A man who claims accounts of the Holocaust are "exaggerated" and describes Anne Frank's diary as "evil" has been convicted of putting articles on the internet that could stir up race hate.
A jury at Leeds Crown Court yesterday found Simon Sheppard, 51, guilty of nine counts of publishing racially inflammatory written material on his website between March 2005 and April 2006. The court heard Sheppard's website attracts 4,000 visitors a day.
Four of the articles were penned by Stephen Whittle [who writes as Luke O'Farrell], 41, who was yesterday convicted of four counts of publishing racially inflammatory written material. The others included a cartoon by the American cartoonist Robert Crumb and an article written during the 1960s by the leader of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell.
Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford told the jury that Sheppard and Whittle were a pair of racists who held what they may regard as fairly extreme views about people who were Jewish, black, Asian, Chinese, Indian and, in reality, anyone who wasn't white.
"People in this country are entitled to be racist and they are entitled to hold unpleasant points of view, but what they aren't entitled to do is publish or distribute written material which is insulting, threatening or abusive and is intended to stir up racial hatred or is likely to do so."
Both Sheppard, of Brook Street, Selby, and Whittle, of Avenham Lane, Preston, told the jury that the articles were an attempt to "satirise" political correctness.
Sheppard said: "You can't blame a Jewish person for being a Jew, you can't blame a black person for being black, and you can't blame a Yorkshireman for being forthright, which I am."
The hearing will enter its seventh week on Monday, when the jury of six men and five women return to court to resume deliberations on further charges.
Sheppard is awaiting verdicts on nine charges relating to the publication, possession and distribution of written material which could stir up racial hatred. Whittle faces a charge of publishing racially inflammatory material.
Yorkshire Post
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Simon Sheppard is a former BNP organiser.
The following facts should made to the public about Simon Sheppard:
• Sheppard was arrested in Hull for distributing racist literature on behalf of the British National Party. That leaflet, partly produced by David Hannam, currently, currently a senior BNP administrator, can be seen here:
http://unitywebring.com/forum/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1215799743/0#4
• In 2000 Sheppard was sentenced to nine months imprisonment at Hull Crown Court on for the crime of "Publishing or Distributing racially inflammatory material
• At his own admission, Sheppard has been banned from every public library in Hull, Hull University and Hull College
• Sheppard was one of the founders of neo-nazi terrorist website Redwatch
• In 2005 Sheppard's house was raided by police in connection with death threats made against the musician Billy Bragg and comedian Mark Thomas
If sheppard is jailed, does this mean the end of Redwatch?
Or will glue-sniffer Watmough keep it going?
I wish YouTube would remove their extreme racist comment. It's the worst race hate site on the internet.
I'm not racist, but...
It makes me shiver when people go to prison for things they've written.
We're turning into the GDR.
Mr "Anonymous" begins with the classic "I'm not a racst but..."
Well, I'm not Jewish but I object to milllions of dead people having their memory vilified and their deaths being ignored and denied and their memories defiled.
That also goes for the Communists, Trade Unionisr, Teachers, Gypsies, Gay people, Black people, etc, etc.
Nor do I believe in state control over every aspect of our lives, but I do object to people writing hateful things that can encourage idiots to attack innocent people.
Neither am I a clairvoyant, but I do think it is the duty of every decent person to stand up speak for those millions of people and potentially the millions of others that could be murdered by the actions of those who read the sort of shite that Sheppard writes.
I am however, an antifascist and I believe an injury to one is an injury to all.
Free speech shouldn't equal hate speech, especially when unhinged thugs and morons see what they have read and respond in beating up an asylum seeker or non-white person.
Proponents of free speech should hardly be putting their trust in Gri££in.
Funny thing about all this sheppard guy stuff is his half chinese family! nuff said! The guy has got issues that need sorting out! not mental health but psychological conditioning, yup!
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