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Racist footballer could face jail for hurling sickening abuse at a demo over Syrian refugees

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March 27, 2016
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Midfielder Steven Kerr, 31, was arrested at a rally following clashes between pro and anti-refugee groups

Footballer Steven Kerr could face jail for hurling abuse at a refugee demo

Footballer Steven Kerr could face jail for hurling abuse at a refugee demo



A footballer is facing jail after hurling racist abuse at a demonstration over Syrian refugees .

Midfielder Steven Kerr was arrested following clashes between pro and anti-refugee groups in Monkton, Ayrshire.

The 31-year-old was detained at the rally on Sunday, November 15, the Daily Record reported .

Kerr, known as “Kerso”, has played for Ayrshire Junior sides Craigmark, Lugar, Ardrossan and Whitletts Victoria.

It came just hours after the Paris attacks which left 130 people dead and following Prime Minister David Cameron ’s pledge that Britain would receive 1000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees before Christmas.

Tempers flared in Monkton’s Main Street when members of the Scottish Defence League and pro-refugee demonstrators clashed over refugees being granted emergency accommodation at a local hotel.

Delivery driver Kerr – a member of the Ayr Protestant Boys’ Flute Band – was arrested and charged with behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.

He was due to go on trial at Ayr Sheriff Court this week but struck a deal with prosecutors which saw him admit to shouting a single racist remark during the incident.

Sheriff Carole Cunningham deferred sentence for reports.

Kerr will be back in the dock next month.

Daily Mirror

Three people admit bacon attack on Totterdown mosque

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March 21, 2016
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Three people have admitted a religiously aggravated assault at a mosque in Totterdown.

Mark Bennett, 48, and his wife Alison Bennett, 46, both of Spruce Way in Patchway, appeared alongside Angelina Swailes, 31, of West Town Avenue, Brislington at Bristol Crown Court today.

They pleaded guilty to throwing Bacon sandwiches at elderly worshipers as they entered Jamia Mosque, in January.

A trial was supposed to begin today but the three defendants changed their plea last minute.

Kevin Shaun Crehan, 34, of Stockwood Crescent, Knowle has already pleaded guilty to the charges at Bristol Magistrates Court on February 17.

The trio were released on unconditional bail, ahead of being sentenced later this week.

Bristol Post

Police warning after man admits racist offences

By
March 10, 2016
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The man who set up the English Defence League’s (EDL) Newark division has been sentenced to community service for racially-aggravated offences.

Chris Conroy, 26, of Yorke Drive, Newark, pleaded guilty to causing racially-aggravated harassment, alarm or distress to Mr Eyup Sepet.

He also admitted the racially-aggravated criminal damage of a glass pane in the front door of Mr Sepet’s property in Newark.

The offences were part of the same incident.

Conroy had denied both charges, but changed his pleas to guilty.

He was sentenced at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court to a 12-month supervision order, which includes 200 hours of community service.

He was also ordered to pay Mr Sepet £100 compensation for the harassment offence and £395.42 for the damage to the door, plus court costs of £560.

Conroy set up the Newark Division of the EDL in 2011 and helped organise a number of demonstrations across the country, which he attended. He told the Advertiser at the time it was “patriotism, not racism.”

Conroy told the Advertiser after the hearing that he was no longer connected to the EDL and had left the organisation. He said he did not want to comment on the court case.

Speaking after the case, Inspector Louise Clarke, of Newark Police, said: “The police treat behaviour such as that displayed in this incident as wholly unacceptable. We use the additional powers available to police for hate crime, such as this charge for racially aggravated criminal damage, to allow the courts to recognise the severity of the offence and deal with it appropriately.

“Anyone who works or lives within the Newark area should be able to do so without prejudice or fear, or have to suffer this type of behaviour.

“We take all incidents of this nature seriously and encourage the reporting of such behaviour to us for investigation.”

Newark Advertiser

Racist mob lures pizza driver to Pontefract club and beats him up

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March 4, 2016
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A PIZZA delivery driver was horrificially attacked and racially abused during a “mob attack” after being lured to a West Yorkshire pub.

Leeds Crown Court heard up to 30 people looked on as the 31-year-old victim suffered a broken jaw and cheekbone as he was repeatedly punched and kicked.

The court heard a number of people were involved in the violence and others ignored the injured man’s pleas for help when he begged them to call police.

One man, Simon Lawrie, 31, came out of the pub and shouted abuse before hitting the man as he lay injured over a wall.

He lost consciousness from the blow.

