Tag Archives: Racial Conviction

Terry Ralph, unrepentant racist who abused mum and her young children walking to fete in Saffron Walden, jailed

A man has been jailed for racially abusing a mother as she walked to a fete with her two young children in Saffron Walden.

Terry Ralph, 60, was sentenced to 30 months for racial abuse at Chelmsford Crown Court. He was also sentenced for offences of burglary and failing to provide a specimen, which took place in other counties.

Ralph, of Howard de Walden Way, Newmarket, received convictions for breaching a suspended prison sentence and failing to appear at court. He has been banned from driving for 61 months.

The court was told last Wednesday (June 17) that at around 2pm on Sunday May 5, 2019, a woman visited a fete with her children and husband when she was approached by Ralph, who targeted her because of her appearance.

The racist was confronted by the woman’s husband and Essex Police officers arrived at the scene. Ralph made further comments which were captured on a body-worn camera.

Ralph failed to provide a specimen for police in Newmarket on August 19 last year and was arrested for a burglary at Boots in Cambridge on April 22 this year.

Investigating officer PC Daniel Ricketts, of Uttlesford’s local policing team, said: “Ralph targeted a woman and went out of his way to racially abuse her while she was visiting a fete with her two children and her husband.

“He has shown no remorse, and he was aggressive and unco-operative when he was being questioned that day.

“He intended to cause harassment to a family who were innocently out for the day.

“Ralph has also been sent to prison for other serious offences investigated by our policing partners – where he has time to consider his actions.”

Bishops Stortford Independent

Nazi-obsessed loner guilty of attempted murder of dentist in racist attack

By virginiagolden

June 3, 2020

Uncategorized

Zack Davies told onlookers that he had carried out the assault on Dr Sarandev Bhambra in revenge for the death of the soldier Lee Rigby

A loner fascinated with far right ideologies and violent video games screamed “white power” as he launched a racially-motivated machete and hammer attack on a dentist of Asian origin, a court has heard.

As he was led away by police, Zack Davies told onlookers that he had carried out the assault on Dr Sarandev Bhambra in revenge for the death of the soldier Lee Rigby, who was killed by Islamist extremists outside a barracks in south-east London.

He also later claimed that the British Isis terrorist nicknamed Jihadi John was an inspiration for the attack, which left 24-year-old Bhambra with terrible injuries to his head, back and hand.

Davies, 26, from Mold in north Wales, was found guilty of attempting to murder Bhambra, who is still recovering from his injuries.

Outside Mold crown court, Bhambra’s family argued Davies had committed an act of terrorism. They said if the men’s ethnicities had been reversed the family had no doubt it would have been reported as an act of terror.

Bhambra’s brother, Dr Tarlochan Singh Bhambra, said in a statement: “Sarandev was singled out because of the colour of his skin. We are in no doubt that had the racial disposition of this case been reversed this would be reported as an act of terror with a wider media coverage.

“We as a family have listened intently to the evidence … and are in no doubt given the racial and political motivation that this should be rightly defined as an act of terrorism. By his own admission Zack Davies had extreme neo-Nazi views and is a member of a white supremacist organisation.”

He said his brother, who was born in Leeds, was a young man of whom his family was immensely proud and who had just started out on his chosen career. “This cowardly assault has left him with life-changing injuries. Sarandev is currently undergoing an extensive programme of rehabilitation.”

Judge Rhys Rowlands sent Davies to a high security hospital for psychiatric reports to be prepared before he sentences him in September.

“I hold the view he is an incredibly dangerous young man. If it is not going to be a hospital order it will be the longest possible sentence,” the judge said. “Dr Bhambra sustained the most dreadful life-changing injuries during a sustained racist attack on an innocent man, a member of a caring profession.”

There was applause from the public gallery as the verdict was returned.

The jury had heard how Davies would sit in his flat playing violent video games for six or seven hours a day. Expelled from school at 11 for bringing in a knife to school, Davies became a loner and admitted carrying a weapon with him every day since he was 15 because of his growing paranoia.

On 14 January he spotted Bhambra on the street in Mold at lunchtime and followed him to a Tesco supermarket, where he attacked him from behind with a claw hammer and 30cm-long machete in front of shoppers and children.

Bhambra was saved after an ex-soldier, Peter Fuller, stepped in to help. Davies told Fuller: “We are under attack,” but Fuller said what he was doing was madness and Bhambra had not done anything.

