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Race-hate man guilty of shootings

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June 2, 2020
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A gunman who had threatened to “kill all black people” has been found guilty of three counts of attempted murder.

Former boxer John Laidlaw, 24, went on a shooting spree in Islington, north London, last May, the Old Bailey heard.

It is not clear whether the attacks were related to his threats against black people.

He shot Abu Kamara in Upper Street before accidentally shooting Emma Sheridan at Finsbury Park Tube station, as he aimed at a second man.

Laidlaw, from Holloway, north London, was also found guilty of two firearms charges.

Judge Samuel Wiggs warned him that he faced an indeterminate jail sentence for the public’s protection.

“These offences, certainly the first incident, seem to be almost completely random,” he said.

Detective Sergeant Nick Bonomini, of Scotland Yard’s Serious Crime Directorate, said: “He has previously demonstrated a high level of aggression towards black people that appears, given his words, to be based on their race.

“But there was no evidence in these current two shootings that suggest that this formed the same sort of motivation for him and on that we have an open mind.”

Social worker Mr Kamara, 44, had been with a group of work friends going for a drink after a game of badminton.

When a sports bag belonging to one of his colleagues brushed against a friend of Laidlaw’s, the gunman reacted by pulling out a gun and shooting Mr Kamara.

The bullet was deflected off Mr Kamara’s chin and entered his neck through his Adam’s apple.

It went through his voicebox before finally lodging near his spinal column.

Half an hour after shooting Mr Kamara, Laidlaw shot at a man called Evans Baptiste.

Mr Baptiste and a friend had been chasing Laidlaw after recognising him as the man who had attacked Mr Baptiste with a hammer earlier in the year.

Mistaken identity

But the bullet brushed past Mr Baptiste and struck 26-year-old Emma Sheridan in the back.

A passing medical student plucked the bullet from her back before ambulance crews took her to hospital for treatment.

When police caught up with Laidlaw at the home of a family friend in Kingston, south-west London, he dived through a glass door and ran into a shed to hide.

n court, he claimed he was watching television all day during the shootings and was the victim of mistaken identity.

Three weeks before the shooting spree, Laidlaw admitted in court attacking a black motorist.

When he was arrested he behaved violently and was “foaming at the mouth” according to a police document.

“In the presence and hearing of the black female jailer the defendant made racist comments and remarks, stating he was a member of the BNP and that he hated all black people,” the document says.

He also stated that he was going to kill all black people, said the report.

BBC News

From 2007

Racist jailed for arson attack on mosque

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June 2, 2020
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RACIST firebomber Mark Bulman has been jailed for five years after trying to torch the Broad Street mosque.

The 22-year-old used a British National Party leaflet as a fuse in a petrol-filled beer bottle which he hurled through a window at the place of worship.

But the Molotov cocktail failed to ignite so the self-confessed bigot handed himself in to the police saying that they would find his fingerprints on it.

And as well as trying to burn the mosque to ash and rubble’ Bulman also daubed racist graffiti on the walls.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that police received a call shortly before 1am on Thursday, August 17 from the defendant.

After he told them what he had done an officer went to the scene and found him near Fleming Way.

The racist was armed with a chair leg which he said he needed to protect himself from the enemy’.

He referred to the Broad Street area as enemy territory’ because it had businesses owned by people from ethnic minorities.

Bulman also daubed swastikas on the outside of the mosque as well as other racist messages on a wall in Turl Street.

In a rambling interview Bulman told police of his dislike for anyone apart from white British people.

When his house was searched, officers found a variety of racist material and he admitted being a BNP sympathiser and had been on their rallies in the past.

Bulman, of Montrose Close, Moredon, admitted arson, attempted arson and two counts of religiously aggravated criminal damage.

Philip Warren, defending, said “On any view of it, it is a horrible and serious business.

“It is highly offensive, deliberately offensive, and the offence and outrage caused must have been massive.”

He said his client had told the psychiatrist that he wanted to reduce the mosque to “ash and rubble” and “to give the establishment and lefties a wake up call.”

But Mr Warren said: “This was by any standards an amateur and inept act not a concerted attempt to burn the building.”