Richard Walters, prosecuting, said the victim had been called to deliver food to the Chequerfield Pub, Pontefract, at around 7.30pm on May 15 last year.

When he arrived outside two men began to punch him repeatedly. He was then dragged from his car and held as more punches were thrown at his face.

Mr Walters said a woman came out of the pub and asked the two attackers why it was taking so long to kill the victim and shouted more racist abuse at him.

He was then kicked repeatedly before Lawrie came out of the pub and joined the attack.

The victim briefly lost consciousness but was then able to crawl. He screamed at onlookers to ring the police but those witnessing the attack ignored his pleas.

The driver eventually ran through the gardens of nearby homes and was eventually helped by someone who took him inside his home and blocked the entrance to prevent further attacks.

Lawrie, of Monkhill Avenue, Pontefract, was arrested and said he had attacked the man after his 10-year-old daughter had gone into the pub and told him that a man had asked her to get into his car.

He pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm. A month before the attack Lawrie had been made the subject of a community order for punching a man in the Malt Shovel pub, Pontefract.

Sean Smith, mitigating, said Lawrie had overreacted to the information given to him by his daughter.

He added: “There had been concerns in the local area that individuals connected to a certain pizza parlour had been carrying out this type of behaviour in the locale.”

Mr Walters said there was no evidence that the victim had behaved inappropriately and he had only been working for the fast food firm for five days before the incident.

Lawrie was given an 18 month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work.

Lawrie was also told to pay £500 compensation to the victim.

Recorder Nigel Sangster, QC, said: “It is a matter of shame that so many people watched this. The people who did not help should be ashamed of their behaviour.

“The man who took him in should be praised.”

Yorkshire Post

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EDL protest leaves girl, 8, terrified

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February 22, 2016
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A politician’s eight-year-old daughter was “petrified” when anti-Islamic protesters marched into the garden of their home with banners and banged on the window.

Lancashire MEP Sajjad Karim’s home was targeted by the English Defence League (EDL) as part of a day of protests against “radical Islam” in the county on July 2 last year.

Twelve admitted public order offences at Preston Crown Court for offences committed during the protests at another location in Brierfield and will be sentenced on May 25.

Speaking from Brussels, Mr Karim, who was due to give evidence, said: “It is not the sort of thing any child should ever have to be prepared for.”

Bernard Holmes, 26, of Bolton Road; Leonard Hawley, 47, of Worcester Road; David Wilson, 47, of Devon Road, all Blackburn, and Jason Smith, 43, of Torquay Avenue, Burnley pleaded guilty to racially aggravated provocation of violence while David Garrett, 45, of Beckett Street, Darwen, admitted having an offensive weapon.

Leanne Thornton, 26, of Oak Avenue, Todmorden; Graham Smith, 48, of Draperfield, Chorley; Paul Blundell, 45, of Lee Street, Longridge, John English, 24, of Shorrock Lane, Blackburn; Martin Corner, 31, of Corporation Street, Chorley; Jordan Lonsdale, 20, of Ribble Lane, Clitheroe, and Paul Jackson, 41, of Spring Bank Terrace, Blackburn, pleaded not guilty to violent disorder but admitted using threatening behaviour.

Sajjad Karim added: “To be afraid to leave ones house as a mob fuelled by hate protests outside is as frightening as it gets. They showed no regard to the fact my wife and daughter were at home.

“It left me hoping and praying that our four walls would keep us safe and you can’t begin to imagine how my young daughter felt.

“There were many more innocent people caught up in their violence that day and I am thankful this eleventh hour change of plea means they won’t have to relive their ordeal in a courtroom.

“We have not and will not allow such mobs to use their threatening ways to hound people in our society.”

Lancashire Evening Post

Constituent pleads guilty to antisemitic attack on Jon Trickett MP

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February 4, 2016
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Darren Mark Lumb, who has previous links to the BNP and EDL, verbally attacked the MP in January this year in West Yorkshire

A constituent has pleaded guilty to mounting an antisemitic verbal attack against Labour MP and shadow communities secretary Jon Trickett.

On 23 January 2015, Darren Mark Lumb, 47, stopped the the MP for Hemsworth in West Yorkshire in the street and launched into an antisemitic tirade against him.

During the trial on Thursday at Leeds crown court, Lumb changed his plea to guilty to one count of religiously aggravated harassment and stalking with fear of violence, and one count of breaching an asbo.

umb – who has been known to Trickett’s office for a decade – was released on bail on the condition that he did not approach the MP or any member of his staff and he will return to court on 3 March for sentencing.

Lumb has previously had links to the British National Party (BNP), the English Defence League (EDL) and the National Front, and served as BNP organiser for Wakefield and later West Yorkshire.

