The EDL’s supergrass

Roger Firth can often be seen stewarding English Defence League demonstrations in the South East. What he has not revealed to his friends in the EDL is his past, in particular his imprisonment for his part in attempts to fix a Premier League football match.

In 1999 the floodlights went out at a Premiership match between Charlton Athletic and Liverpool, played at Charlton’s ground in Greenwich, southeast London. The failure was the work of a Malaysian betting syndicate allegedly linked to Chinese Triad gangs, and was part of their plan to rig football fixtures in England.

In August 1999, four men were sentenced for their part in the match fixing scandal. Two were Malaysian nationals – one an electrical expert – who each got four years. The third was a 49-year-old security guard from Eltham, south London, employed by Charlton Athletic. That man was Firth, now the defender of all things English in his pernicious role with the EDL.

Firth turned against the gang and became the chief prosecution witness in return for a reduced sentence. He had been paid £20,000 in cash to allow the Malaysians into the ground in his part of a “highly professional, technical, criminal operation”.

All the men went on to plead guilty to conspiracy to cause a public nuisance. The judge described Firth’s motive for helping the syndicate as plain and simple greed.

The gang was rumbled when Firth tried to bribe a fellow employee at the club with £5,000. Firth received an 18-month sentence, while his accomplices were later deported. One newspaper at the time labelled Firth a “supergrass” and alleged that he was to get a new identity and address to protect him from the Triads’ clutches.

A former Territorial Army soldier, Firth was in charge of daytime security at Charlton Athletic and was a former bodyguard for the football stars Glenn Hoddle and Paul Gascoigne.

When he is not stewarding for the EDL, Firth is one of the leaders of the tiny, radical anti-Muslim English Nationalist Alliance, a ragtag bunch of racists based mainly in outer east London and Essex.

If there is one thing the average EDL member despises it is a police informant, so it is no surprise that Firth has hidden his shady past. He has successfully managed to dodge the Triads; his next hurdle could be his comrades in the EDL.

Searchlight

Fortnight of Turmoil Boils Over

The English Defence League (EDL) claims it has discharged with the services of the far-right English Nationalist Alliance. The ENA, a tiny but vocal group centred around Bill Baker and Roger Firth in London, has taken the lead in EDL demonstrations in the capital.

Antagonism between the two groups has been evident for some time and not just over Baker's lack of Stone Island attire. During last year's "poppy burning" clash in central London it was clear that with the arrival of EDL leaders Kevin Carroll and Stephen Yaxley Lennon, Baker and his smaller but equally vile entourage was somewhat put out when their demo was hijacked by Kevin & co.

Baker who occasionally has the appearance of a badly drawn comic book villain, was the organiser of the drunken demonstration in Dagenham a fortnight ago where a young EDL supporter tragically died after being hit by a train. Baker's excessive boasting about his links to British Nazis and his none too subtle proclamations on his Facebook page of things like "All Muslims Must Die" has left the under-fire EDL leadership, desperate to untangle itself from its myriad of Nazi and wannabe terrorist connections, to declare Baker as a "parasite of a man" who is "an embarrassment himself and his party, but also to those who don't see him for what he is: an opportunist."

Slightly more problematic for the EDL leadership is the war of words that has developed over their Jewish Division's links to terrorists. Roberta Moore who leads the Jewish Division has taken issue with public proclamations from the EDL distancing themselves from the link up with the Jewish Task Force (JTF).

The war of words now threatens to spill over with the Jewish Division claiming that there is a "witch hunt" against Moore on account of her being "a strong Jewish woman". Referring to the faceless administrators of the EDL's Facebook site and web admin's anti-JTF comments made to the Jewish Chronicle describing the Jewish Division as "too extreme" Moore apparently sees this as "one long attack" on herself. In response, the Jewish Division demand that Yaxley Lennon should "sack the Nazis from the admin and apologise to Roberta" who it warns, "has powerful allies in the US and in politics".

Perhaps the removal of Baker's ENA was one step in removing the Nazis that seem to upset the Jewish Division so much. In response to his own banning from the EDL, Baker has surfaced this morning to attack Yaxley-Lennon's PA, Hel Gower.

Gower could be about to earn her stripes as being the fall-gal for all that has happened in the EDL's rocky past fortnight. Gower responded herself to the Jewish Division's attacks on the EDL's admins' by asking "why is she (Moore) talking in the third person as though it isn't her making the comments, dozy tart."

Joint EDL leader Kevin Carroll denied there was any major problem within the organisation, describing it all as "internet talk" made up by "Bolsheviks and hard-line Socialists.

"Roberta is a good girl, she does her own thing. We just can't be tied up with a group like JTF. All this will blow over." If anything Kev, it looks like this is going to run and run.

By Matthew Collins HOPE not hate / Searchlight