Having spent 140 days in prison on remand he said that his client, who had no previous convictions, had time to reflect on his “skewed views” of society and wanted to change.

From now on he said that he sought to use the pen rather than the sword to get his opinions across and Mr Warren said Bulman wished to address the court.

But Judge Douglas Field refused to allow it saying: “I am not going to allow a political speech.”

“There has to be a deterrent element to my sentence to deter stupid people like you.

“You are a racial bigot. It was your wish and intention to burn that building to the ground. We have mixed races in Swindon and it is extremely important that we all get on together.”

Swindon Advertiser

From 2007

BNP Hypocrisy Over Paedophile

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May 7, 2020
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Nick Griffin and the BNP have been particularly vocal this past year when it comes to the subject of paedophiles.

Griffin has embraced every opportunity open to him to lead protests against the various Asian grooming gangs that have gone on trial across the country.

Yet he has been particularly quiet when it comes paedophiles who are white and in particular those white paedophiles who also happen to be members of the BNP.

Not a word was mentioned when it was revealed that Rhyl BNP organiser Ian Si’ree was convicted last month for making and possessing 138 illegal images of child sex abuse.

The BNP also failed to comment when Lancashire BNP member Nigel Hesmondhalgh was imprisoned for nine months after a series of degrading photos and videos of children were found on his home computer in 2011.

In 2010 the BNP said nothing when Northampton BNP activist Darren Francis was jailed for a sexual relationship with a 13 year old girl.Francis was described by police as “every parents’ worst nightmare”

Another BNP paedophile who was jailed recently was Charnwood activist Gavin Leist. Leist who stood for the BNP in the county council elections was a member of a child porn network where he possessed and distributed child pornography of boys under the age of 13.

The court heard that he had joined an online paedophile network and had exchanged emails and incited people to send pictures to him. He also sent emails to three different users with pictures.

Leist was given a 16 month prison sentence and was also handed a Sexual Offences’ Prevention Order, which means his future computer use can be monitored at any time.

He was released from prison on June 19th and you would have thought that the local BNP members would have shunned Leist ?

Apparently this isn’t the case as Coventry BNP organiser Mark Badrick soon contacted Leist on Facebook and started chatting with him as if he had been reunited with a long lost friend.

Badrick and the BNP can obvously turn a blind eye to its collection of BNP paedophiles.

Hope not Hate

From 2012

Sex offender Darren Francis set free

By
May 7, 2020
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A SERIOUS violent sex offender who was last year returned to prison for a third time for failing a drug test while on conditional release has this morning been released back into the community.

Brisbane Supreme Court Justice Ann Lyons this morning ordered Darren Anthony Francis be released under a restrictive supervision order.

Lawyers for Francis, 36, last week made its latest attempt to secure him freedom after failing to meet conditions of a previous order.

Barrister Brad Farr, SC, for Queensland’s Attorney-General, on Friday argued Francis should continue to be held in custody, but if released be placed under a strict supervision order.

Defence counsel Carl Heaton, for Francis, said his client should be released and that employment would play a significant role in preventing Francis from re-offending.

Francis, then aged 27, was jailed in 1999 for multiple sex offences and degrading physical abuse of his then partner.

He was one of the first prisoners to be held in jail past his 2004 full-time release date under new Queensland laws designed to stop sex criminals from reoffending.

He was released in 2006, but was returned to custody for breaching his supervision order by using drugs and forming an intimate relationship with a woman.

In April last year, the Supreme Court granted Francis conditional release after finding he posed a “low risk” of reoffending.

Justice Philip McMurdo, who granted Francis conditional, supervised release, found that for Francis to be a true risk to the community, he needed to be demonstrating substance misuse while in an intimate relationship.

Justice McMurdo found there was no evidence of those circumstances.

At the time of his release, Francis was also the subject of a six-month, wholly suspended prison term after being convicted by District Court Judge Michael Noud in December 2007 of escaping lawful custody.

Francis last fronted court in July for destroying his monitoring device in the watch-house — fearing other prisoners may harm him, a court has been told.

