Israel arrests neo-Nazi leader

Israeli police on Monday arrested the fugitive leader of a neo-Nazi youth group as he returned to Tel Aviv from overseas, a police spokesman said.

Erik Bonite, who has Israeli nationality but is not Jewish, was arrested as he stepped off a plane at Ben Gurion airport, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Bonite, nicknamed Ely the Nazi, fled the country in 2007. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in November 2008 after a Tel Aviv court found him guilty of commemorating Hitler's birthday - April 20 - at a ceremony where members of his group swore to defend "the white race up to the last drop of their blood".

The other seven gang members, aged 16 to 21 at the time and all from the former Soviet Union, were also sentenced to prison terms for "neo-Nazi activities" in Israel between 2005 and 2007. They were convicted of racist crimes and attacks against Asian immigrant workers, drug addicts, gays, and orthodox Jews.

Group members who called themselves Patrol 36 were also found guilty of defiling a synagogue in a Tel Aviv suburb and planning attacks on punk groups using explosives.

ABC News

BNP activist given suspended prison sentence in ammo case

A leading British National Party activist who admitted unlawfully possessing ammunition and gunpowder has escaped an immediate prison sentence.

Police officers who went to a static caravan at Black Dyke Farm near Lakenheath in April last year, where David Lucas had been staying, found a plastic tub containing a small amount of gunpowder and 2,500 rounds of ammunition that he wasn’t authorised to possess, Ipswich Crown Court heard. Lucas, 49, of South Road, Lakenheath, admitted possessing gunpowder without an explosives licence, two offences of possessing prohibited ammunition and one offence of possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate.

Sentencing Lucas, Judge David Goodin said the offences crossed the custody threshold but agreed to pass a 12-month sentence suspended for 12 months after coming to the conclusion that Lucas was eccentric rather than a danger to the public. He ordered Lucas to pay £250 towards prosecution costs and ordered him to reside for 13 weeks at his mother’s house. He told Lucas that in the wrong hands the ammunition was potentially dangerous and warned him to take more care in the future.

Jonathan Davies for Lucas said his client’s attitude had been “negligent and indifferent” rather than a flagrant disregard for the law. He said the small amount of gunpowder found in the caravan was used to set off traps on the farm and he had collected the ammunition over a number of years and planned to display some of the cartridges in picture frames in hunting and fishing lodges.

Mr Davies said Lucas had led a law-abiding life and had been made bankrupt after losing his transport business because of the foot and mouth outbreak in the county in 2001. He said Lucas helped local people by being a parish councillor and was well-respected locally.

EADT24

BNP activist admits explosives charge

BNP activist and lunatic David Lucas

A leading Suffolk-based BNP activist has pleaded guilty to possession of an explosive substance without an explosives licence

David Lucas, a farmer from Lakenheath, Suffolk, originally denied all firearms and explosives charges at Ipswich Crown Court in January and continues to plead not guilty to having an explosive substance under suspicious circumstances and possessing a prohibited weapon.

Lucas, who stood for the British National Party in the elections for the European Parliament last year, has previously claimed to have made and provided gallows to African countries with poor human rights records. The execution equipment he sold ranged from single gallows, at about £12,000 each, to 'Multi-hanging Execution Systems' mounted on lorry trailers, costing about £100,000.

Following his arrest, the idiotic Simon Darby, the deputy leader of the BNP, said;

'I think the police have got it in for him. I would imagine that it is to do with his capacity as an agricultural rural chap. It is just one of the many things that ordinary rural people have to deal with when you have got a politically motivated police force.'

Bomb-maker jailed for three years

A former member of a far-right group has been jailed for three years for making explosives in his home, including a pipe bomb.

Darren Tinklin, 24, from Blackwood, Caerphilly county, had admitted two charges of making explosives and possessing a firearm. Tinklin had not wanted to injure and had not meant to create any risk, Newport Crown Court heard. He had kept right-wing paraphernalia, including items with Nazi SS symbols. He also had a t-shirt which said "100% fascist".

Cardiff Recorder Nicholas Cooke said he must send a "stern message to those who flirt with the manufacture of devices of this kind".

He said: "Ideas and political affiliations may come and go but there is a potential threat presented by someone who harbours an interest in explosives and extremist views. I cannot completely ignore that."