Davies admitted saying “white power” and “I did it for Lee Rigby,” during and after the attack. He told the court: “I got very fascinated by Jihadi John and was inspired by him. I even had a mask.”

He was described in court as a racist with a fascination for far right ideologies. In interview he told police that maybe the wrong side had won the second world war. The court heard items associated with white supremacy and Nazism were found at Davies’s home, including swastika badges and Combat 18 material. Davies apologised in court to the family of Lee Rigby and to Bhambra.

Asked if he considered it an act of terrorism, DCI Alun Oldfield, of North Wales police, said: “In our view this was an attempted murder, racially motivated.”

Gareth Preston, senior crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service Wales, said: “Zackery Davies is a dangerous young man whose distorted and racist views led him to commit a terrifying act of violence. This was an attack against a complete stranger, singled out for no other reason than his ethnicity.”

The Guardian

Mosque bomber Pavlo Lapshyn given life for murder

By virginiagolden

June 2, 2020

Uncategorized

A Ukrainian student has been jailed for at least 40 years for murdering an 82-year-old man and plotting explosions near mosques in racist attacks.

Pavlo Lapshyn stabbed Mohammed Saleem in Small Heath, Birmingham on 29 April, five days after arriving in the UK.

On Monday, Lapshyn, 25, admitted murder as well as plotting to cause explosions near mosques in Walsall, Tipton and Wolverhampton in June and July.

At the Old Bailey, he was told he would be jailed for life.

Mr Saleem was stabbed to death, just yards from his home, after attending prayers at his local mosque in Green Lane.

Lapshyn, from Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine, was living in Birmingham while on a temporary work placement in the city when he killed Mr Saleem, a grandfather of 22.

He later planted three bombs near mosques in the West Midlands as part of a campaign he said was motivated by racial hatred.

He was arrested almost a week after an explosion in Tipton.

‘Hated non-whites’

The third device, which exploded near the Kanzul Iman mosque in Tipton on 12 July, was packed with nails.

Police said it was only because Lapshyn got the wrong time for Friday prayers that the blast did not cause mass injuries.

Sentencing, Mr Justice Sweeney told him: “You clearly hold extremist right-wing, white supremacist views and you were motivated to commit the offences by religious and racial hatred in the hope that you would ignite racial conflict and cause Muslims to leave the area where you were living.

“Such views, hatred and motivations have no place whatsoever in our multi-faith and multi-cultural society.”

He added Lapshyn held “views abhorrent to all right-thinking people which have no place in our multi-cultural society”.

During interviews, Lapshyn told police he had murdered the grandfather of 22 because he hated “non-whites”.

Prosecutor Peter Wright QC told the Old Bailey that PhD student Lapshyn had come to the UK on a work placement with software company Delcam.

The firm’s sponsorship programme in partnership with the National Metallurgy Academy in Ukraine is now under review following his crimes.

Lapshyn’s apartment, above Delcam’s offices in Birmingham, were raided by police who found chemicals and bomb-making equipment for another three devices.
‘White power’

They also discovered a camera containing 455 photographs and 98 videos. Some of them showed Lapshyn detonating homemade bombs in the Ukrainian countryside. The camera also included shots of him making bombs.

The force’s anti-terrorism unit also discovered apparent anonymous notes in the apartment which he planned to use to taunt police.

One featured a photograph of the hunting knife, next to which Lapshyn had written “Mohammed Saleem was killed by”.

He also referred to a police reward for information, saying “£10,000 small price, maybe £1m”, followed by a smiley face, and the phrase “white power”.

The court heard Lapshyn had a video game on his laptop called Ethnic Cleansing and also posed for white a supremacist website with the knife.

Defending, Richard Atkins QC said “we accept that his crimes are grave” and “the appropriate penalty we submit is life with a substantial minimum term”.

Mr Atkins told the court that Lapshyn is being kept in segregation and that the only person he speaks to regularly is his father.

In an interview with the BBC, Lapshyn’s father, Sergey Lapshyn, said he did not believe his son was a racist.

“Among his acquaintances were people of different ethnic backgrounds, and I have never seen that (racism),” he said.

He added his son could be “a bit tight-lipped” but was not calculating, as police had described him.

Speaking from his home in Dnepropetrovsk, Lapshyn’s father confirmed his own mother was a Muslim during her childhood.

Lapshyn’s father said his son knew his grandmother was a member of the (largely Muslim) Tatar community at the time of the former Soviet Union.