The Brisbane District Court was told Francis ripped his electronic monitoring device from around his ankle when police placed him in the cell of a Brisbane watchhouswith other inmates after he returned a positive test for cannabis, breaching his supervision order, in March last year.

Judge Michael Shanahan was told the tainted urine sample was a breach of the conditions of Francis’s Supreme Court-approved Dangerous Prisoner (Sexual Offenders) Act supervision order.

Francis removed the device fearing other cell mates may have thought he had been taken into custody for more serious offences, the court was told.

It was implied, although not stated explicitly, that if the other inmates wrongly suspected Francis had committed further sex offences his safety may have been in jeopardy.

Francis was taken from his home, near Brisbane’s western corridor jail precinct, to the Richlands Magistrate’s Court watch-house.

Mr Heaton said Francis had unsuccessfully requested police remove the device before placing him a cell with other detainees.

Judge Shanahan sentenced Francis an additional one month in jail for the breach of the suspended sentence.

Justice Lyons made the formal orders to release Francis at 9.45am today, but her written findings and the conditions of the order are yet to released publicly.

It is expected her findings will be published on-line some time today.

From 2009

Meliden killer’s dad on child porn rap

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May 7, 2020
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A POLICE search at the home of a murder suspect uncovered child abuse images on the computers of the accused’s dad.

Officers searched the home of suspect James Siree during the investigation into the murder of takeaway delivery driver Gabor Sarkozi at Meliden.

Two laptop computers and a hard drive used by his father were seized and police found images of child sex abuse.

Yesterday Ian Siree, 56, of Vale Road in Rhyl, escaped custody after admitting making and possessing 138 illegal images.

Police also found other images while not illegal in themselves displayed a sexual interest in young girls, Mold Crown Court was told.

Judge Niclas Parry said that what the defendant needed to understand was that what he chose to view was actually happening to children, as young as eight.

“They were subjected to what was displayed on these images,” he said.

“In addition there is some evidence to confirm an unhealthy interest in female children.”

He said the total found were not large, there were only two at the more serious level four and none of the highest level five.

There was no distribution and he had no convictions for anything similar.

He said any custodial sentence would be extremely short and he would be released back into the community within months without any of the underlying causes behind his offending being addressed.

“You have a very young child yourself and this needs to be addressed,” he added.

Siree was placed on supervision for three years on condition that he follows a sex offender treatment programme run by the probation service.

Siree was placed on the sex offender register and a SOPO (Sexual Offences Prevention Order) was also made which prohibits him having any anti-forensic software on his computer.

His computers must retain the history of their use and he must allow police access to his computers on request.

Paulinus Barnes, prosecuting, said that police searched the defendant’s address as part of the other investigation and found images on a laptop. Further images were found on a second lap top and a separate hard drive.

Siree admitted 10 charges of making and possessing the images at an earlier hearing.

James Siree, 22, and his uncle Gary Bland, 42, of Bryn Avenue, Rhyl were jailed for life in May for the murder of Mr Sarkozi.

Wales Online

From 2012

‘Miss Hitler’ and three others guilty of National Action membership

By
March 20, 2020
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Alice Cutter and Mark Jones were found guilty after a trial at Birmingham Crown Court

A “Miss Hitler” contest entrant and her ex-partner have been convicted of being members of the banned far-right terrorist group National Action.

Alice Cutter, 23, and Mark Jones, 25, were found guilty of being members of the neo-Nazi organisation after a retrial at Birmingham Crown Court.

Garry Jack, 24, and 19-year-old Connor Scothern were also found guilty of being members of the group.

All four will be sentenced at a later date.

National Action, founded in 2013, was outlawed under anti-terror legislation three years later after it celebrated the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox.

Jones and Cutter were described as key members of National Action

During their trial Cutter, from Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, was described by prosecutors as a “central spoke” among the organisation’s hardcore members, while Jones, also from Sowerby Bridge, was a “leader and strategist”.

Jurors heard how Cutter had entered the Miss Hitler beauty pageant under the name Miss Buchenwald – a reference to the Second World War death camp.

