Waddon byelection: BNP candidate Charlotte Lewis's secret criminal past

admin : Well its not really that secret is it?

A candidate for the Waddon byelection sent death threats to a drugs company involved in animal testing.

Charlotte Lewis was jailed for six months in 2001 for her ongoing harassment of staff at the Huntington Life Sciences (HLS) centre in Cambridgeshire.

Miss Lewis, of Thornton Heath, is now standing as the British National party (BNP) in the Waddon byelection on February 12.
She appeared at Peterborough Crown Court on January 31, 2001 where she admitted four charges of harassment.
The 36-year-old was implicated in offensive mail sent to HLS staff when saliva on the envelopes matched her DNA.
The letters began “Dear Animal Abusing Scum” or “Dear Scum” and contained threats such as “If you don’t quit HLS then your life will not be worth living. You will always have to be looking over your shoulder”.
Miss Lewis also penned, “This is a warning. Your life is in grave danger if you don’t stop working at HLS ...

“You will find yourself having a gun aimed at your stupid ugly head.”

The court heard how Miss Lewis had not intended to carry out the threats and did not have “a violent bone in her body”.
But the victims of the threats were oblivious to this, with Charles Owen, a recipient of the mail, convinced the threats would be realised.
Jennifer Howlett, who had not worked at the centre for two years, said she was left “hysterical and very scared”.
And Mark and Julie Farrance, who received some 50 letters from animal rights activists, were also the targets of a late-night animal rights demonstration outside their home, with a brick thrown through their window.
They then received Miss Lewis’s letter which said: “I was there when a brick was put through your window. If you don’t quit HLS you can expect more of the same.”

Mrs Farrance feared for her family’s safety.
Sentencing Miss Lewis, Judge Richard Pollard said the six-month jail term would have been longer if she had not pleaded guilty and shown remorse.

He also issued a restraining order against Miss Lewis, a member of Stop Animal Rights Cruelty, banning her from harassing HLS staff.

It was revealed the BNP candidate had a history of psychological problems and suffers depression. The judge said the “chilling letters” had brought “fear and anguish to people going about their peaceful and lawful business”.
Miss Lewis told the Croydon Guardian this week that her time in jail, six weeks in total, was “utterly horrible” and she never wanted to spend another day in “that awful place”.

She said she got involved in animal rights in 1999 having been a vegetarian since she was 14. She said she began to read animal rights activist magazines.
She said: “I was not really involved in an extreme level, I just decided to write these letters. Unfortunately I was caught. I regret being caught.”

Last week the Croydon Guardian revealed how Miss Lewis had also had a brush with the law in 2006 when she was questioned over possible election fraud but was released without charge.

Croydon Guardian

White supremacist group 'considered itself most racist'

A white supremacist group considered itself the most racist and extreme neo-Nazi movement in Britain, a court heard today.

Members of the Aryan Strike Force believed groups like the notorious far-right Combat 18 and Blood and Honour did "f*** all" and were more interested in raising money than fighting "scum".

The shocking revelation emerged during the trial of ex-milkman's assistant Nicky Davison, 19, who is charged with possessing terrorism manuals.
Newcastle Crown Court has already heard that the teenager was one of the founders of the Aryan Strike Force, an online far-right group set up by his father, Ian.

Ian Davison, 41, a former pub DJ, has already admitted six charges related to this case, including producing ricin, one of the world's deadliest substances.
The aim of the group was to carry out "ops" and overthrow the Government, which it believed had been taken over by the ZOG - the Zionist Occupied Government.

After studying videos, messages posted online and logs of internet chat, Dr Matthew Feldman, a lecturer at the University of Northampton, said the Aryan Strike Force considered itself the most extreme right-wing group in Britain.
"Some of these groups like Blood and Honour and Combat 18 are seen as not being 'active' enough," Dr Feldman, an expert in the ideology of post-war fascism and neo-Nazism, told the jury.

