooming gangs and immigration.

Styles, 59, recently recorded gatherings outside hotels in London and Epping during which protesters described asylum seekers as sexual predators who made local girls unsafe.

Many parents brought their young children along to the rallies, which were organised after a small boat migrant from Ethiopia sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Epping, Essex, in July.

However, Styles has now been unmasked as a child sex offender who was sentenced to four and a half years in jail after being convicted of indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 14.

In 2017, he was put on the sex offenders register for life and handed an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Five years earlier, the YouTuber also admitted to sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl and possessing hundreds of indecent images of children, for which he received a three-year community order.

His criminal record was uncovered by activists from the group Stand Up To Racism, who spotted his name printed on a fake press pass he made for himself at a protest last month.

The Times confirmed his convictions with the police this week. The most serious offence took place at a flat in Blackpool in 1993, where Styles sexually abused a girl as she sat on his knee after school. He was sentenced at Preston crown court more than 20 years later, in 2017.

His victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was known to him through his partner’s family and frequently visited the flat after school. In a personal statement, she said she had been psychologically affected by the assault.

He was separately found guilty of possessing 307 indecent images of children among a collection of “naturist” images and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl.

Styles, who uses a wheelchair because of a degenerative illness similar to multiple sclerosis, was jailed by Judge Robert Altham.

The judge said: “The victim was in the habit of coming back to the flats after school. It is on one of those occasions, when she was in the defendant’s sole company in her school uniform, sitting on his knee, as the defendant watched TV.

“He only ceased from this conduct when his partner was coming in, at which stage he got up.

“Nothing was said at the time, but she subsequently raised it with her, and he made an admission of sorts. At the time, he passed it off as accidental touching.

“But in his trial, Styles denied the events ever took place. She has described that this incident has had a significant effect on her.

“There is, properly stated, an abuse of trust in this case. This is a case where the family trusted the care of this little girl to the defendant. He was trusted to be alone with her.”

The judge added that the more recent incident conviction, for assaulting the 17-year-old girl and possessing indecent images, meant he could not be regarded as a man of good character. It is understood this conviction is now spent.

Styles, from Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, kept his convictions hidden from other protesters when he joined a series of anti-immigrant protests outside asylum hotels.

Video from his channel, which he has now deleted, shows him attending demonstrations, which increased this summer after outrage over the Epping incident. He often recorded interviews with demonstrators and could be seen weaving between police and protesters in his wheelchair.

Styles was part of various private groups on social media where the demonstrations were organised, including one called For The Children. He has since been kicked out of the groups after being ostracised from the anti-migrant protest movement as information about his convictions spread online.

In a video uploaded last month, Styles recorded himself following a coach full of Asian men on the M25, claiming in a livestream that it was moving illegal migrants to another hotel.

“They are not welcome. They are illegal migrants,” he can be heard saying as he filmed the back of the coach from a car. His livestream of the pursuit led to the manager of the coach company receiving a flood of abuse, forcing him to stop the vehicle.

In the video, the manager gets off the coach and approaches Styles, begging him to stop spreading misinformation and explaining that no one on board was an illegal migrant and they were all legal agricultural workers.

“People have been threatening my family” because of the footage, he told Styles, who then apologised, saying: “We thought they were illegal migrants.”

Lewis Nielsen, a Stand Up to Racism anti-fascist officer, said: “These revelations show the far right have never cared about women’s rights, they’ve been harbouring convicted offenders in their midst. The hypocrisy is off the charts. This man has claimed to be protecting women and girls while hiding his own convictions. Refugees aren’t the threat to women, the real threat are far far-right fanboys of Elon Musk.”

The Times

Andrew Tait, of Sunderland, pleaded guilty to having explosive substances but said he was just wanting to experiment with them having studied chemistry at the Open University

A convicted thug was caught with a “dangerous chemistry set” and a handbook on how to make explosive devices from various substances.

Andrew Tait had collected chemicals which could be used to make improvised explosive devices and also had other “items of concern” at his family home in Sunderland.

Police went to the address on Pennywell Road, on April 26 this year, where he lives with his partner and her child, after receiving intelligence that there may be explosives at the property.

After a search of the house and an outhouse, they found 11 chemicals which could be used in combination to make an explosive device, including a litre of hydrogen peroxide. They also found fireworks, including aerial shells with fuses that were for professional use only, a spent smoke grenade, spent ammunition cartridges, a 3D printer with 3D printed knuckle dusters and laboratory equipment.

Clare Anderson, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court the seized substances were examined in a forensic explosives laboratory. While individually the chemicals had legitimate uses, they could be used in combination to make a viable explosive devices, she told the court.

Various documents were also seized and Miss Anderson said: “They contained information on the manufacture of explosives, including detonators and information on switches and triggers that could be used in an IED. The documents lacked detail and extra knowledge would be required to construct an IED.”

The court heard there was a handbook detailing the chemical combinations that could be put together to make an explosive. Miss Anderson said texts were also recovered from his phone showing he had “engaged in conversation with others about far-right ideology”.

When interviewed by police, Tait admitted possessing the chemicals but said he was “pursuing legitimate education work having studied chemistry at the Open University”. He went on to give a prepared statement in which he said he had no intention of making a bomb or explosive or manufacturing anything that could be used to cause harm to anyone else.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of having an explosive substance, relating to the chemicals and fireworks, on the basis he was “interested in experimenting with them” but that he didn’t make any of the explosives or dangerous items described in the written material he was found.

He accepted holding the substances presented a risk to others and said he had bought the chemicals online, saying he had no idea it was illegal to possess them. He said the fireworks had belonged to his deceased dad.

Tait, who has eight previous convictions and was given an indefinite sentence for public protection in 2008 for wounding with intent and GBH, from which he was released in 2020, was jailed for 12 months.

Josh Normanton, defending, said there was no link between the “far right” texts and his possession of the material and said they should be disregarded. He added: “He has done something stupid. He wanted to do some experimentation and didn’t fully appreciate what he was doing was wrong.

The Chronicle