They were also told how she had exchanged hundreds of messages, many racist and anti-Semitic, and was still meeting other members months after the ban.

In an exchange with another National Action member a day after MP Mrs Cox was gunned down, Cutter wrote: “Rot in hell, bitch.”

She claimed not to have considered herself a member, even before the ban, despite attending meetings with group leaders and posing for a Nazi-style salute on the steps of Leeds Town Hall in 2016.

Cutter also attended a demo in York in May 2016.

Jones, a former member of the British National Party’s youth wing, told jurors of his “feelings of admiration” for Hitler, while the court heard he had a special wedding edition of Mein Kampf.

He also accepted that he posed for a photograph while holding a National Action flag and giving a Nazi-style salute in Buchenwald’s execution chamber on a trip to Germany in 2016.

Cutter and Jones embraced in the dock before being taken down to the cells.

Garry Jack, Connor Scothern and Daniel Ward were also convicted or pleaded guilty to being National Action members

Also convicted of the same offence were two other men; Garry Jack, 24, of Shard End, Birmingham, and 19-year-old Connor Scothern, from Nottingham.

Self-confessed Nazi Jack was described as a foot soldier in the group, having joined six months before the ban.

Scothern, who was a one-time practising Muslim, and an Antifa – anti-fascist activist – before eventually joining National Action, did not give evidence at trial.

But in messages he sent following the ban in August 2017, he talked of setting up “a clear and openly fascist youth movement”.

‘Threat to the public’

A fifth man, Daniel Ward, 28 from Bartley Green, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to being a member of National Action last year and was jailed for three years.

Det Ch Supt Kenny Bell, of the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit said: “Being convicted of membership of this extreme right terrorist group is the same as belonging to other terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda or Daesh.

“They share a real toxic extreme ideology which is a danger to the public, the same ideology that we have seen manifested in the tragic attack in New Zealand, the murder of Jo Cox MP and the attack at Finsbury Park mosque in 2017.

“This group was amassing weapons and recipes for bomb-making. They communicated through secret channels to recruit others to their cause. Left unchecked they presented a real threat to the public.”

BBC News

Jack Renshaw: MP death plot neo-Nazi jailed for life

By
May 20, 2019
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Renshaw, pictured at a National Action rally, was also jailed for 16 months in 2018 for four counts of grooming adolescent boys

A neo-Nazi who planned to murder Labour MP Rosie Cooper has been jailed for life.

Jack Renshaw, 23, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, must serve at least 20 years in prison.

A judge at the Old Bailey said Renshaw, who earlier admitted preparing an act of terrorism, wanted to “replicate” the murder of Jo Cox.

Renshaw made a Nazi salute towards supporters as he was led to the cells from the dock.

He pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial to buying a machete to kill the West Lancashire MP and making threats to kill police officer Det Con Victoria Henderson.

A jury twice failed to reach a verdict on charges relating to his membership of banned neo-Nazi group National Action.

Sentencing him, Judge Justice McGowan said Renshaw’s “perverted view of history and current politics” led him to “an attempt to damage our entire system of democracy”.

She said: “You praised the murder of Jo Cox in tweets and posts in June 2017. In some bizarre way you saw this as a commendable act and set out to replicate that behaviour.”

The judge added Renshaw had made “detailed arrangements” and studied Ms Cooper’s itinerary.

The knife Renshaw bought was described by the online seller as offering “19 inches of unprecedented piercing and slashing power at a bargain price”

Giving evidence during his first National Action trial last summer, he said he wanted to murder the MP “to send the state a message”.

He got as far as buying a 19in (48cm) Gladius knife and told members of National Action about his plan during a meeting in a Warrington pub in July 2017.

The plot was foiled by whistleblower and former National Action member, Robbie Mullen, who was secretly passing information to anti-racism charity Hope not Hate, which informed police.

Police arrested Renshaw and found the machete hidden in an airing cupboard at his uncle’s house.

In a victim impact statement, Ms Cooper said it was “like something out of a horror movie”.

Friends and family had encouraged her to stand down from Parliament but she refused because “that would allow tyranny to prevail”.

