A teenager from the Tamworth area with an "unhealthy interest" in explosives and fascist politics has appeared in court alongside a man from Amington, to face charges relating to making potentially-lethal weapons.
The court heard that police found a pipe packed with nails and screws and charged with gunpowder, in the bedroom of the 16-year-old.
He had made the explosive device with chemicals bought off the Internet.
The youngster also had right wing literature from the BNP and the English Defence League, together with Nazi emblems – one of them in the middle of his bed.
His family home was immediately evacuated while explosives and firearms experts were called in to search the property.
As the search entered its third day, another explosive device was reported hidden under a waste oil tank at Tomson's Garage in Glascote Road.
Mr Malcolm Morse, prosecuting, said the device had the appearance of a home-made sawn-off shotgun.
In one of the "barrels" was a firework with the fuse extending out of it.
The device was taken to Sutton Coldfield police station, which later had to be evacuated while experts assessed how dangerous it was.
Some tape holding the barrels together had human hair and fingerprints which belonged to a co-accused, 27-year-old Jonathan Cunningham, of Greenheart, Amington, who was also arrested.
Cunningham said he had put the device under the oil tank to hide it from the police.
He also tried to take the blame for making it, saying he wanted to show the boy how to do it, but Mr Morse told Stafford Crown Court the prosecution did not accept that.
"[The boy] was perfectly capable of making devices of this kind with no assistance."
In court, Mr Morse said the teen had been asked specifically about the right-wing political literature by concerned officers.
"He denied any specific interest in right-wing politics, and he expressed a general interest in the acquisition of pyrotechnic knowledge.
"He denied supporting the views of either the BNP or the English Defence League, that was his explanation.
"It is to an extent contradicted by some evidence from a lecturer at the college where he studies.
"Her recollection is he was outspoken among his peers in support of such views.
"It is the case that while material of this nature was found, material of a contrary view was not.
"The prosecution, in drawing attention to this literature, is making no comment on its content.
"I am merely indicating the presence of it, together with the ingredients and the skill for making explosives," Mr Morse told Judge John Wait.
He said the mother of one of the boy's friends had also handed in a video clip from a mobile phone camera showing an explosive device being detonated in a tree.
The clip was labelled with the teenage defendant's name and the word "bomb".
A police search of the 16-year-old's family home on January 30 this year, was triggered by an eBay seller who was concerned about commodities being ordered.
The boy used his mother's eBay account to buy the chemicals he used to make the gunpowder.
The device loaded with nails and found in the bedroom was examined by the Defence Laboratory and ruled to be capable of dealing a "lethal shot".
Mr Morse said Internet conversations from a chat room dedicated to explosives and firearms had been found on a computer in the house.
The boy's username was "Eng-Terrorman".
He also had access to a Russian film which shows the process of making a gun.
The boy, who cannot be named because of his age, admitted possessing a firearm without a certificate – the only charge that could be applied to the device found in his bedroom, according to Mr Morse.
The boy also admits having an explosive substance and making an explosive substance.
Judge Wait made the boy subject to a three-year controlling order for public safety, with a three-month curfew, a ban on having any explosive material and the recording of any Internet use.
He told the boy: "Anyone who makes such explosives, that in the wrong hands could be used to kill or maim, is committing a very serious offence and putting the public at risk."
The judge said the boy could have put everyone in danger by being used and abused by extreme political organisations.
He added: "That a 14 to 15-year-old boy should be permitted to carry on such activities under the gaze of caring parents is hard to believe.
"The parents saw substantial quantities of material coming in to the house and saw no danger.
"They saw material relating to extreme politics and saw no danger in that."
Co-accused Cunningham, who admitted making an explosive substance and perverting the course of justice, was jailed for 12 months.
Mr Darron Whitehead, for the boy, said: "It would be very easy to simply infer that this young man is a terrorist with hidden agendas. They don't exist in this case.
"There was never at any time, any positive intention to make any aggressive use of the items strewn about his bedroom.
"There is nothing in this case to suggest there was any intention to cause harm to human life."
But Judge Wait responded: "This is a young man who has developed an expertise, who has broadcast it over the Internet, thereby exposing himself and the rest of us to people who would want to cause us serious harm."
Mr Whitehead said the boy's interests in fireworks began as "idle curiosity" and developed into a hobby.
"He plainly has an interest in pyrotechnics. It will no doubt be reported that he developed an unhealthy interest in weaponry.
"The scene met by the police demonstrates that all who visited that house were aware of activities going on inside.
"The youth report makes criticism not only of the boy but also of his parents.
"They are good, hardworking individuals. It appears they not only knew what the boy was doing, they allowed him to have them and indeed involved themselves at stages.
"The garden was littered with fireworks made and ignited over time.
"The neighbours were well aware of the activities and not intimidated by it."
