Anti-fascists condemn Cottage sentence as too lenient

Anti-fascists condemn leniency of sentence as ex-BNP candidate gets two and a half years for stockpiling chemicals

Robert Cottage, three times BNP candidate was jailed yesterday for having stockpiled chemicals, bomb making equipment and rocket launcher. Cottage is the latest BNP member to have been found guilty of criminal charges. In the last year, another five BNP members and councillors have been found guilty of offences ranging from racially aggravated assault to attempted firebombing.

Cottage is likely to be released within six months, having already spent a year on remand. The chemicals found in his house were reported by the police to be the largest stockpile of such material used to make explosives in Britain. He was found not guilty of much more serious charges of conspiracy to cause explosions.

Denis Fernando, Joint Secretary of Unite Against Fascism said: 'Cottage's conviction is the latest example of the fascist BNP's criminality: behind the façade of respectability that the BNP craves lies an organisation that is full of convicted criminals. The BNP is not a legitimate party when its members and candidates engage in such violent activity and should not be treated as an ordinary political party or legitimised. They represent a criminal conspiracy that opposes democracy and has a history of violence. This sentence does not reflect the seriousness of the offence committed.'

Earlier this year, David Enderby British National Party (BNP) councillor for Winyates ward, Redditch, was found guilty of three counts of assault. In June last year, Kevin Hughes, Enderby's agent in the elections was sentenced to three months in prison for racially aggravated common assault.

BNP Parliamentary candidate for Hull Brian Wainwright was found guilty after a campaign of hate mail against the local mosque, a Muslim councillor and a local anti-fascist activist. A letter in which he claimed, "Muslim blood will be spilt" included 'SS' scull and cross bones imagery.

BNP activist in Swindon Mark Bulman (who has used the pseudonym Bullock) was sentenced to five years after attempting to firebomb a local mosque using a BNP leaflet as a fuse. He also daubed swastikas and racist graffiti on local shops and businesses that he believed to be 'ethnic'.

In June 2006 BNP councillor Brian Turner was found guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence. He escaped a jail sentence and was instead ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work in the community. Turner has previous convictions of common assault and police assault after he was convicted of beating up his wife Melanie Turner.

Unite Against Fascism is a broad-based national campaign aimed at stopping the BNP, which brings together Black, Jewish, Muslim communities and other faith representatives, Lesbian and Gay activists, trade unionists and MPs into an alliance with all those who are threatened by and oppose fascism.

UAF

Former BNP candidate jailed for stockpiling explosives

Note: We've changed the article to one that a) is better written, and b) has a couple of interesting and ridiculous comments from the BNP's Phil Edwards at the end.

A former British National party candidate who stockpiled explosive chemicals and ball bearings in anticipation of a future civil war was today jailed for two and a half years.

As he has already spent nearly a year in custody, however, he is likely to be released within six months.

Robert Cottage, aged 49, from Colne, Lancashire, had pleaded guilty to possession of the chemicals. He was acquitted after two trials on charges of conspiracy to cause explosions.

Sentencing Cottage at Manchester's crown square court, Mrs Justice Swift said he continued to hold views "that veer towards the apocalyptic". She added that his actions had been "criminal and potentially dangerous" but said there was a low risk of his committing further offences.

"It is important to understand that Cottage's intention was that if he ever had to use the thunder flashes, it was only for the purpose of deterrence," Mrs Justice Swift said.

Cottage had believed that, as he saw it, "the evils of uncontrolled immigration" would lead to civil war, which would be imminent and inevitable, she said.

"The pre-sentence report says Cottage continues to hold views that veer towards the apocalyptic. The risk of further offending of the same type is low but it cannot be ruled out."

The judge said she accepted that Cottage's intention had been to hold on to the chemicals, which included ammonia, hydrogen peroxide and hydrochloric acid, until the outbreak of civil disturbance. But she warned: "In letting off any such thunder flash, mistakenly believing you were under threat, you may have caused injury to some innocent person."

Alistair Webster QC, Cottage's counsel, told the court his client accepted that he had bought the potassium nitrate and sulphur with the intention of manufacturing gunpowder, but said this would have been used only to create thunder flash-style bangers to scare off intruders.;

Cottage, who stood three times unsuccessfully for the BNP in local council elections, was arrested last September after police found the stockpile of chemicals at his home in Talbot Street, Colne. The police took action after Cottage's wife told a social worker of her concerns about the items he was storing and, and about her husband's stated belief that immigration was out of control. Police also found ball bearings and a document about bomb-making from the do-it-yourself explosives-making manual The Anarchist Cookbook on his computer. He also had air pistols, crossbows and a stockpile of food.

"I believe it is everyone's God-given right to defend themselves and their families if they are attacked," Cottage told the court during his trial. "The breakdown of the financial system will inevitably put an unbearable strain on the social structures of this country."