The court heard that Tinklin gave up his right-wing political interests in 2005, and although he had downloaded a bomb-making manual, he had never opened the files.

Mr Cooke referred to Tinklin's drug problem, saying it could lead to irresponsibility which coupled with an interest in explosives was a cause for concern. He added there was the risk of explosive materials falling into the wrong hands. However he gave him credit for his guilty plea but warned that people involved with explosives would face stern custodial sentences.

Tinklin was sentenced to three years, less the 119 days he has spent on remand.

BBC

BNP man denies 7 charges

David Lucas - yet another lunatic from the BNP

A farmer who is a British National Party activist has denied seven firearms and explosives charges. David Lucas, 49, of South Road, Lakenheath, denied the charges at Ipswich Crown Court.

Lucas, who stood as a BNP Euro-MP last year, denied possession of explosives in suspicious circumstances, possessing an explosive substance without a licence, possessing a prohibited weapon, possessing ammunition with intent to endanger life, two charges of possession of prohibited ammunition and possessing ammunition without a firearms certificate.

Judge David Goodin told Lucas his trial should start on July 26 and last four days.

Lucas was released on bail on condition he lives either at South Road, Lakenheath, or at Black Dyke Farm, Hockwold. His passport will remain with the police and he must have no contact with two named people.

Lucas has previously claimed he made gallows for Third World countries.

Newmarket Weekly News

What's in a minaret?

A minaret isn't much to get worked up about. It is a tall, ornate tower appended to a mosque, which is sometimes used to broadcast calls to prayer. Yet, in the arguments of those who wished to ban the construction of minarets, thereby singling out Islam for restriction and opprobrium, they amount to a form of 'colonisation'. Whether that 'colonisation' is identified as a threat to conservative or left-wing values depends on the audience. Some members of the Swiss Socialists justified their support for the minaret ban on feminist grounds, and the feminist writer Joan Smith has attempted to lend this appalling stance some respectability. The Lega Nord, meanwhile, calling for a similar move in Italy, justifies the campaign on the grounds that Italy must remain, like Switzerland, Christian and white. Conservative writers like Michael Burleigh claim that it represents a stand against alleged infringements on European 'democracy'.

The language of 'colonization' is very important in the racist right's lexicon. These Lega Nord posters remind people that 'immigration' to the Americas resulted in Native Americans living in reservations - seriously implying, therefore, that white Europeans might become the victims of a genocide. It is also a language that the BNP is given to use, and of course, it was dramatically pictorialised in the icons of the anti-minaret campaign in Switzerland, with minarets depicted as black missile-like objects covering a Swiss flag, with an ominous looking woman wearing a burqa in the foreground. One cannot help but notice the 'bad faith' involved here. Muslims tend to be so targeted precisely because where they are least likely to be assertive, most isolated, and least in a position to defend themselves. They are targeted as a minority, with poor resources for mobilising on their own behalf, not as a colonial power. While we're about it, might we also notice the militarist implications of such a language? For if Europe is supposedly being colonised, in a way that threatens a fate akin to that of the injuns, then a war of liberation is surely the implied solution. The thugs marching on mosques across Britain, and the fascists who think they don't go far enough, understand this perfectly well.

A corollary implication is that those who do not rally to the war against 'Islamic colonisation', 'Islamic imperialism' or the 'Islamification of Europe', as it is variously called, are traitors. Now you might think that such language is the preserve of fascists and nutters, ultra-reactionaries, racists, EDL thugs, the BNP, etc. You would be wrong. For example, The Express, expostulating about its phoney 'revealations' about government funding for "fanatics who want to kill us", takes the logical step from its fabrications and fulminates: "It does not take a brilliant detective to work out what is going on here, just an ordinarily observant person: Britain's cultural identity is being systematically dismantled by a government of traitors." It is true that the Express takes the most extreme racist line toward Muslims of any of the tabloids, but this is an unabashed plagiarism from the pages of the British Nationalist. As it happens, the charge against New Labour is not only wrong on the facts, but it is politically perverse. No mainstream party has done more to capitulate to racist ideology than the one presently in command. Gordon Brown's dog-whistling about 'local houses for local people', following his tremendously successful 'British Jobs for British Workers' gambit, has been followed by more 'tough but fair' language and promises of concrete measures to deal with immigration. Brown is particularly concerned, after all, about 'Britishness' and 'British values'. Nothing saddens him more than the idea that we can't take some pride in the achievements of the empire, and of Anglo-Saxon culture in general. The allegation that this government is insensible of "Britain's cultural identity" (which appears to consist of being white, Christian, bigoted, ignorant, full of shit, and proud of it) is nonsense.