After the sentencing, Ms Cooper said “justice has been served”.

Jack Renshaw wearing a mask at a National Action rally in Liverpool in 2016

Renshaw was also jailed for 16 months in June 2018 for four counts of grooming adolescent boys.

Det Con Henderson, who was investigating the child sex offences, said she “had sleepless nights” until he was arrested.

“I am not prepared to let Jack Renshaw ruin my everyday life,” she said.

The judge praised the two women and told Renshaw: “You have not defeated them.”

She said he had acted in a polite manner towards Det Con Henderson while planning to kill her in an act of revenge.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it presented evidence that persuaded Renshaw to plead guilty, including online research on cutting the jugular artery and how long it would take someone to die from the wound.

Jenny Hopkins, CPS head of counter terror, said: “Jack Renshaw was prepared to act on his white supremacist world view and plotted to kill a Member of Parliament – a plan reminiscent of the abhorrent murder of Jo Cox MP.”

Renshaw was also jailed for three years in 2018 for stirring up racial hatred in two anti-Semitic speeches in 2016.

BBC News

Neo-Nazi offered child £300 for night of sex after targeting children for online grooming

By
April 2, 2019
Uncategorized

Jack Renshaw also sent explicit messages but claimed he was being framed by an anti facist group

Neo-Nazi Jack Renshaw offered a teenage boy £300 to spend the night with him

Neo-Nazi Jack Renshaw offered a teenage boy £300 to spend the night with him


A white supremacist groomed two children online by sending them explicit sexual pictures and offered one boy £300 for the night.

Jack Renshaw, from Skelmersdale, claimed he was set up by the anti fascist group Hope not Hate in a bid to discredit him.

The self-confessed Neo Nazi told the court that the group maliciously hacked his mobile phone and sent the sexual messages to the teenagers.

However, jurors believed he was lying and found him guilty of four counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity during a trial at Preston Crown Court in June last year.

The former leader of the British National Party youth wing set up two fake Facebook profiles and contacted the boys, aged 13 and 14, between February 2016 and January 2017.

Using Facebook Messenger, Renshaw, boasted that he was rich, could give the boys jobs, asked for intimate pictures and even offered £300 to one boy spend the night with him.

Renshaw, who also plotted to kill local MP Rosie Cooper, was jailed for 16 months after one of the boys told a tutor about the messages and he was reported to police.

Police seized two Blackberry phones from his family’s then address in Blackpool but most of the internet history had been deleted.

However, officers recovered some material that included searches for homosexual pornography.

The 23-year-old also received a three-year prison sentence two months earlier when he was found guilty by a different jury at the same court of stirring up racial hatred after he called for the genocide of Jewish people.

Both cases can be fully reported following the end of proceedings he faced at the Old Bailey where a jury was unable to reach a verdict on a charge that he was a member of banned far-right group National Action.

Another two phones belonging to Renshaw were later recovered and they showed evidence of searches for homosexual pornography.

When interviewed, he told police he was heterosexual and a virgin who did not believe in sex outside of marriage, and viewed homosexuality as “unnatural”.

He went on to blame the police for putting material on his phone as he told them: “I believe this is a vicious, malicious attack to put me in prison, to ostracise me from the nationalist movement and to ostracise me from my family.”

But at his trial he said that was a “kneejerk reaction” and he told the jury he now believed Hope Not Hate had hacked all four phones by “some form of synchronised access”.

He said: “They are obsessed with me. They had a gripe with me for a long time.

“They have been writing articles about me since 2014.

“There was a pure hatred of me and everything I stand for.”

Cross-examined by prosecutor Louise Brandon, he dismissed the views of three experts who gave evidence that hacking had not taken place and explained he had some experience in the field as a technician at Dixons Retail where he resolved computer hitches for customers.

Miss Brandon said his suggestion of remote access to his phones was one worthy of a spy novel.

She said to him: “The reality of this is you know that if people whose views you want and whose opinions matter to you knew you were interested in men and young boys then they would cast you out.”

Renshaw replied: “That is not the case at all. The nationalist cause has gays in it. It’s just I’m not gay.”