“We never discussed religious problems and we always considered them to be very intimate,” he said.
‘Can’t move forward’

Mr Saleem’s family said their father had not done anything to deserve to die, other than be a Muslim.

In a statement read out in court, Mr Saleem’s daughter Shazia Khan said: “The shock and sadness of the reality is impossible to accept, yet alone accept and move on.

“We can’t move forward, the murder has disabled our minds in every emotional way possible.”

Speaking after the sentencing, Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale from West Midlands Police said Lapshyn was “very definitely driven by an extreme right-wing ideology and white supremacist ideology”.

Asked to describe Lapshyn’s manner in police interview, he said: “He was matter-of-fact, he was cold, he was callous.

“I do not think he has shown any remorse or regret for the crimes that have taken place.”

BBC News

From 2013

Racist jailed for arson attack on mosque

By virginiagolden

June 2, 2020

Uncategorized

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

Five jailed for race hate crimes

By virginiagolden

June 2, 2020

Uncategorized

Five white supremacists have been jailed for a total of 15 years at the Old Bailey for creating and distributing race hate material.

The five members of the extreme right-wing Racial Volunteer Force (RVF) all pleaded guilty to race hate crimes.

A sixth man was given a suspended sentence of nine months for possessing a racially inflammatory booklet.

The court heard the group paid tribute to Soho nail bomber David Copeland with instructions on how to make a bomb.

The five jailed had all admitted conspiracy to publish the group’s magazine, Stormer, with the intention of stirring up race hate.

They are Mark Atkinson, 38, from Egham, Surrey; Nigel Piggins, 39, from Hull; Jonathan Hill, 33, from Oldham, Greater Manchester; Steven Bostock, 27, from Urmston, Greater Manchester; and Michael Denis, 30, from Tooting, south London.

‘Free country’

Kevin Quinn, 40, of Ouseland Road, Bedford, who received a suspended sentence, pleaded guilty to possessing a November 9th Society Nazi booklet, The Longest Hatred.

Judge Jeremy Roberts told the members: “No-one is being sentenced for their political beliefs – this is a free country.”

The group had formed in 2003 to “encourage readers to resort to violence against people with non-white backgrounds”, he said.

“The real danger is that it only needs to fall into the hands of one or two individuals who might be persuaded to take up the suggestions and cause a great deal of damage,” said the judge.

The organisation, which is a splinter group of the right wing Combat 18, wrote of their hatred of non-whites and articles featured anti-Jewish headlines such as Roast A Rabbi.

With a picture of a firebomb, the magazine said: “With the winter nights to shroud you in darkness we thought a few of you would like to don your disguises and rubber gloves and make things a little warmer.”

And, by the side of a swastika on the front cover, it said: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

Another edition featured bomb-making instructions and praise of Soho bomber David Copeland, who was jailed for life for murder after attacks targeting the gay community and ethnic minorities in London.

Peter Davies, assistant chief constable of Lincolnshire, said: “It is difficult to imagine more extreme race hatred than was contained in the material which was seized during this meticulous inquiry.”

The case showed that anyone “inclined to stir up racial hatred” would be “tracked down”, he added.

Atkinson was jailed for five years for Stormer and 12 months concurrently for operating the RVF website.

Bostock was jailed for two years and three months for Stormer and a further three months for the website.

Piggins was jailed for two years and three months for Stormer and a further three months for distributing a racist DVD, Skrewdriver Live in Germany.

Hill was jailed for four years and Denis for a year, both for Stormer.

Atkinson’s girlfriend, Elizabeth Hunt, 36, of Dawson Avenue, Southport, Merseyside, was discharged after the prosecution offered no evidence.

BBC News

From 2005

White supremacist who hoarded guns and explosives gets 11 years

By virginiagolden

June 2, 2020

Uncategorized

A white supremacist who stockpiled guns and explosives to launch a potentially murderous race war was yesterday jailed for 11 years.

David Tovey, 37, was sentenced at Oxford crown court after he admitted explosives and firearms charges. He was also found guilty of carrying out a campaign of racist graffiti at his trial in October. Police believe he had identified around a dozen Asian and black families as potential targets, as well as a mosque in Swindon.

Officers feared he was planning a terror campaign similar to that of the nail bomber David Copeland in Soho, or a rampage similar to the one Michael Ryan carried out in Hungerford, Berkshire.