The main thing that vexes the Islamophobes, supposedly, is violence. If pressed, some of them will readily concede that any violence by Muslims is practised by a negligible minority and by no means incriminates the majority. (Do not even bother asking them to weigh it against the colossal violence of Anglo-American imperialism, which has incited such relatively miniscule violence as has taken place on the European continent.) The majority, though, will insist that such violence, even if practised by a minority, is driven by their commitment to doctrines that are mainstream in Islam. Thus: 'we are not against Islam, just extremism - but then, isn't Islam itself extreme'? Their attention to violent 'extremism', though, and that of the media and political class in general, is severely curtailed by their obsession with Muslims. Tell me if this sounds familiar. A man is found in possession of explosives, guns, ammunition, and other weapons. He is arrested, charged with terrorism offenses, and is convicted. But he is not a Muslim. He is white, and a BNP member, so his case doesn't grab the headlines. No one notices that the BNP has a demonstrated propensity for churning out terrorists. Let's try another one. A pair of students are severely beaten after attempting to defend a woman from a threatening gang. Suppose the gang is a Muslim gang, leering at a white woman, and the students are Ben Sherman wearing Brits on their way to play darts or something equally ridiculous. You would expect headlines from that. Predictably, of course, that isn't the case: the students are Muslims, as is the woman they were defending, and the attackers are white racists who were taunting the woman for wearing a hijab. So, it's not much cop, especially since most newspaper editors have it in their heads that wearing a hijab is itself a culpable and subversive act, which can at best be 'tolerated'. Incidents of both type are increasingly routine, as is their general oblivion in the welter of competing, largely fabricated, stories about the menace of Islam.

Given the pace of reaction across Europe, and the growing hold of this specious, essentialist garbage about Islam, it is unsurprising that an innocuous and sometimes rather beautiful structure can, if the PR is effective, become so suffused with peril and portent for so many. But the minarets are just the start of it. No Islamophobe would be content with what is, at the moment, a symbolic gesture, a super-sized fuck-you. There will be numerous intermediate steps. Sarkozy and his allies may be next with the idea of a ban on the 'veil'. Someone else may take up the original intended issue of the Swiss reactionaries, and try to outlaw halal butchery. But if the intended effect is to intimidate Europe's Muslim population and ultimately reduce their numbers, then it can only be a matter of time before 'peace walls', ghettos, and forcible expulsion are on the agenda - presuming no one lifts a finger to protest in the meantime. Some Swiss anti-racists have already taken to the streets. They are, at the moment, small in number. But they could not possibly be as small in stature, as pathetic, as ridiculous, as paltry in almost every respect, as that majority of Swiss voters who cast such a petty and vindictive vote.

Lenin's Tomb

BNP farmer faces weapons and explosives charges

A British National Party activist and Suffolk farmer has appeared in court this morning charged with a number of explosives and firearms offences.

David Lucas of South Road, Lakenheath stood before magistrates in Bury St Edmunds this morning facing seven counts relating to the possession of explosives and firearms. The Lakenheath parish councillor appeared in the dock in a dark suit with a blue tie loosened at the neck and spoke only to confirm his name and address.

The clerk of the court read out to him the seven offences he is charged with, which relate to April this year. They are; possessing an explosive substance for an unlawful purpose, possessing a prohibited firearm, possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life, possessing prohibited ammunition, possessing expanding ammunition derived from the military and possessing ammunition for a firearm without a certificate under two offences.

The charge of possession of explosives under suspicious circumstances can only be brought by police with the authorisation of the Attorney General and carries a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment.

The Chairman of the Bench, Lorraine Line, told Lucas: “The offences you are charged with can only be heard at a crown court.”

She said he will be given an opportunity to enter a plea to the charges at a hearing at Ipswich Crown Court on January 22. As part of his bail arrangements he was told he must not leave the UK, or take steps to leave, and his passport must remain surrendered to the police.