"Aryan Strike Force would regard itself as the pinnacle and the most uncompromising form of neo-Nazis groups available in the UK.

"The Aryan Strike Force regarded itself as the most active, rejectionist and unwilling to compromise on its principles.

"The other movements would be more concerned about finances rather than focusing on direct action or revolutionary tactics.

"It was an unmistakable example of neo-Nazis in Britain and this permutation is the most overtly hostile.

"Legion88, the Aryan Strike Force and WolfPack represented the most aggressive and dangerous form of neo-Nazism.

"One, moreover, which seems to be on the most extreme form of (the) neo-Nazi spectrum, and this group may be considered an exemplar of violent revolutionary neo-Nazism."

Earlier today, jurors were read messages Davison had posted on online forums and heard he was prepared to "die fighting" for his cause.
Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, said Davison wrote: "I know my aims.

"I don't care if I am fighting a unwinnable battle.

"I would rather die fighting than let the scum of the earth walk over us."

Davison wrote of "taking control of national white countries by any means necessary and overthrow and see the downfall of the ZOG".

The court heard yesterday that in June last year police discovered copies of The Poor Man's James Bond and The Anarchist's Cookbook on computers at the home Davison shared with his mother and younger brothers and sisters in County Durham.
Davison, of Grampian Way, Annfield Plain, denies three charges of possessing a record containing information useful in committing or preparing acts of terrorism.

Last month his father, of Myrtle Grove, Burnopfield, County Durham, admitted preparing for acts of terrorism and producing a chemical weapon from June 1 to 3 last year.
He also admitted three charges of possessing a record containing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing acts of terrorism relating to electronic copies of The Anarchist's Cookbook, the Mujahideen Explosives Handbook and Kitchen Complete on June 2.

He will be sentenced at the conclusion of his son's trial.
Ricin is a toxin that is extracted from the castor bean and exposure to small quantities can be fatal.

The US Centre for Disease Control suggests as little as 500 micrograms - about half a grain of sand - of the substance can be lethal if injected or inhaled. It has no known antidote.

The Independant

MACEDONIA ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW CRITICISED

Macedonia has failed to adopt an anti-discrimination law that is completely harmonised with European norms and standards, with explicit protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation a crucial missing element, local human rights experts commented after the country’s parliament adopted its first law on the subject. Instead of promoting equality and justice, the law promotes homophobia and discrimination, Zarko Trajanovski, a human rights expert, told local media. “Generally speaking, the law does not meet the EU recommendations where the premise of different sexual orientation is mentioned as one of the six key bases for discrimination,” he told A1 TV. Macedonia’s controversial anti-discrimination law passed last week with the backing of the main ruling centre-right VMRO DPMNE party. The opposition left the session in protest after the majority remained deaf to the recommendations to include provisions barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Margarita Caca Nikolovska, a former judge at the European Court of Human Rights and founder of the Macedonian NGO Institute for Democracy, argued that the country might find itself under scrutiny from the EU for ignoring its recommendations. "A serious state must have this in mind and have a legal explanation for everything it does. Are our arguments going to be that people with different sexual orientation are sick, like some from the ruling party try to portray!?" Slavco Dimitrov from the NGO Macedonia without Discrimination told local media that this will most certainly be a “black stain” in the next European Commission report for Macedonia, which is due to be published in autumn. He said that the law will have to be changed “sooner or later”.

