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Aylesbury judge rejects appeal by EDL yob

By
July 18, 2013
EDL, English Defence League, Fined

A RIGHT-wing extremist who was arrested on his way to the EDL march in Aylesbury last year for abusing police officers has had his appeal turned down.

Daryl Hobson appeared at Aylesbury Crown Court on Friday in a bid to get his sentence overturned.

Hobson, 44, was stopped by police last year on May 1, as he was holding a large union flag out the car window.

When stopped, Hobson insulted police officers, calling them ‘f***ing jobsworths’ and labelled one of them ‘Robocop’ and ‘a clown’.

Officers eventually lost their patience when he began chanting support for a man who killed three police officers.

When describing the incident, PC Ahmed Chaudry said: “The gentleman got out of the car and came up to me and said: ‘What do you want?’ in an aggressive manner.”

He said coachloads of EDL supporters began driving past, prompting Hobson to put his arms in the air and shout EDL slogans.

Police sergeants Luke Pillinger and Spencer Kervin were passing when they saw what was happening and stopped to help.

Sgt Kervin said: “He got within arm’s length and shouted behind me: ‘Harry Roberts is my friend. He kills coppers’, very loud.”

Roberts was a career criminal planning an armed robbery when his gang was approached by plain-clothes police officers in London, in 1966. Roberts shot dead two officers and an accomplice killed a third. Paul Fox, whose father Geoffrey was one of the three murdered police officers, lives in Aylesbury.

The officers arrested Hobson and he was tried and convicted. He was fined £100 and ordered to pay £400 in court costs.

At the hearing Hobson admitted using the chant about the policemen but said he was doing it towards his friends, not the police.

“It’s a song sung in football grounds up and down the country. Everybody has a good laugh at it. We started singing it on the way up (to Aylesbury) in the car. I wasn’t threatening at all.

“Pillinger was standing in front of me in an intimidating way like he was some kind of Robocop,” he said.

“I called him a Nazi. I called him a f***ing jobsworth and a clown. I said: ‘The only thing missing on you, chap, is a bright red nose and shoes’.”

Recorder Johannah Cutts QC said: “We are of the view that he did, indeed, use words and behaviour in such a way to cause alarm and harassment, if not distress, and for that reason we dismiss this appeal.”

She ordered Hobson to pay prosecution costs of £415.

The Bucks Herald

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

Men fined for EDL demo abuse

By
July 18, 2013
EDL, English Defence League, Fined

THREE men have been fined after a protest by the English Defence League in Manchester city centre.

William Crangle, Kevin Greaves and David Monks were all arrested on Saturday as hundreds of EDL members came to the city to demonstrate.

The organisation claims to oppose only radical Islam but supporters were seen making Nazi salutes and singing patriotic songs during the demonstration in Piccadilly.

Around 1,500 people joined a counter protest by Unite Against Fascism.

The two sides were in a face-off for five hours, separated by a police line including officers in riot gear and on horseback and 48 people were arrested during the day.

The demonstration left the city with an £800,000 bill.

Abusive

EDL supporters Crangle, 30, of North Croft, Oldham, Greaves, 30, of Springwood Hall Road, Oldham, and Monks, 33, of Manchester Road, Bolton, all admitted public order offences of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour when they appeared at Manchester magistrates’ court yesterday.

Crangle and Greaves, who appeared in the dock together, were arrested at 11.45am, as they walked along London Road, near Piccadilly station.

Police asked Crangle to remove a bandana that was covering his face, suspecting he might be trying to conceal his identity, the court heard. He swore at the officers and was arrested. Mr Greaves was also arrested after repeatedly swearing as officers tried to search him.

Crangle was fined £160 and Greaves, who is on benefits, £80, and both were ordered to pay another £100 in costs and victim surcharge.

Both men apologised for wasting court time.

Monks was fined £80 plus £95 in costs and a victim surcharge after the court heard how he was arrested as EDL protesters were escorted away from Piccadilly Gardens and towards Victoria station by police at 4.30pm.

Police were detaining another man when Monks grabbed him and tried to pull him from their grasp.

He swore at officers before being arrested, magistrates heard.

Manchester Evening News

EDL leaders fined over rooftop protest

By
July 18, 2013
EDL, English Defence League, Fined
Kevin Carroll holds a banner on top of FIFA HQ in Zurich

Kevin Carroll holds a banner on top of FIFA HQ in Zurich

A ROOFTOP protest over the ban on the England football team having embroidered poppies on their shirts has cost two English Defence League members £3,000.