Evening Star

Former BNP candidate to appear in court

A Lakenheath man who stood as a candidate for the BNP has been charged with six offences inrelation to possession of firearms and explosives and will appear in court tomorrow.

Charges against David Lucas, 49, of South Road, Lakenheath, include possession of explosives under suspicious circumstances, possession of a prohibited weapon and possession of prohibited ammunition.

The charges were brought on Thursday following execution of warrants in the Lakenheath and Hockwold areas on April 23. Police said the delay between the original arrest and the charges being brought was because only the Attorney General can authorise charges of this nature.

Mr Lucas was a candidate for the BNP in European elections held earlier this year.

Newmarket Journal

BNP activist charged with explosives and firearms offences

David Lucas, leading BNP activist and all-round nutjob

A leading British National Party activist and Suffolk farmer has been charged by police with a number of explosives and firearms offences.

David Lucas, 49, who once caused controversy for building gallows and selling them to African countries with poor human rights records, was charged yesterdayfollowing his arrest in April. Lucas, of South Road in Lakenheath, stood as one of the eastern region British National Party (BNP) candidates for the European elections in June. He is also a Lakenheath parish councillor.

He has been charged with possession of explosives under suspicious circumstances, possession of an explosives substance without an explosives licence, possession of a prohibited weapon, possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life, possession of ammunition without a firearms certificate and two counts of possession of prohibited ammunition. The charge of possession of explosives under suspicious circumstances can only be brought by police with the authorisation of the Attorney General.

But last night the BNP accused Suffolk Constabulary of persecuting Lucas because he stood for the far-right party. Simon Darby, the deputy leader of the BNP, said Lucas' “troubles” started after he was announced as a candidate for the European election.

“I think the police have got it in for him,” he said. “I would imagine that it is to do with his capacity as an agricultural rural chap. It is just one of the many things that ordinary rural people have to deal with when you have got a politically motivated police force. Obviously if he needs help we will give him that but we will have to see how it pans out. He had a very successful business there and a big market on his farm so he is very well thought of in the area.”

Lucas caused controversy in 2006 when it emerged he was building gallows for export. The execution equipment he sold ranged from single gallows, at about £12,000 each, to “Multi-hanging Execution Systems” mounted on lorry trailers, costing about £100,000. He also allowed the BNP's eastern region to use his barns for a local 'Battle for Britain' fundraising event in the run-up to the European elections.

Last night, David Gathercole, chairman of Lakenheath Parish Council, said he could not comment on the charges against Lucas. But he said: “Unless he is found guilty, he is still an innocent man and can still sit on the parish council.”

Lucas is due before West Suffolk Magistrates' Court in Bury St Edmunds on November 10.

EADT24

Mad or bad? Steve Fyfe: BNP candidate and obsessive gunman

BNP candidate and Rambo wannabe Steve Fyfe

A man who regularly stands in elections for the British National Party has boasted about his disregard for “rules and regulations” controlling the use of firearms in the UK.

Steve Fyfe is standing in a council by-election on 26 March, his fourth attempt to get elected to North East Lincolnshire Council. He also contested the last general election for the BNP in Grimsby, where he lives, and was third on the BNP’s list of candidates for Lothian region in the election for the Scottish Parliament in 2007, when the party rounded up anyone in the UK with a Scottish-sounding name to stand, in the absence of more than a handful of supporters in Scotland itself.

Clearly a valued activist, the 34-year-old is also the BNP’s Grimsby organiser and has been a BNP member for seven years. But his numerous postings on internet forums also reveal an unhealthy obsession with guns and contain hints that not everything he owns is legal.

After the Dunblane massacre in 1996, firearms legislation in the UK was tightened up and no member of the public can now own handguns or ammunition for them. Fyfe claims to have a shotgun licence, which enables him to own shotguns with a magazine capacity of no more than two shots. He also says he received a firearms certificate in March 2006, which permits him to own rifles, shotguns with a magazine capacity greater than two and certain types of airguns. He claims to own around £6,000 worth of legally held weapons and to be secretary of a gun club.

A firearms certificate is only granted to people whom the police consider fit to be entrusted with firearms without danger to public safety or to the peace. They must have a record of active membership of a target shooting club or permission to shoot over land.

The certificate imposes severe restrictions on the use of the weapons. In particular a certificate holder cannot permit other people to handle the guns unless they have their own certificate to cover them.