One day before the passing of the law the EU ambassador to the country, Erwan Fouere, urged legislators once again to gather strength and openly add this type of discrimination in the law. Many local NGOs and human rights movements share the same thoughts. "I appeal once again to the government and the parliament to use the chance on Thursday and vote for a comprehensive anti-discrimination law, harmonized with European norms and criteria," Fouere said. Trajanovski argued that the ruling conservative VMRO DPMNE party used the adoption of the law for its own political interests. “The fact that we witnessed a constant anti homosexual campaign prior to the passing of the law shows that in practice the party in power abused the law to boost its own popularity among its voters,” he said. Several VMRO DPMNE deputies were active in the past months in explaining to the public that they would not let a provision on sexual orientation be included in the law. “This provision would mean the first phase towards introducing homosexual marriages and letting homosexual couples adopt children,” VMRO DPMNE party legislator Vlatko Gjorcev said in late February during one of the open debates on the topic held in the parliament. The government has boasted that the law is one of the most comprehensive in Europe, and that failure to mention sexual orientation does not mean that homosexuals and other marginalized sexual groups will be left without protection as they are listed in the section “others”. Human Rights Watch sent an open letter to the Macedonian prime minister in February this year to push for the inclusion of sexual orientation in the anti-discrimination law. "Silence equals inequality," said Boris O. Dittrich, advocacy director in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender program of Human Rights Watch. "Vague references to ‘other grounds' simply aren't good enough."

Balkan Insight

Scuffle breaks out at BNP candidates meeting

A scuffle erupted on the streets of Croydon today as the British National Party presented some of its candidates for the forthcoming local and Westminster elections.

One anti-fascist protester broke through a police cordon and tried to punch a BNP member before being tackled to the ground and taken away by police officers.

The BNP was presenting its candidates outside the headquarters of the UK Border Agency, in south London.
Anti-fascist protesters were waiting for the BNP outside Lunar House where the event was taking place.

They shouted "Nazi scum. Off our streets" and "Smash the BNP".
BNP London organiser Robert Bailey, who is standing as a parliamentary candidate in Romford, Essex, had earlier told a group of around 40 BNP candidates that they were there to put immigration on the election agenda.
He said: "The leaders of the main political parties will be holding a meeting tonight at the TV studios to discuss the future of Britain.
"Up until this moment, nobody has mentioned immigration. The reason why the British National Party is here today is to draw the public's attention and the world's attention to the immigration crisis that is facing ordinary British citizens."
Mr Bailey, who is also a local councillor in Barking and Dagenham, said immigration was the second-biggest issue after the war in Afghanistan for politicians and the Government to face up to.

"We are here today to break the silence," he said.
The BNP plans to field around 350 parliamentary candidates for the forthcoming General Election on May 6.
After the scuffle, Mr Bailey said that the BNP had the right to protest and anti-fascist campaigners had a right to counter-protest.
He said: "Unfortunately some of them have decided to cause a scene."

Party leader Nick Griffin was not present at today's gathering.

Asked where Mr Griffin was, Mr Bailey replied: "You will have to ask him."

This is London

Visits dont turn into Votes. The truth about the BNP’s website popularity claims.

The BNP claim they have one of the most popular political sites in the UK.

A report published by UKOM reveals that the sites traffic is most active when the party comes under public scrutiny and not a constant flow as they would like to claim.

The Conservative website received the most traffic of political party sites last month, according to figures from the UK Online Measurement Company.

The figures reveal conservatives.com attracted 150,000 unique visitors in March, followed by libdems.org.uk (115,000) and labour.org.uk (114,000).

The Conservative site had the greatest proportion of women visitors, with 44%, compared with Labour (43%) and the Liberal Democrats (31%). Its audience is also more widely spread in terms of social classes, with 58% of visitors being ABC1, while Labour’s website was made up of 71% ABC1 and the Liberal Democrats’ 75%.

The British National Party site has seen dramatic increases in visits over the past year, but according to UKOM the spikes come during times of public scrutiny. The party’s traffic grew to 152,000 unique users in October 2009 when party leader Nick Griffin appeared on Question Time, and reached 192,000 last June during local elections.

James Smythe, UKOM general manager, said the data reflected how dynamic the race for voters’ attention had become. “Over the past 12 months the parties have taken turns to peak and dip in popularity, but it has become more important to deliver their party message as we get closer to the General Election. Our research suggests the Tories are attracting online interest from a bigger and broader section of society than the other parties. But as the BNP data shows us, visits don’t necessarily turn into votes.”

nma

BNP candidate revels in Burqa shame (UK)

This is the true “face” of British National Party election candidate Charlotte Lewis she would rather you did not see.