EDL leader Stephen Lennon and member Kevin Carroll flew to Switzerland last Tuesday and 24 hours later managed to get on to the roof of the FIFA headquarters in Zurich.

They were demanding England players be allowed to wear poppies on their shirts for their friendly against Spain after the governing body ruled emblems were not allowed because the poppy was seen as a political emblem.

The compromise of allowing the teams to wear black armbands with poppies on was reached after interventions from Prince William and David Cameron.

But Mr Lennon claims his protest was the tipping point.

“FIFA changed their mind after two hours of us being up on that roof,” he said. “Everyone’s saying it was David Cameron but it was us.”

The pair were arrested when they came down from the roof after four hours, and were fined £2,300 and had to pay £700 court costs.

“They said our reasons were just but obviously it was against the law,” said Mr Lennon. “They put us in a grimy prison for three days.”

Their spell behind bars meant the pair were not in London on Friday when 170 English Defence Members were arrested at a pub near the Cenotaph because police believed they were headed for the protest camp at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Mr Lennon said: “They dragged everyone out of the pub and held them for four hours. There was no trouble.

“The police said they were preventing a breach of the peace so they arrested everyone, men and women. But no-one was charged with anything, they were all just released after four hours.”

Luton Today

The Guardian

Middlesbrough railway station race abuse group to pay £6k

By
July 18, 2013
EDL, English Defence League, Fined, Racial Conviction, religiously aggravated harassment, religiously aggravated intentional harassment

SIX men with links to a controversial right-wing pressure group have been ordered to pay almost £6,000 for chanting a sickening torrent of religious abuse

EDL members outside Teesside Magistrates Court

EDL members outside Teesside Magistrates Court

The men, who are associated with the English Defence League (EDL), were sentenced at Teesside Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

They were found guilty in August of shouting a highly inflammatory religious chant at Middlesbrough railway station.

Supporters of the men, some wearing EDL sweatshirts and carrying flags, gathered outside the court building yesterday as magistrates only allowed five people in the public gallery.

There was also a strong police presence both in and outside the court, along with mounted officers in Centre Square.

As reported, the group members – who all said they were associated to the EDL in some way – were convicted of religiously aggravated harassment and using threatening words or behaviour to cause harassment alarm or distress, after a two-day trial.

The incident happened at about 7.30pm on Saturday, December 10, after the group came to Middlesbrough to watch Boro play Brighton. But when they decided it was too cold, they visited several pubs in the town instead.

Trouble arose when the group arrived at the station and were heard by PC Andrew Ward, of British Transport Police, chanting EDL chants – as well as the highly inflammatory chant in question.

Addressing the defendants, Elizabeth Hutchinson, chairman of the bench, said: “It’s the court’s belief that you knew exactly what you were doing, that you deliberately set out to use racially abusive language and to intimidate members of the public.”

She added that the incident was aggravated by the fact that it was a group action which took place over a “length of time” where members of the public were present.

Between them, the defendants were fined £2,730 and ordered to pay £3,090 costs – adding up to £5,820. One person from the public gallery had to be escorted out by police after the sentencing.

Jak Beasley, 23, of Cedar Road, Bishop Auckland was fined £455 and ordered to pay £515 costs.

Ross Williams, 23, of Ebberston Court, Spennymoor, was fined £420 and ordered to pay £515 costs.

Christopher Caswell, 32, of West Auckland Road, Darlington, was fined £455 and ordered to pay £515 costs.

Paul Ross, 48, of Auckland Wind, Shildon, was fined £525 and ordered to pay £515 costs.

Dean Spence, 23, of Yew Close, Spennymoor, fined £455 and ordered to pay £515 costs.

Shaun Bunting, 33, of Fenhall Green, Newton Aycliffe, was fined £420 and ordered to pay £515 costs.

The EDL was formed in response to a protest in March 2009 organised by an Islamic group against troops returning from the war in Afghanistan.

The group states its aim is to demonstrate peacefully but conflicts with Unite Against Fascism and other opponents have led to street violence, anti-social behaviour and arrests.

In July last year, about 500 EDL supporters marched through Middlesbrough. The event, which was marked by a large police presence, passed off peacefully

Gazette Live