The potential hate-fuelled rampage he planned from his home in the village of , Oxfordshire, was discovered by chance. Officers investigating racist graffiti daubed on walls in Oxfordshire and Warwickshire raided his home looking for evidence that he was behind the campaign

In February, as they searched his home, an officer discovered a cupboard with a false bottom in which a second world war submachine gun was hidden.

Further searches uncovered an arsenal of weapons and explosives, including pump action shotguns used by US SWAT teams, camouflage clothing, body armour, plastic explosive, home-made explosive similar to napalm, pipe bombs and other bomb-making equipment.

Also hidden in the house was a sketch map showing a mosque and lists of number plates for cars belonging to black or Asian people, with the word “nigger” or “paki” scrawled against them.

Yesterday’s sentence included three years for three explosives charges and six firearms charges he admitted and also two charges of racially aggravated criminal damage in relation to the graffiti.

Sentencing Tovey a bodybuilding and ice skating fan, Judge Mary Jane Mowat said: “The weapons, the body-building equipment, the military car, the military clothing all suggest the fantasy life of a lone commando.”

Tovey had been married to a Chinese woman for 15 years and had later dated a Jamaican woman. He is believed to have been enraged at policies for asylum seekers.

Judge Mowat said the rightwing fanatic was “a person with narcissistic personality traits and a mild trace of bitterness, with a strong belief of entitlement and a need to take matters into his own hands.”

She said the evidence showed Tovey had a desire to incite hatred and violence against non-British citizens, even if those fantasies had never been acted out. “It is likely that one of his personal grievances or bugbears such as bad drivers or asylum seekers could have tipped him over the edge.”

One detective said of Tovey: “He was a cross between Michael Ryan and Hungerford and David Copeland, the Soho nail-bomber.”

Tovey was sentenced to a total of eight years for nine firearms and explosives charges and a further three years for the two counts of racially aggravated graffiti, to run consecutively.

The graffiti contained anti-white and anti-western slogans and police believe he was trying to whip up sentiment against ethnic minorities.

The judge said Tovey should serve at least half of the prison sentence.

The Guardian

From 2002

Neo-Nazi had child abuse images

By virginiagolden

May 7, 2020

Uncategorized

Neo-Nazi Martyn Gilleard has been found guilty of making bombs for a far-right terrorist campaign, after having previously admitted downloading thousands of images of child sexual abuse.

Police initially searched Gilleard’s flat in Goole, East Yorkshire, in connection with child pornography offences.

But once inside the 31-year-old’s home, they discovered not just evidence of a paedophile, but the equipment of a potential terrorist as well.

Officers found machetes, swords, bullets, gunpowder and racist literature. Most sinister of all were four home-made nail bombs stashed under his bed.

He wrote of starting a “racial war” and murdering Muslims, but Martyn Gilleard boasted that he was no “barstool nationalist”.

‘Distressing images’

And a jury has decided he truly did want to put his white supremacist views into action.

At the opening of his trial at Leeds Crown Court, Gilleard admitted 10 counts of child pornography offences. Officers had discovered more than 39,000 indecent images of children on his computer.

After sentencing, Ch Insp Chris Kelk, of Humberside Police, said: “The images include some of the most disturbing my team and I have ever seen and by admitting his crimes it has prevented the images being seen by jury members.”

Ch Insp Kelk commended his team for their professionalism despite the “distressing nature” of the images.

Jurors considering the terror charges did not learn of this until they delivered their verdict.

‘Potentially lethal’

Gilleard, a forklift truck driver from Goole, East Yorkshire, admitted to police and the court that he had held racist views.

At the time of his arrest he was a paid-up member of the National Front, the White Nationalist Party and the British People’s Party – all opposed to multiculturalism.

His computer password was Martyn1488 – the 14, according to prosecutor Andrew Edis QC, being a reference to the far-right’s “14 words” slogan, “We must secure the existence of our race and the future for white children.”

The 88, Mr Edis added, represented the eighth letter of the alphabet – an abbreviation for “Heil Hitler”.

But Gilleard was not simply a passive crank, the court was told.

In a notebook recovered by police, Gilleard wrote that the “time has come to stop the talk and start to act”.

“Unless we the British right stop talking of racial war and take steps to make it happen, we will never get back that which has been stolen from us,” he added.

“I am so sick and tired of hearing nationalists talk of killing Muslims, of blowing up mosques, of fighting back, only to see these acts of resistance fail to appear.”