This is Tamworth
Friday, 2 July 2010
BNP member Paul Thompson served six month sentence for violent disorder
One of the candidates standing in a council by-election next week is a convicted football hooligan, The Northern Echo has learned.
British National Party member Paul Thompson was convicted and jailed for six months for violent disorder between two sets of thugs.
He also has a previous conviction for criminal damage after hurling stones through the shop window of a left-wing book store.
Mr Thompson is one of four candidates who is standing for the Darlington Borough Council by-election in the Cockerton West ward. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Jenny Chapman, following her selection at the town’s new MP.
Mr Thompson stood in the 2003 and 2007 council elections, both times in Darlington’s Northgate ward. In 2003 he was last with 151 votes and again in 2007 with 126 votes.
A Darlington Borough Council spokeswoman confirmed that Mr Thompson was allowed to stand.
People are barred from standing as a candidate in council elections if they have been sentenced to more than three months imprisonment within the previous five years.
Mr Thompson was jailed for violent disorder in 1998. He was one of nine men involved in trouble between Darlington and Cardiff City supporters in May 1997.
His earlier conviction happened in 1994, when he was given a 12-month conditional discharge.
Ken Booth, regional organiser for British National Party, said the charges were irrelevant and Mr Thompson was entitled to stand for public office.
He added: “It is a long time ago. You get over it and move on. He is not breaking any law by standing, but obviously someone wants to drag up the past. Is this a topical issue? I don’t think so. Everyone deserves a second chance.”
Mr Thompson has also previously been criticised by the family of a man murdered in a street attack in 2001 after he produced leaflets attacking the three-year sentence given to his killer. People intervened when he handed out the leaflets because they were of a racist nature.
Mr Booth called the accusations “fictitious and bogus”.
Also standing in the by-election are Jan Cossins, for the Labour Party, David Davies, for the Conservatives, and Brian Jefferson, for the Liberal Democrats.
Mrs Cossins is chairman of Cockerton East Community Partnership and a governor at Branksome School. Mr Davies is a former UKIP candidate and husband of Conservative councillor Kate Davies. Mr Jefferson is chairman of Growing Older Living in Darlington.
The election takes place on Thursday. Labour will maintain its overall control of the council whatever the result of the election. It now has 28 councillors, the Conservative party 18 and Liberal Democrats six.
The Northern Echo
British National Party member Paul Thompson was convicted and jailed for six months for violent disorder between two sets of thugs.
He also has a previous conviction for criminal damage after hurling stones through the shop window of a left-wing book store.
Mr Thompson is one of four candidates who is standing for the Darlington Borough Council by-election in the Cockerton West ward. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Jenny Chapman, following her selection at the town’s new MP.
Mr Thompson stood in the 2003 and 2007 council elections, both times in Darlington’s Northgate ward. In 2003 he was last with 151 votes and again in 2007 with 126 votes.
A Darlington Borough Council spokeswoman confirmed that Mr Thompson was allowed to stand.
People are barred from standing as a candidate in council elections if they have been sentenced to more than three months imprisonment within the previous five years.
Mr Thompson was jailed for violent disorder in 1998. He was one of nine men involved in trouble between Darlington and Cardiff City supporters in May 1997.
His earlier conviction happened in 1994, when he was given a 12-month conditional discharge.
Ken Booth, regional organiser for British National Party, said the charges were irrelevant and Mr Thompson was entitled to stand for public office.
He added: “It is a long time ago. You get over it and move on. He is not breaking any law by standing, but obviously someone wants to drag up the past. Is this a topical issue? I don’t think so. Everyone deserves a second chance.”
Mr Thompson has also previously been criticised by the family of a man murdered in a street attack in 2001 after he produced leaflets attacking the three-year sentence given to his killer. People intervened when he handed out the leaflets because they were of a racist nature.
Mr Booth called the accusations “fictitious and bogus”.
Also standing in the by-election are Jan Cossins, for the Labour Party, David Davies, for the Conservatives, and Brian Jefferson, for the Liberal Democrats.
Mrs Cossins is chairman of Cockerton East Community Partnership and a governor at Branksome School. Mr Davies is a former UKIP candidate and husband of Conservative councillor Kate Davies. Mr Jefferson is chairman of Growing Older Living in Darlington.
The election takes place on Thursday. Labour will maintain its overall control of the council whatever the result of the election. It now has 28 councillors, the Conservative party 18 and Liberal Democrats six.
The Northern Echo
Anti-Semitic hate crimes rise in 2009: report (Sweden)
The number of anti-Semitic crimes reported in Sweden rose 57 percent last year, mainly in the southern region of Skåne, the national crime prevention council said on Thursday.
Last year, 250 anti-Semitic crimes were reported, primarily in Skåne, the report said, adding the overall number of hate crimes reported in Sweden had remained unchanged.