He has previous convictions for assault and disorder and was convicted in 2011 of using racially aggravated threatening or insulting words and behaviour after he reportedly called a petrol station worker “a black bastard”.

Lumb, who lives in South Elmsall, stood as a BNP candidate for South Elmsall and South Kirkby in the Wakefield Metropolitan district council election in 2011, where he won 441 votes, 2.6% below the Conservative candidate.

A friend of Trickett’s said the MP had been left shocked and shaken by the incident and that “he hasn’t experienced rage like it in his life”.

Jon Trickett has been MP for Hemsworth since 1996. He served as the parliamentary private secretary to prime minister Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010 and was then promoted to the shadow cabinet by Ed Miliband in 2011.

Trickett was one of 36 MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour leadership election and was made shadow secretary of state for communities and local government in the shadow cabinet reshuffle following Corbyn’s landslide victory in September 2015.

The Guardian

Woking man fined £350 for racially harassing Muslim woman in ‘petrifying’ outburst

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February 4, 2016
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David Sadgrove, 61, shouted “you are a terrorist” at Mrs Saltana, who was with her two-year-old child, in November last year

A Woking man has been fined more than £350 for shouting ‘you are a terrorist’ at a Muslim woman in the wake of the Paris attacks.

David Sadgrove, of Courtenay Road, pleaded guilty to two counts of racially aggravated harassment at a hearing at Guildford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (January 19).

The 61-year-old man was arrested on November 15 after he asked Zamurd Saltana to move her car, which was parked on the pavement near his home, and became abusive.

Mrs Saltana was visiting someone in the street and had a two-year-old child with her.

Prosecuting, Johnson Shittu said: “She had just parked her car on Courtney Road when Mr Sadgrove had approached her and he asked her if she was a Muslim and if she was religious.

“He started to become abusive and aggressive.”

Mr Shittu said Sadgrove had sworn at Mrs Sultana and said: “‘You have killed so many people in Paris’”.

“It was clearly petrifying,” he said.

The court heard that two other men heard the noise as Sadgrove continued to shout: “You are a terrorist, you are going to blow someone up.”

Defending Sadgrove, Trudi Levico said the attacks in Paris provided context to the offence and that the defendant had a ‘myriad of problems’, caused by chronic arthritis in his hip and knee and was aided by a walking stick.

“He was on the pavement and he couldn’t get past those vehicles,” Mrs Levico said.

“He says he starts a relatively civil conversation about moving it.

“He has had problems on that stretch of the road before, it must be one whereby vehicles in order to free the road up park on the pavement.”

Once Sadgrove became abusive, two men living in the street came outside, including Parvaiz Mohammad, who Sadgrove also verbally abused.

Mrs Levico argued that Mrs Sultana did not state she was ‘petrified’.

“She says in her statement that when the two males come out he makes various comments to them,” she said.

“One of the males said to him to ‘try it’ and see what they would do to him.

“She told them to not talk to the English man like that.

“[The statement] said, ‘he was an old man and he looks ill to me’”.

The bench heard that Sadgrove had previous convictions in 2011 and 2003 but did not have a ‘pattern’ of offending.

He is a recipient of the disability living allowance and other benefits while waiting for an operation and was deemed ‘unfit’ for unpaid work for the offence.

Sentencing Sadgrove to a fine of £382, chair of the bench Mrs Lesley Shanks said the racial element to his offence had increased his debt.

“You were swearing and those offences did happen in front of a two-year-old child,” she said.

Sadgrove was fined £200 for the first offence and £75 for the second.

He was also ordered to pay £87 in costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

Get Surrey

David Sadgrove

Essex woman cautioned after Facebook rant bragged of pushing dog poo through Muslim neighbour’s door

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November 26, 2015
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An Essex woman was cautioned by police for bragging on social media that she had posted dog poo through her Muslim neighbours letterbox the night of the attacks on Paris.

At 8.53pm on November 13, Karen Hastie, from Grays, put messages on Facebook stating she sent the gruesome package to deliver “someone’s karma” after Islamic State terrorists killed 129 people in the French capital.

The 53-year-old wrote: “I just delivered someones karma. Mrs muz rat b*** face from yesterday has just got a jiffy envelope filled with dog **** through the b****** letterbox. I wish I could be fly on the wall. Imagine opening a package filled with ****. Happy days for sure.”

Friends of Ms Hastie commented with their support of her actions and encouraged a second rancid delivery.

The posts were added to other social media sites and Essex Police confirmed the posts had been passed to their hate crime team to investigate.