In another note, he wrote that he wanted to see “reds” – left-wing activists – attacked with “lightning strikes” and “home-made grenades”.

His comments were a chilling echo of far-right nail bomber David Copeland, jailed for life for murder after attacks targeting London’s gay community and ethnic minorities in 1999.

By the time police raided his flat, Mr Edis said, Gilleard’s preparations for this impending conflict had already been well under way.

Officers had discovered the four nail bombs under a bed along with “potentially lethal bladed weapons”, 34 bullets for a .22 calibre firearm, and printouts from the internet about committing acts of terrorism, Mr Edis told the court.

These had included instructions on how to make a bomb and how to poison someone, he added.

Gilleard had already pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possessing 34 cartridges of ammunition without holding a firearms certificate.

Offensive weapon

But he denied that he had intended to hurt anyone with the nail bombs, arguing in court that he had only assembled them to give himself something to do.

When asked why he made the devices, he said: “I’d had a couple of cans. I was just sat around bored.”

The jury, however, decided that he had more sinister purposes in mind.

After the raid on Wednesday 31 October 2007, Gilleard fled to the home of his half-brother in Dundee, Tayside. Police caught up with him after a three-day manhunt.

Detectives who interviewed his work colleagues were told that he had expressed racist views to them. The police also recovered a high-visibility jacket belonging to Gilleard that had been daubed with a hand-drawn swastika.

Born on 15 July 1976 in York, Martyn Paul Gilleard had a complicated upbringing. At the time of his birth his mother had two older children by her ex-husband. He became the adopted son of his mother’s new partner after she remarried in 1978.

He left school at 16 with GCSEs in history, English language and literature, but failed to complete a course at Northallerton College. In 2000 he began working for Howarth Timber in Breighton, East Yorkshire, as a forklift truck driver.

In 2002 – the same year he was fined £25 for possession of an offensive weapon – his partner gave birth to a son, but the couple split in 2006.

A prison cell, not the racial conflict of which he dreamed, now awaits him.

BBC News

From 2008

Enjoy Christmas dinner in prison, Ryan… the man who went on a vile, racist rant on the tram on derby day has been jailed

By virginiagolden

December 14, 2019

Uncategorized

‘I do apologise, I’m actually a married man with kids, but City fans just rub me up the wrong way’

A ‘married man with kids’ who went on a racist, foul-mouthed rant on the tram on derby day faces Christmas behind bars.

Video footage of Ryan John Healey shouting that Manchester City is a ‘tiny club with a tiny stadium, run by p**i’s with p***i money’ was shared widely on social media at the weekend.

The clip was taken by a passenger on a tram travelling on the Bury Metrolink line at 5.45pm on Saturday (December 7), shortly after the game kicked off at the Etihad Stadium.

In the video, Healey, 29, can be heard shouting ’20 times… 20′ – a reference to how many times Manchester United have won the top-flight title.

He is later heard saying: “I do apologise, I’m actually a married man with kids, but City fans just rub me up the wrong way.

“With their s**t stadium and s**t fans.”

In the footage, passengers can be heard repeatedly asking Healey to be quiet.

One is heard telling him ‘you’re a racist’ and ‘you’re disgusting’.

Healey then appears to say: “Nah, it’s run by p**i money.

“You like blowing up the arena do you? That’s what funds you.”

He later adds: “We’ve got more class in the Stretford End than the entire s*******e you can’t fill.

“You’re a f*****g embarrassment to Manchester. You haven’t even got any points to back it up.

“If this was a Salford tram with United fans, you’d have got f****** leathered by now.

“All the tourists on here can take your shopping bags, take your f******g empty seats and f*** off.”

The game, which kicked off at 5.30pm, ended in a 2-1 win for United.

Healey, of Porchester Drive, Radcliffe, Bury, appeared at Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (December 12).

He pleaded guilty to a racially-aggravated public order offence and was sentenced to five weeks in prison and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £122.

An application was also made for a Criminal Behaviour Order and Football Banning Order. The court will deal with those matters on January 24.

Chief Inspector Matt Bailey-Smith, of GMP’s Transport Unit, said: “We do not tolerate any form of racism or hate crime and will deal with incidents like this accordingly.”

Healey’s arrest was one of a handful by the force’s new, dedicated transport team.

Chf Insp Bailey-Smith added: “One of the aims of the Transport Unit is to improve public confidence and reduce criminality and anti-social behaviour across the transport systems of Greater Manchester.