Following his convictions for the child sex offences he was placed on the Sex Offender Register for 10 years and was told by Judge Robert Altham his 16-month jail term would start after he has completed his sentence for inciting racial hatred.

Renshaw had denied those offences, committed during a demonstration by a group named the North West Infidels on Blackpool Promenade in March 2016, and at a gathering of far-right extremists, the Yorkshire Forum For Nationalists, held the month before.

The court heard that the defendant had described Jewish people as parasites and called for them to be “eradicated” at the Yorkshire event, where he spoke to delegates from other far-right organisations.

During that sentencing hearing, Renshaw nodded his head in the dock as Judge Altham questioned whether he still held the same views as he had when he gave the two speeches.

The judge noted: “The defendant is resolute in his original views and withdraws nothing.

“He seeks to raise street armies, perpetrate violence against Jewish people and ultimately bring about genocide.”

Liverpool Echo

Jack Renshaw, Leader Of Banned Neo-Nazi Group National Action, Is A Convicted Paedophile

By
April 2, 2019
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It was revealed in court he had groomed two underage boys online


The leader of banned neo-Nazi group National Action is a convicted paedophile who was jailed last year for grooming two underage boys online, it can now be revealed.

White supremacist Jack Renshaw set up two fake Facebook profiles and contacted the boys, aged 13 and 14, between February 2016 and January 2017.

Communicating via the Facebook Messenger app, Renshaw boasted to the youngsters that he was rich, could give them jobs and offered one of them £300 to spend the night with him.

He also requested intimate photographs of the pair before one of the boys reported the messages to his tutor and the police were contacted.

Renshaw claimed in his defence that an anti-fascist group made up the allegations to discredit him.

He said Hope Not Hate had maliciously hacked his mobile phones to send messages of a sexual nature to the teenagers.

But jurors at Preston Crown Court did not believe him, and convicted him of four counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. He was sentenced to 16 months in jail.

Renshaw, 23, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, also received a three-year prison sentence two months earlier when he was found guilty by a different jury at the same court of stirring up racial hatred after he called for the genocide of Jewish people.

Both cases can be fully reported following the end of proceedings he faced at the Old Bailey – where a jury was unable to reach a verdict on a charge that he was a member of banned far-right group National Action.

Investigations led to the seizure of two BlackBerry phones from Renshaw’s then family address in Blackpool, Lancashire.

Much of the internet history on the phones had been deleted but officers used specialist software to retrieve some of the relevant material.

Another two phones belonging to Renshaw were later recovered and they showed evidence of searches for homosexual pornography.

When interviewed, he told police he was heterosexual and a virgin who did not believe in sex outside of marriage, and viewed homosexuality as “unnatural”.

He went on to blame the police for putting material on his phone as he told them: “I believe this is a vicious, malicious attack to put me in prison, to ostracise me from the nationalist movement and to ostracise me from my family.”

But at his trial he said that was a “kneejerk reaction” and he told the jury he now believed Hope Not Hate had hacked all four phones by “some form of synchronised access”.

He said: “They are obsessed with me. They had a gripe with me for a long time.

“They have been writing articles about me since 2014.

“There was a pure hatred of me and everything I stand for.”

Cross-examined by prosecutor Louise Brandon, he dismissed the views of three experts who gave evidence that hacking had not taken place and explained he had some experience in the field as a technician at Dixons Retail where he resolved computer hitches for customers.

Miss Brandon said his suggestion of remote access to his phones was one worthy of a spy novel.

She said to him: “The reality of this is you know that if people whose views you want and whose opinions matter to you knew you were interested in men and young boys then they would cast you out.”

Renshaw replied: “That is not the case at all. The nationalist cause has gays in it. It’s just I’m not gay.”

Following his convictions for the child sex offences he was placed on the Sex Offender Register for 10 years and was told by Judge Robert Altham his 16-month jail term would start after he has completed his sentence for inciting racial hatred.

Renshaw had denied those offences, committed during a demonstration by a group named the North West Infidels on Blackpool Promenade in March 2016, and at a gathering of far-right extremists, the Yorkshire Forum For Nationalists, held the month before.