As she swigs from a bottle of alcopops at a Halloween party, burqa clad BNP parliamentary hopeful Miss Lewis reveals her contempt for Muslims.
The right wing activist is pictured smoking and drinking and revealing her underwear while on the night out dressed as a Muslim.
And these exclusive pictures of the woman standing as a candidate for Carshalton and Wallington, and a Croydon Council nominee, are just the start of her bigoted views.

Miss Lewis, 37, has been using her Facebook page to openly call for violence and post hate-filled racist rants about “pakis”.
Lewis has previous convictions for sending death threats to staff of Huntingdon Life Sciences and served a six month sentence in 2001 after she pleaded guilty to four charges of harassment.

Now she is using the internet to encourage others to take up her campaign of terror against what she calls “animal abusers”.
Lewis joined a Facebook group dedicated to tracking down the home address of a teen convicted of harming a cat, declaring; “I hope people turn up in the middle of the night & throw bricks through her windows - frighten the life out of her!
“The internet is great! There was no such thing as the internet when I was a kid. Now we can share information about scum.”

She went on to say: “Her brain needs to be re-programmed. She's sub-human, & not fit to breathe the same air as the rest of us. I hope she gets cancer.”

Lewis’s Facebook profile features repeated calls for foreign “paki” criminals to be executed.
In one racist rant she declares that “The Pakis that murdered Kriss Donald should be put on it (the electric chair)”.
“They were born in Glasgow I think, but their parents were from Pakistan - so they are Pakis.”
The hate-filled MP-hopeful has also targeted the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Philips, whose recent court proceedings forced the BNP to open their membership up to non-whites.

Lewis declared: “If that w***** Trevor Phillips died then I would open a bottle of champagne and party.”
In February 2009 Lewis lost the Croydon by-election and the BNP cash deposit when her violent animal rights background was revealed.
In 2006 she was questioned by police over possible election fraud after standing for election in Waddon.
She had placed on her nomination form an address in Lind Road, Sutton, as her home residence, which was later exposed as false.
Miss Lewis said: “I think it’s completely acceptable to dress that way. I thought it was hilarious and so did everyone at the party.

“Anyone who does not find it funny needs to develop a sense of humour.

"You can print the pictures if you want and give your readers a bit of a laugh.”

Croydon Guardian

KYRGYZSTAN'S JEWISH COMMUNITY ALARMED AFTER RIOTS

Arieh Reichman, Kyrgyzstan's chief rabbi, shook his head as he presented a vodka bottle filled with flammable liquid that was thrown at the Muslim country's sole synagogue during violent riots last week. He said it was the first act of violence against the country's tiny Jewish community, apparently triggered by the chaos and violence that ousted Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on April 7. "It's the first time in the history of our community here that we see such clear signs of anti-Semitism," he told Reuters outside the synagogue, a simple one-story building in Bishkek. "Kyrgyzstan has always been hospitable. During Soviet times and under its later leaders, it has always been tolerant. So what is happening right now is very alarming." Reichman said attackers tried to set the synagogue on fire and pelted it with molotov cocktails. Holding up one that did not explode, he could not say who he thought the attackers were.

There have been few cases of anti-Semitism in Kyrgyzstan's post-Soviet history and the country's 1,500-strong Jewish community has coexisted peacefully in the capital Bishkek with its predominantly Muslim population. Bishkek residents have themselves been puzzled and linked the sudden acts of anti-Semitism to some people's aversion to the business partners of Bakiyev's son, Maxim. At least one of them is Jewish. Anti-Semitic posters have sprung up around the capital, they said. One poster that appeared outside the presidential White House after the night of fighting stated: "Dirty Jews and all those like Maxim Bakiyev have no place in Kyrgyzstan." Reichman said the community had appealed for protection to the self-proclaimed government led by Roza Otunbayeva. But not all Bishkek residents agreed violence was an issue.