“These results prove that even within the first month of being established, the unit are already making a huge impact in improving safety and increasing confidence to those who use public transport.

“The unit works in partnership with local authorities and TfGM to ensure an effective and proactive police presence that can provide a response function to deal with ongoing crimes and incidents affecting public transport.

“My officers are there to keep the public safe, so if you are concerned about anyone acting suspiciously or you require help, don’t be afraid of approaching them.”

Manchester Evening News

Nazi jailed for hate campaign involving Taylor Swift and Sadiq Khan

By virginiagolden

December 14, 2019

Uncategorized

White supremacist Michael O’Neill, aged 61, made jibes at everyone from Taylor Swift to Sadiq Khan

Michael O’Neill made a racist claim about singer Taylor Swift and a black child

A Nazi has been jailed for a campaign of race hate on social media which included jibes at everyone from London mayor Sadiq Khan to pop superstar Taylor Swift.

White supremacist Michael O’Neill, aged 61, was arrested after an investigation by counter-terrorism police watching far-right groups.

He spent three years using Facebook and Twitter to spread racial abuse.

O’Neill was continually blocked by the social media giants for posting offensive material, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

But he created accounts under slightly different names so he could go on spouting filth.

He posted a picture of Tyler Swift with her arm around a black child and claimed she could catch Down’s Syndrome.

Jailing him for two years for his racist messages, Judge James Townsend said that he needed to pass a sentence to deter others.

He told the defendant the posts went on for a prolonged period of nearly three years and were available for all to see.

Police said after the case that the sentence should deter others from posting extreme views.

O’Neill, of Redhill Close, Ernesettle, pleaded not guilty to eight counts of distributing written material on social media likely to stir up racial hatred.

But he was found guilty after a four-day trial last month.

The jury saw more than 100 bizarre and offensive Facebook posts and tweets from between 2015 and 2018.

Simon Burns, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said among the more worrying posts was a suggestion that black Labour front bencher Diane Abbott “needed dispatching”.

O’Neill, with links to the National Front and Combat 18, also said Mr Khan should ‘f*** off and die’.

The barrister also reminded the judge that O’Neill said Pakistani Muslims should be “wiped out”.

O’Neill told a court that a tattoo of the number 1488 – linked to Hitler – was nothing to do with Nazis and was just a reminder of his PIN.

O’Neill said that he had the ink done years ago because he kept forgetting the number.

He also briefly sang the anthem “Flower of Scotland” from the witness stand during his trial.

Rupert Taylor, for O’Neill, said his client had “learnt his lesson”.

He added that the defendant no longer posted messages on social media or associated with far-right racists.

Mr Taylor said O’Neill drank heavily, was socially isolated and in poor health.

He added: “He has had the good sense to mend his ways. He is anxious to accept assistance and that is something that could be done in the community.

“It is really a plea for mercy for him to live quietly with restrictions.”

Mr Taylor said that his comments did not provoke actual violence or drive anyone to radical views.

Det Sgt Steve Foale from Counter Terrorism Police South West said after the case that the unit started examining O’Neill’s online activity early in 2018.

He added that when police searched his home in July that year, they found books, flags and music linked to the far-right.

DS Foale said: “His mindset combined with his aspiration for others to commit violence towards vulnerable members of our communities cannot be underestimated and could not go unprosecuted.

“O’Neill had at least eight Twitter and Facebook accounts attributed to him from which he continually posted a large amount of offensive extreme far-right material.

Chief Inspector Rob Mooney added: “The sentencing today of Michael O’Neill will send a positive message to the people of Plymouth that Devon and Cornwall Police and our partners will not accept any extremist ideology.

“Residents in our community must be protected from anyone that displays these abhorrent and bigoted behaviours.

“This court result shows that we take reports of this nature very seriously and urge our communities to carry on reporting such activity to police.

“If you have any information about suspicious activity or behaviour please contact Counter Terrorism Police in confidence. You can report a potential terrorist threat via our secure online form at gov.uk/ACT or call us on 0800 789 321.”

Plymouth Herald

—Far-Right Criminals

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Tag Archives: Racial Conviction

Terry Ralph, unrepentant racist who abused mum and her young children walking to fete in Saffron Walden, jailed

Enjoy Christmas dinner in prison, Ryan… the man who went on a vile, racist rant on the tram on derby day has been jailed