"In 2009, 5,800 hate crimes were reported. Crimes against foreigners or with racist motives continue to dominate and the reporting of anti-Semitic crimes has increased," the council said in a statement.
Presenting its latest hate crime statistics report, the council added that it did not know if there had been an actual increase in the number of anti-Semitic crimes or merely in their reporting.
Crimes and threats against the small Jewish community in the southern city of Malmö recently received much media and political attention.
Education Minister and Liberal Party leader Jan Björklund met with Jewish community leaders earlier this year after it was reported some Jews decided to leave the city because they felt unsafe.
Malmö Mayor Ilmar Reepalu was criticised in the media for failing to stop the crimes or even fuelling the anti-Semitic sentiment in the city.
Of the hate crimes reported in Sweden in 2009, 71 percent were against foreigners or motivated by race, 18 percent were related to sexual orientation, 10 percent had religious motives (Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, or anti-religious crimes) and one percent were against transexuals.
The Local Sweden
Last year, 250 anti-Semitic crimes were reported, primarily in Skåne, the report said, adding the overall number of hate crimes reported in Sweden had remained unchanged.
"In 2009, 5,800 hate crimes were reported. Crimes against foreigners or with racist motives continue to dominate and the reporting of anti-Semitic crimes has increased," the council said in a statement.
Presenting its latest hate crime statistics report, the council added that it did not know if there had been an actual increase in the number of anti-Semitic crimes or merely in their reporting.
Crimes and threats against the small Jewish community in the southern city of Malmö recently received much media and political attention.
Education Minister and Liberal Party leader Jan Björklund met with Jewish community leaders earlier this year after it was reported some Jews decided to leave the city because they felt unsafe.
Malmö Mayor Ilmar Reepalu was criticised in the media for failing to stop the crimes or even fuelling the anti-Semitic sentiment in the city.
Of the hate crimes reported in Sweden in 2009, 71 percent were against foreigners or motivated by race, 18 percent were related to sexual orientation, 10 percent had religious motives (Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, or anti-religious crimes) and one percent were against transexuals.
The Local Sweden
Swede's remand for Auschwitz theft extended
Anders Högström was extradited to Poland from Sweden in April and initially remanded for three months to give prosecutors probing December's theft more time to question him.
The court in the southern Polish city of Krakow accepted a prosecution request to keep him behind bars until September 9th, Poland's PAP news agency reported.
Högström was arrested in his homeland on a Polish warrant in February. He risks 10 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors have said Högström denies plotting the theft of the gateway sign from the site of the camp in the southern Polish city of Oswiecim, which has became a notorious symbol of genocide by the occupying Nazi Germans.
Polish police recovered the five-metre metal sign - which means "Work Will Set You Free" in German - two days after it went missing.
They arrested and charged five Polish men, three of whom, considered relatively small fry, have already been sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
The two others, suspected of playing a far more prominent role in the theft, are to be tried after Högström has been questioned.
In 1994, Högström founded the National Socialist Front, a Swedish neo-Nazi movement he ran for five years before quitting.
He has told Swedish media he was to act as an intermediary to pick up the sign and sell it to a buyer, adding, however, that he informed Polish police about the people behind the plot.
The sign, which had been cut into three parts, was returned by investigators to the Polish state-run Auschwitz museum on January 21st, less than a week before commemorations for the 65th anniversary of the camp's liberation by Soviet troops.
Of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, 1 million were murdered at Auschwitz, mostly in the camp's notorious gas chambers, along with tens of thousands of others including Poles, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war.
The Local Sweden
RACIST THUGS DEFACE LAWRENCE MEMORIAL (UK)
Three men are being hunted after they were filmed vandalisinga memorial plaque for race murder victim Stephen Lawrence.The trio, with T-shirts covering their faces, were caught on CCTV pouring a substance over the pavement plaque.
Cctv operators immediately alerted the police but the men ran off before officers got there in the early hours of Monday.
Police were unable to confirm reports that the substance was petrol but were carrying out forensic tests on it.
The memorial is at the spot in Eltham, South East London, where 18-year-old student Stephen died in April 1993.
Sixth former Stephen had been walking with a friend to a bus stop when they were attacked by a gang of six white youths shouting racist abuse.
Stephen was stabbed to death.
Five men were arrested but no one has ever been convicted.
Stephen's death led to the Macpherson Inquiry declaring the Metropolitan Police to be "institutionally racist" following their bungled handling of the investigation into his murder.
Yesterday Scotland Yard appealed for witnesses or anyone with information to come forward to the police.
Investigating officer Det Con Nic Sargant said: "We would like to hear from anyone who saw or heard anything suspicious in the Well Hall Road area of Eltham on Monday morning."
A 19-year-old man was arrested in connection with the incident and was released on bail until September pending further police inquiries.