"This is wrong," said Yerlan, a Kyrgyz man who lives near the synagogue. "We have never seen ... any attacks on the synagogue or any negative feelings toward the Jewish community." Mark Levin, executive director of the National Conference of Soviet Jewry (NCSJ) in Washington, said he was concerned. "There have been isolated incidents of violence against Jews in Bishkek, and while there does not appear to be an organized effort to undermine the Jewish community there, the locals will be very concerned until there is a formal government," he told Reuters by telephone.
Reuters

Housing boss says sorry for Nazi photos (UK)

A housing boss has apologised for ‘the profound hurt and upset’ caused after photos of him dressed as a Nazi as part of a sex game were published in a Sunday newspaper.

In an exclusive interview, Gareth Mead, who has since been sacked as assistant director of housing options at Hammersmith & Fulham Council, said text messages containing highly offensive racist language, published by the Sunday Mirror, were sent as part of ‘fantasy role-play’.
The 44-year-old insists that he is not a Nazi or a racist and gave a public apology for ‘the profound hurt and upset I’ve caused through the reporting of the comments attributed to me in the press’. He also gave details about his childhood which he thinks led to his involvement in an ‘extreme sexual fetish scene’.

Although Mr Mead insisted that his private life never impacted upon his work, he said he is not going to take action against his former employer for unfair dismissal.
However, he has lodged a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission against The Sunday Mirror newspaper because the story it published on its website described him as a ‘secret Nazi’.

"There’s a big difference between fantasy role-playing and a silly sex game, and real life,’ added Mr Mead.
Inside Housing

Neo-Nazi is handed 2 and a half years for threats (USA)

Once called America's loudest and most obnoxious neo-Nazi leader, William A. White was silenced -- at least for now -- by a 2½-year prison sentence Wednesday.

"I personally don't have anything to say," White said when asked by Judge James Turk if he had any remarks before hearing his punishment for using the Internet, e-mail and the telephone to threaten strangers who didn't share his racist views.
It was an uncharacteristic finale for a prolific and venomous commentator who once bragged that millions read him on overthrow.com, the now-defunct Web site that was the mouthpiece of his Roanoke-based white supremacy organization.

The prison term locks away White, 32, for a period at the upper end of federal sentencing guidelines. Turk said he rarely imposes such a term but said he did so because of the fear White instilled in many of his victims.
Turk told White that when he gets out of prison, "You can have any thoughts that you want to have, but you ought to keep them to yourself. ... I hope this will teach you a lesson, I really do."

An expert on hate groups said White's downfall marks the end of the American National Socialist Workers Party, the group he formed after moving to Roanoke in 2004 to become a landlord in the predominantly black West End neighborhood.
At the height of his tenure in the white supremacy movement, White was "possibly the loudest and most obnoxious neo-Nazi leader in America," the Southern Poverty Law Center said.

White's followers -- who numbered no more than 200 -- quickly scattered after his arrest in October 2008, said Mark Potok, director of the law center's Intelligence Project. By then, he said, they had already become disillusioned by White's self-aggrandizing ways.
"Bill White was never a real leader," Potok said. "He was just a loud-mouthed propagandist."

Wednesday's sentencing in U.S. District Court in Roanoke followed an eight-day trial in December in which White was convicted of threatening people in Missouri, Delaware and Virginia Beach.
White's victims -- strangers to him and to one another -- unwittingly said or did something to anger the neo-Nazi, who then used his Web site, e-mail and the telephone to harass and threaten them.

For Citibank employee Jennifer Petsche, it was the way White's credit card account was handled. For Tasha Reddick and Tiese Mitchell, it was the housing discrimination lawsuit they filed against their Virginia Beach landlord. For University of Delaware administrator Kathleen Kerr, it was a diversity awareness program at the school.
According to earlier testimony, White called a secretary in Kerr's office and told her he was the leader of a neo-Nazi group, that people who think the way she does about race should be shot and that he would hunt her down.
Kerr and other victims testified about the terror they felt when they realized their home addresses and telephone numbers -- along with White's inflammatory rhetoric -- were posted on a Web site read by racists.