The court heard that the defendant had described Jewish people as parasites and called for them to be “eradicated” at the Yorkshire event, where he spoke to delegates from other far-right organisations.

During that sentencing hearing, Renshaw nodded his head in the dock as Judge Altham questioned whether he still held the same views as he had when he gave the two speeches.

The judge noted: “The defendant is resolute in his original views and withdraws nothing.

“He seeks to raise street armies, perpetrate violence against Jewish people and ultimately bring about genocide.”

Huff Post

Fleetwood ‘neighbour from hell’ jailed for perverting course of justice

By
March 5, 2019
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A “neighbour from hell” who waged a campaign of harassment against a couple on his street has been jailed after deleting potential evidence.

Preston Crown Court heard Barry Carr, 67, lied to officers and erased CCTV footage requested as part of the latest investigation into complaints made against him.

Just days after a failed appeal against his conviction for harassment saw his suspended sentence increased, he was caught on film “being obstructive” to police officers who had requested to see footage from one pf his many CCTV cameras.

Carr, of Rossall Gate, Fleetwood, Rossall, Fleetwood, was jailed 18 weeks after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

The court heard he showed “no remorse” for his crimes.

Sentencing him yesterday, Judge Robert Altham said: “This defendant had been engaged upon a campaign of harrassment against his neighbours. This was to make their lives extremely difficult.”

The court head how, on February 12 last year, a neighbour had returned home late and thought he saw an infra-red light from one of Carr’s CCTV cameras shining on him as he walked up his drive.

Police visited five days later and requested to take the CCTV footage from his hard drive, which Carr then deleted.

Judge Altham said: “The court saw 20 minutes of body camera footage of police at the scene and it’s fair to say that the defendant was obstructive and difficult from the beginning. The police officers could not have been more accommodating.

“The officers legitimately wanted to seize the defendant’s CCTV recording equipment and the defendant had various objections, deliberately misunderstanding what the police wanted to do, suggesting that they would break the equipment by seizing it, when plainly that was entirely fanciful.

“He insisted on logging off the system before it was seized, and under the guise of doing that he re-formatted the hard drive.”

He added that Carr had then lied and said he had not deleted the footage.

He later admitted deleting it, but lied again when he said this was because he wanted to erase embarrassing footage of him around the house.

He was found guilty of one count of perverting the course of justice. He was found not guilty of two counts of breaching a restraining order, which had been imposed at an earlier hearing.

Daniel Harman, defending, said Carr, a retired fish and chip shop owner, had gone most of his life without a criminal conviction before being convicted of harassing his neighbours in October 2017.

He said: “Going to prison, for some people, is water off a duck’s back. Its an occupational hazard. Mr Carr has spent the past four days in prison, For a man of his age, that’s a life changing experience.

“The most important thing in his life is his dog, Snowy, a female dog 12 years of age. She is his life and they have never been apart.

“He has spent months trying to get the diet of Snowy down to a fine art, which he has managed to do. He’s clearly concerned about Snowy and is keen to see her again.”

Judge Altham said Carr was “just a lonely man who seems to spend his time with his dog, which is a perfectly normal use of his time, and bothering his neighbours, which is not”.

But he did not agree that a suspended sentence was an appropriate punishment for Carr’s crimes.

He said: “There was, it seems to me, an arrogant belief that he knows best, and he is not subjected to the rule of law. A keen desire not to engage with the police when investigating this matter shows the extension of the contempt he feels for the rights of his neighbours.

“There is an absolute lack of remorse, even today, from the defendant. At no point has he showed one shred of recognition of the seriousness of what he has done.”

Carr – who had previously told magistrates at a hearing in relation to earlier offences that he was being described as a “neighbour from hell” – was sentenced to eight weeks in prison for breaching his suspended sentence, and 10 weeks in prison for perverting the course of justice.

He sat with his face in his hands as Judge Altham read out his sentence.

PC Kevin Berry, who attended the sentencing, said: “Justice has been served today and the appropriate sentence has been given to Mr Carr.”

Blackpool Gazette

Carr is an ex BNP candidate.