Yet on 11 August 2008 Fyfe, posting as sidneysausage, wrote on a gun trading forum: “However, I don’t do rules and regulations if there is absolutely no point in it whatsoever. If some of my friends want to ‘have a go’ they will bloody well ‘have a go’. Personally, I'll take my friends out to the field where I shoot, somwhere [sic] out of view, with a nice, big backstop, up to 300m away and they can use as many rounds as they care to fire. Who the hell are the police to suggest they might know my friend I’ve known for more than fifteen years better than me?”

On the same day he also boasted: “I have a Long Barrel Revolver”. On 9 January this year he declared: “I'd still prefer my .44 LBR and be able to use cartridges with my nitro”.

Fyfe, who works as a chemical process supervisor in the chemical industry, also has an interest in explosives and their illegal use. On 27 May 2008 he wrote: “I’ve a big box of fireworks in my attic, just waiting for the day when some muslim extremists fly a plane into westminster”.

While it is not surprising that Fyfe’s obsessions and desires do not make him unsuitable to be a BNP candidate, the same cannot be said about his membership of the Territorial Army, in which he serves with the 3rd Royal Anglian Regiment. His postings contain hints that he might be abstracting items from his TA unit. For example on 21 July 2007 he wrote: “The new 30 round H&K mags for the SA80 work really nice in mine. I have ‘aquired’ [sic] one or two. However, if you aren’t in the TA/Army/Navy/Air Force, you can find one or two floating round on ebay.”

Fyfe claims to like extreme and outdoor sports. One of them appears to be driving at dangerous speeds. A long post in January 2006 described how he was caught driving his Subaru Impreza at over 140 miles per hour. Concerned that a conviction and almost certain driving ban would cost him his firearms and shotgun certificates, he said he was hiring Nick Freeman, the specialist motoring lawyer known as Mr Loophole, to get him off.

It is unclear whether Fyfe is a fantasist or whether he really owns restricted weapons and breaks the terms of his firearms certificate. Either way, he is clearly unsuitable for service in the Territorial Army or to be in possession of any lethal weapon.

He may see himself as a Rambo figure, but the reality is different. Writing on 21 November last year about British forces serving in Iraq he explained: “I described the chaps who went as ‘silly Bastards’ because they did not go out of any sense of justice, belief, national pride, or even camaraderie”.

Grimsby’s terrorist line-up

Grimsby has been the home of a number of nazis with a interest in terrorism and weapons.

Back in the 1960s, Donald Mudie, a crank member of Colin Jordan’s National Socialist Movement (NSM), used to hold court at his Grimsby home for people who shared his political views. In the 1970s Mudie, a former newspaper journalist, was one of two security guards at a camp held by the elite nazi League of St George on Mersea Island in Essex. Mudie patrolled the site with a loaded shotgun.

Fast forward to 2002 and Cameron Duncan, a supporter of the British National Party and the Ku Klux Klan. Duncan was caught and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, after a man in the USA with whom he was exchanging emails turned out to be an FBI agent. Duncan had been asking him to obtain firearms and explosives. The agent had infiltrated the KKK for the purpose of catching such dangerous men as Duncan.
Moving inland up the River Humber, we find Martyn Gilleard from Goole, the local branch organiser of the nazi British People’s Party.

Goole, who also had links with the BNP in Scotland, was found in possession of an array of knives, guns, machetes, swords, axes, ammunition and four nail bombs, together with internet instructions for making poison and bombs and significant amounts of racist literature from far-right parties.

The police were surprised to find all this terrorist material when they raided his flat in October 2007 on a tip-off about child pornography. The 39,000 indecent images of children that they also found, some very nasty, did not endear him to the court and he received a total sentence of 16 years in prison.

In December last year Nathan Worrell was jailed for more than seven years after being found guilty of possessing material for terrorist purposes and racially aggravated harassment. Police had found manuals and a video explaining how to make bombs and detonators using household materials at his flat in Grimsby as well as two tubs of weedkiller, three bottles of lighter fluid and fireworks, some of which had been tampered with.

They also found a lot of racist and far-right propaganda, including BNP material and membership cards for other extreme groups.

It would appear that nazis with an interest in terror, violence and firearms are a familiar sight in this part of Britain. The good thing is that the police appear to be keeping track of them, so it's surprising that Steve Fyfe has so far slipped through the net.