As part of his sentence, White will be on probation for three years after his release from prison. The judge prohibited him from using the Internet for any business or hobby, including posting blog messages, during that time.
White claimed his words were protected by the First Amendment -- a defense that proved successful with five of the eight charges filed against him in Roanoke and in Chicago, where he was charged with using his Web site to encourage violence.

"Our analysis of it is that it's a win," said defense attorney David Damico, who represented White along with lawyer Ray Ferris.
Among the charges rejected by the Roanoke jury was an allegation that White threatened nationally syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts. Enraged by a column Pitts wrote about black-on-white crime, White published his home address online and then said he wouldn't shed a tear if "some looney" killed the black columnist.

While acknowledging that White crossed the line in some cases, Damico called the acquittals "a reaffirmation that we still accept and believe in free speech in this county, even when it's obnoxious speech."

White has already served 18 months in jail awaiting the resolution of his case. He will receive some credit for time served and could be eligible for a 15 percent reduction of his remaining sentence for good behavior.

U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy said that while prison-time calculations are complicated, White could be released in about a year. White was more optimistic, saying at a hearing on a lawsuit that followed his sentencing that his community release date is June 6. In some cases, inmates are sent to a halfway house when they have six months left to serve.
Whatever the exact term, it wasn't enough for many black leaders, who have felt White's wrath for years, said Brenda Hale, president of the Roanoke branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
"We always have the threat looming over us that he's going to return to the community within a short period of time," Hale said. And while Turk hoped that White has learned his lesson, Hale has her doubts.

"If he had the slightest ounce of remorse, he would have said something in court when the judge gave him the opportunity," said Hale, who attended the hearing with about a half-dozen other NAACP members.
At a news conference after the sentencing, Heaphy said the work of civil rights prosecutors John Richmond and Cindy Chung, who traveled from Washington, D.C., to prosecute White, is a prelude to a renewed emphasis by his office on such cases.

"While the First Amendment protects everyone's right to free expression, it does not protect hate-mongers like Bill White," Heaphy said. "The White case demonstrates our commitment to vigorously prosecuting anyone who commits a hate crime in this district."
Although legal scholars have said the case broke little new ground in the arena of Internet threats, Potok described White's conviction as an important blow against white supremacists who in recent years have tested the limits of cyberspace.

"I think it's a real milestone," Potok said. "In some ways, this had been a real gray area of the law, especially because of the Internet. But there are limits, and Bill White seems to have defined them for us."
roanoke

Watchdog begins BNP accounts probe

The Electoral Commission has launched an investigation into the accounting records of the British National Party, it was announced today.

The commission, which is the independent party finance watchdog, said it had began the probe into the party's 2008 statement of accounts.
This follows concerns raised about its "adequacy" by the independent auditor's report that accompanied it.
But the fact that an investigation had been launched did not mean there should be assumptions made over any alleged breaches, the commission stressed.

In January this year the commission began a review following the concerns raised, and this has now developed into the investigation announced today.

It follows comments by the registered auditors, Silver & Co, that the financial statements submitted did not "give a true and fair view of the state of the party's affairs at December 31, 2008".
The auditors went on: "In our opinion it cannot be said that the accounts comply with the requirements of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, as adequate records have not been made available."

A statement released by the commission said: "In January 2010 the Electoral Commission, the independent party finance watchdog, began a case review following concerns raised in the independent auditor's opinion about the adequacy of the 2008 statement of accounts of the British National Party.

"The case has now become an investigation.

"However, it is important to note - particularly during an election period - that no conclusion has been reached and therefore no assumption should be made as to whether a breach of the rules has occurred."

The Independant