Anyone with information about the plaque vandalism should call Det Con Sargant on 020 8853 1212.
This is the latest in a string of attacks on the memorial.
In March 1998, shortly before the start of a public inquiry into the murder, vandals chipped and poured paint on the plaque. The same happened the following year, despite 24-hour camera surveillance.
And in 2008, yobs attacked the Stephen Lawrence Centre by smashing windows, worth £120,000, with bricks.
The £10million centre in Deptford, South East London, centre promotes architecture, which Stephen had planned to pursue as a career.
The cost of the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford, South East London, the education facility built in memory of the murdered teenager
The Mirror
DUTCH TEENS HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT EQUAL RIGHTS FOR IMMIGRANTS
Dutch 14 and 15-year-olds have more doubts about granting equal rights to immigrants than their peers in many other countries, according to an international research project partly carried out by Groningen University researchers. Only some 45% of 'native' youngsters in the Netherlands, Britain and Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) believe in equal rights for immigrants, the research shows. In most other European countries, around 50% of youngsters believe in equality for all citizens. In a pre-general election poll, Geert Wilders' anti-immigration and Islam party PVV was the big winner under high school pupils. The researchers looked at attitudes to citizenship in 39 countries and found only one in four Dutch school pupils understood what active citizenship actually means. In Finland and Denmark, between 55% and 60% of young teens were aware of their civic responsibilities. International report [PDF]
The Dutch News
The Dutch News
MOROCCO, CONCERNED ABOUT INCREASING ISLAMOPHOBIA (Kazakhstan)
Morocco voiced "growing" concern about the increasing Islamophobia, Morocco's Ambassador to the international organizations Omar Znibar said on Tuesday in Astana (Kazakhstan). Speaking at a conference of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Znibar underlined the importance to "strongly condemn the confusion, made by the media and some public discourses, between any religion and terrorism". The Moroccan delegation attending the event reiterated its call on the OSCE to adopt a declaration and/or decision on fighting discrimination against Muslims, similar to the anti-Semitism declaration that was issued by the organisation at Berlin conference. Morocco’s openness, tolerance and attachment to promoting good neighbourhood, respecting minority rights and encouraging the peaceful settlement of conflicts, enabled the Kingdom to play a crucial role in terms of dialogue between cultures and religions, Znibar added. The delegation also stressed the need to establish a partnership between States, civil society and the media in order to promote the values of tolerance, dialogue and mutual respect. Morocco commended the OSCE’s efforts to fight anti-Semitism, Zniber said, recalling that the Kingdom was the first Arab country to sign an agreement with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to cooperate in the fields of archives and the opening of classified files relating to the past anti-Semitic persecution and actions.
The OSCE High-Level conference on Tolerance and Non-Discrimination, held on June 29-30, focuses on Sharing positive experiences and best practices in boosting tolerance and non-discrimination.
Morroco Board
The OSCE High-Level conference on Tolerance and Non-Discrimination, held on June 29-30, focuses on Sharing positive experiences and best practices in boosting tolerance and non-discrimination.
Morroco Board
Croydon BNP member Charlotte Lewis investigated for race crime
The former animal rights campaigner and BNP election candidate for Carshalton and Wallington, advocated the murder of illegal immigrants in the wake of the recent Cumbrian massacre.
Right-wing activist Charlotte Lewis, from Thornton Heath, wrote on her Facebook page that mass-murderer Derrick Bird should have come to London and slaughtered illegal immigrants rather than his "fellow British people".
Miss Lewis was reported to the police after someone reading the comments decided she had gone too far in her racist rhetoric.
Detectives have logged the complaint as a crime and are now deciding whether or not they can prosecute her for inciting racial hatred.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “We can confirm the MPS are investigating a complaint that has been made to them regarding alleged comments made. Detectives from Croydon CID are dealing but no arrests have been made.
Her tirade is the latest in a string of hate-filled rants and calls for violence against "pakis" through her Facebook page.
The latest post reads: "Ok, so I may well get in to trouble for saying this - but I've got to get it off my chest.
"I wish that Derrick Bird could have come down to London & shot dead some illegal immigrants, rather than killing his fellow British people.
"If that offends you then tough; it's my opinion and I'm entitled to it."
Her comments refer to taxi driver Derrick Bird, who went on a killing spree in west Cumbria on June 2, shooting dead 12 people and injuring 11 others.
Her latest Facebook rant was highlighted by website Hope Not Hate, Searchlight's campaign to counter racism and fascism in elections and beyond.
Gerry Gable from Searchlight said: "I think anybody advocating the murder of illegal immigrants should be prosecuted.
"People may view Charlotte Lewis as being a bit potty, but the overwhelming interest in firearms of the BNP tells a much more serious story."
Sutton Guardian
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