Cottage claimed in court that, with the armed forces in the Middle East and the police insufficiently trained, the authorities would be unable to offer people protection. He added that immigration was a luxury that Britain could not afford, but that he drove a bus for children with disabilities and had a good relationship with the Asian children among them.

A second man, David Jackson, 62, a dentist, was also charged with conspiracy to cause explosions but was cleared after the jury twice failed to reach verdicts.

A BNP spokesman said after sentencing that the prosecution had been brought for political reasons. "We're not condoning it, but it's a quid pro quo to appease the Muslims," said Dr Phil Edwards, of the BNP. "To keep them quiet, we'll snatch someone from white society. We certainly don't support the bloke. We condemn all forms of violence...but I wouldn't have thought you could do any harm with what he had."

Dr Edwards said Cottage would not be standing as a candidate for the BNP again. "We never have anyone in the party with criminal convictions," he said, because "lefties and people on your newspaper" would publicise the fact.

Guardian

Pair cleared of explosions charge

A former British National Party election candidate and a dentist have been cleared of plotting explosions.

Former BNP candidate Robert Cottage, of Talbot Road, Colne, and David Jackson, of Trent Street, Nelson, were alleged to have stockpiled chemicals they bought on the internet and discussed using them to cause explosions. But they were cleared of conspiracy to cause explosions with intent to endanger life after a jury at Manchester Crown Court failed to reach a verdict.

It was the pair's second trial on the charge after the first jury was also discharged. Cottage had admitted possessing explosives for unlawful purpose at the first trial because he said he needed to defend himself as the country was heading to civil war. He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on July 31.

Mr Jackson, who was also cleared of possessing explosives, walked free from Manchester Crown Court after more than 10 months on remand in prison. He refused to comment, except to say he was "very relieved" to have been cleared.

The trials are estimated to have cost the taxpayer more than £100,000.

Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell, who led the investigation, denied that the trials had been waste of money, and said Cottage could have gone on to endanger himself and the public had he not been arrested. He paid tribute to Cottage's wife, Carina, who first alerted police and social workers to his "paranoid" behaviour over fears of an impending civil war.

Mr Gradwell said: "This came about because of the courage of Carina Cottage, who came forward to the health authority and the police to say she was concerned about her husband and could they help. He was becoming paranoid, stockpiling food and chemicals and it is because of her courage that a more serious incident did not occur. It's quite right that this was brought to court again. Cottage had admitted he was planning to make gunpowder. Someone else, or himself, could have been seriously hurt."

Mr Gradwell denied accusations that the case would have been handled differently if the defendants had been Asian, not white British men. He said: "This investigation was not from intelligence-led, proactive policing. It was Carina Cottage saying come and help me, and her husband stockpiling food because he thought there was going to be a civil war. These are totally different circumstances to any Islamic terror trials. When we found the explosive substances we also downloaded from a computer in the house recipes for making explosives. The fact that there were two trials is in a way a justification of bringing the case. If they had been acquitted in five minutes thing would have been different, but this has taken long consideration by two juries."

When Cottage admitted possessing explosives at his first trial in February, he said he planned to make gunpowder from the chemicals to cause thunder flashes to scare off intruders in the event of civil unrest.

Lancashire Evening Telegraph

Majority verdict allowed in BNP candidate bomb trial

The jury in the trial of two Lancashire men with British National Party connections accused of plotting to make bombs has been told that a majority verdict would be accepted.

Ex-BNP local election candidate Robert Cottage, 49, and dentist David Jackson, 62, are said to have stockpiled chemicals they bought on the internet and discussed using them to cause explosions intended to endanger life. Boxes containing 21 different kinds of chemicals - some paid for by Jackson - and ball-bearings that could have been used as shrapnel were found by police at Cottage's home in Talbot Street, Colne.

Officers were alerted to the stash by Cottage's wife, Kerena, 29, who became scared the pair were planning to set off test explosions with the chemicals in countryside near Preston.

Cottage feared immigrants were swamping Britain and bringing it to the brink of civil war, Manchester Crown Court heard.

The jury heard the thrice-failed local election candidate had printed off "recipes" for explosive devices from an online version of the Anarchist's Cookbook. Officers who raided his house also found tins of food, crossbows and airguns. Cottage told the jury he planned to use the chemicals to clean his false teeth, unblock his drains and protect himself against bird flu.

Jackson, who was not a BNP member but attended party meetings with Cottage, told the court he was apolitical and did not share his friend's views on an impending civil war.

Both Cottage and Jackson, of Trent Road, Nelson, Lancashire, deny conspiring to cause explosions intended to endanger life. Cottage pleaded guilty to possessing explosives that could "reasonably" be suspected to be for an unlawful purpose before the trial started. Jackson denies the possession charge.

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