Essex Police issued her with a caution for malicious communications on November 23.

A spokeswoman for the force said: “A 53-year-old woman received a caution for malicious communications following her arrest on Tuesday, November 19, relating to reports of offensive Facebook posts.”

Ms Hastie is also said to have posted links in support of the English Defence League.

Essex Chronicle

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Grandparents are jailed after ‘Nazi salutes’ in gang attack

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November 24, 2015
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THREE grandparents have been jailed for attacking a couple outside a pub – because they thought the male victim was Polish.

Paul Clarke, Sean Pickerill and Judith Pickerill – all in their forties – took part in the assault on Slovakian Milan Panacek and his English girlfriend Genevieve Barnett during a night out in Newcastle.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard tension had sparked between the male defendants and Mr Panacek because of the design of T-shirts they were wearing.

Sean Pickerill’s top bore the logo ‘Blood and Honour – England’, while Clarke’s had the brand ‘One True Saxon’.

Mr Panacek’s shirt had a quote in Spanish relating to the country’s civil war.

Following a disagreement on the dancefloor of The Rigger pub, Mr Panacek and Miss Barnett went outside where they were attacked by a group of around eight people, which included the defendants.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Power said: “They were shouting racial abuse about Mr Panacek being Polish.

“He tried to tell them he wasn’t Polish.

“Judith Pickerill punched Miss Barnett and scratched her to the face.

She pulled her backwards, pulling at her hair extensions.

“She fell to the floor and hit her head on the pavement.

“Her extensions were pulled out at the roots and blood was coming from her head.”

Judith Pickerill, aged 45, of St Bernard’s Road, Newcastle, went on to assault the pub’s manager Robert Birchill.

Father-of-three Sean Pickerill, aged 46, and Clarke were attacking Mr Panacek.

Police arrived to find the group which included the defendants making Nazi salutes and shouting: “Go back to your own country.”

Miss Power said witnesses described the group as ‘like a pack of animals’.

The court heard Miss Barnett suffered injuries including concussion and whiplash, and suffered blackouts after the incident.

Mr Panacek, who has lived in the UK for six years, had a fractured nose.

All three defendants pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault occasioning actually bodily harm. Judith Pickerill also admitted common assault.

The court heard they all had previous convictions but had not been in trouble for a number of years.

Marc Davies, representing Judith Pickerill and 47-year-old Clarke, also of St Bernard’s Road, said: “They are ashamed and very sorry.

“These are two people that had been out of trouble for a long time, addressed any issues with drugs and settled down with families and full time employment.

“They are active and involved grandparents.”

Paul Cliff, representing Sean Pickerill, of St Giles Road, Knutton – who also has a grandchild – said: “He works in the construction industry alongside people from all over the world including Eastern Europeans and there have been no problems.”

Judge David Fletcher sentenced each defendant to 12 months in prison. He told them: “This was an ugly, appalling incident. Your racial comments, in the hearing of numerous people, were completely ignorant. You are three people in your mid-forties. That makes this offence even more shocking.”

Stoke Sentinel

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Soldier’s ‘Muslim blood’ Facebook shame

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August 11, 2015
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A volunteer soldier posted a comment on Facebook suggesting racist violent revenge should be taken on the day drummer Lee Rigby was murdered.

Mark Tonner wrote “Get the boys together we need to paint the town red with Muslim blood”.

He was arrested after a member of the public complained on the Lancashire Police website about what Tonner had written.

Tonner, 36, of Ashton Road, Blackpool, pleaded guilty to sending an offensive message.

He was bailed for pre-sentence reports and will be sentenced at a later date by Blackpool magistrates.

Andrea Fawcett, prosecuting, said after the murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich, Tonner posted the comment on Facebook on May 23.

Tonner wrote “Dean, you’re in charge of Blackpool now. Get the boys together we need to paint the town red with Muslim blood”.

When interviewed by police Tonner said he had been angry and drunk at the time. He did not know Dean personally but believed he was a member of The English Defence League (EDL).

Hugh Pond, defending, said his client had been a member of the Army Reserve, formerly known as the Territorial Army, for more than five years and served as a clerk in the Transport Regiment at Grantham.

Tonner had been drinking heavily and had been revolted by the television pictures of the blood covered men saying they had murdered drummer Rigby.

Tonner, who was said in a reference from his commanding officer to have an exemplary character in the Army, was not a member of the EDL or National Front.

He was thoroughly ashamed of what he had done and was under investigation by the Army Reserve.

Blackpool Gazette

From July 2013.

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