ReD_ReBeL
17th January 2006, 19:08
BNP head called 'multi-racial hellhole' -court
Tue Jan 17, 2006 3:13 PM GMT
By Summer Said
LEEDS (Reuters) - The leader of the far-right British National Party, who went on trial on Tuesday accused of inciting racial hatred, told followers Muslims had turned Britain into a "multi-racial hellhole", a court heard.
Nick Griffin, 45, and fellow BNP member Mark Collett, 24, are accused of using threatening, abusive or insulting words towards people of "Asian ethnicity" in speeches to supporters which were caught on film by an undercover journalist.
The BNP is a marginal party with an anti-immigration stance on the fringe of British politics. It commands nothing like the influence of similar far-right parties across Europe but holds several seats on local councils.
Rodney Jameson, prosecuting, said the charges related to six speeches at private party meetings made by Griffin and Collett which were secretly filmed by a BBC reporter who had joined the BNP in December 2003.
They were later screened as part of the BBC's "The Secret Agent" documentary series in July 2004.
"White society has been turned to a multi-racial hellhole -- vote BNP so we can ensure the British people really realise the evil of what these people have done to our country," Jameson quoted Griffin as saying in a speech in January 2004.
Referring to violent incidents involving Muslims, Jameson said Griffin told the meeting: "These are going to continue because that is what the Koran says is acceptable."
Jameson said Collett had told the same meeting: "People living in Bradford and Keighley (in northern England) live in hell. This is because of rape and muggings. This is always by Asians on white people."
Of Britain's 60 million people, some 1.6 million are Muslims.
Griffin, a Cambridge University graduate, denies two counts of using words or behaviour intending to stir up racial hatred and two of using words or behaviour likely to stir up racial hatred.
Collett denies four counts of the first offence and four of the second. They face a maximum of 7 years in prison if found guilty.
The BNP, which took over as Britain's most prominent far-right party after breaking from the National Front in 1982, has won a handful of local authority seats, mainly in poorer areas with large ethnic populations.
It won its first local election in 1993 in the run-down Millwall area of east London, triggering some of the capital's worst race-related unrest since riots in the early 1980s.
However, the party failed to win any more seats at either local or national level for nine years until it captured three council seats in 2002 in Burnley, amid simmering tensions months after northern England had witnessed a summer of race riots.
On Monday, more than 50 police kept watch as hundreds of demonstrators and BNP supporters massed outside Leeds Crown Court in anticipation of the trial.
However on Tuesday there was barely a handful of protesters.
HAHa, i hope them racist twats are jailed. That party should be banned in the first place.lol i admire that undercover journalist.
Tue Jan 17, 2006 3:13 PM GMT
By Summer Said
LEEDS (Reuters) - The leader of the far-right British National Party, who went on trial on Tuesday accused of inciting racial hatred, told followers Muslims had turned Britain into a "multi-racial hellhole", a court heard.
Nick Griffin, 45, and fellow BNP member Mark Collett, 24, are accused of using threatening, abusive or insulting words towards people of "Asian ethnicity" in speeches to supporters which were caught on film by an undercover journalist.
The BNP is a marginal party with an anti-immigration stance on the fringe of British politics. It commands nothing like the influence of similar far-right parties across Europe but holds several seats on local councils.
Rodney Jameson, prosecuting, said the charges related to six speeches at private party meetings made by Griffin and Collett which were secretly filmed by a BBC reporter who had joined the BNP in December 2003.
They were later screened as part of the BBC's "The Secret Agent" documentary series in July 2004.
"White society has been turned to a multi-racial hellhole -- vote BNP so we can ensure the British people really realise the evil of what these people have done to our country," Jameson quoted Griffin as saying in a speech in January 2004.
Referring to violent incidents involving Muslims, Jameson said Griffin told the meeting: "These are going to continue because that is what the Koran says is acceptable."
Jameson said Collett had told the same meeting: "People living in Bradford and Keighley (in northern England) live in hell. This is because of rape and muggings. This is always by Asians on white people."
Of Britain's 60 million people, some 1.6 million are Muslims.
Griffin, a Cambridge University graduate, denies two counts of using words or behaviour intending to stir up racial hatred and two of using words or behaviour likely to stir up racial hatred.
Collett denies four counts of the first offence and four of the second. They face a maximum of 7 years in prison if found guilty.
The BNP, which took over as Britain's most prominent far-right party after breaking from the National Front in 1982, has won a handful of local authority seats, mainly in poorer areas with large ethnic populations.
It won its first local election in 1993 in the run-down Millwall area of east London, triggering some of the capital's worst race-related unrest since riots in the early 1980s.
However, the party failed to win any more seats at either local or national level for nine years until it captured three council seats in 2002 in Burnley, amid simmering tensions months after northern England had witnessed a summer of race riots.
On Monday, more than 50 police kept watch as hundreds of demonstrators and BNP supporters massed outside Leeds Crown Court in anticipation of the trial.
However on Tuesday there was barely a handful of protesters.
HAHa, i hope them racist twats are jailed. That party should be banned in the first place.lol i admire that undercover journalist.