Hope not hate

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.

Pendle Today

Jury out in explosives plot trial

The jury in the trial of a former British National Party election candidate and a dentist accused of plotting to make bombs has retired to consider its verdict.

Ex-BNP member Robert Cottage (49), of Talbot Street, Colne, and David Jackson (62), of Trent Road, Nelson, are said to have stockpiled chemicals they bought on the Internet and discussed using them to cause explosions.

Boxes containing 21 different kinds of chemicals - some paid for by Jackson - were found by police at Cottage's home last September. Officers were alerted to the stash by Cottage's wife, Kerena, who became scared the pair were planning to set off test explosions in countryside near Preston.

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

The jury heard the thrice-failed local election candidate had printed off "recipes" for explosive devices from an online version of the Anarchists' Cookbook. Officers who raided his house also found tins of food, crossbows and airguns. His wife said he hoarded them to protect the couple in case civil unrest broke out. 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. He claimed he asked Cottage to buy him chemicals online because he wanted to pursue chemistry as a hobby and was too computer illiterate to order them himself.

Both Cottage and Jackson deny conspiring to cause explosions with intent to endanger life. The current jury heard that Cottage pleaded guilty to possessing explosives for an unlawful purpose at the pair's previous trial in February, which failed to reach a verdict.

Jackson denies the possession charge.

Burnley Express

Explosives recipes were 'just for interest'

A former British National Party candidate accused of plotting to make bombs from chemicals he bought on the Internet claimed today the substances were for cleaning his false teeth and unblocking drains.

Robert Cottage (49) told Manchester Crown Court he thought some of the other chemicals could be used to protect him from bird flu and purify water if supplies were cut off during civil unrest - two of his great fears. Cottage, a bus driver who transported disabled children, feared immigrants were swamping Britain and bringing it to the brink of civil war.

When his home in Colne was searched by police last September, 21 chemicals were found. Officers also discovered crossbows, air pistols, BB guns and ammunition, along with excessive amounts of rice, sugar and petrol.

Under cross-examination, Cottage said it was a coincidence he had bought chemicals just days after printing off recipes for explosive devices from the Internet. He told prosecutor Miss Louise Blackwell QC he downloaded the Anarchist Cookbook and printed off sections out of ``idle curiosity`` but could not explain why instructions for making a Molotov cocktail, a pipe hand grenade and dynamite were in his possession.

``I can't explain why I printed them off - I had no interest in making the devices, it was just for interest,'' he said.

Cottage told jurors he used an email address involving the phrase "brotherofenoch" as his views on immigration were close to those of Enoch Powell's. He said uncontrolled immigration frightened him but he was not racist.

Cottage and his co-defendant, dentist David Jackson (62), of Nelson, are charged with conspiring to cause explosions intended to endanger life.

The pair, who met at BNP meetings, are also charged with possession of
explosives for an unlawful purpose. Jackson denies this charge, but Cottage admitted it during their first trial in February at which a previous jury had failed to reach a verdict.

Today, Cottage told jurors he did not discuss making explosives from the
Anarchists' Cookbook with Jackson. ``I don't think he even knew the Anarchist Cookbook was in my possession,'' he said.

Cottage admitted buying a separate batch of chemicals on behalf of his friend, but said he did not know why he wanted them.

The case continues

Burnley Express

BNP candidate was 'stockpiling chemicals for civil war'

The wife of a BNP council candidate accused of stockpiling chemicals for a civil war reported him after he stopped her watching the television, a court heard.

Kerena Cottage, 29, reported Robert, her husband of three-years, after he became "radical" in his religious and political views and removed the TV aerial to shield her from "government propaganda".

Louise Blackwell, prosecuting, said: "He became more religious and controlling of her. He removed the aerial from the television so she couldn't watch what he described as the brainwashing material being put out by the government."

School bus driver Cottage, 49, is jointly accused with former dentist David Jackson, 62, of conspiring to cause an explosion between 1 January 2006 and 30 September 2006. Cottage admitted possessing explosives between the same dates during a previous trial. But Jackson, of Trent Street, Nelson, denies the charge.

Yesterday, Manchester Crown Court, heard that Cottage took delivery of 11 boxes of chemicals and ingredients after Jackson wrote him a letter setting out what to buy.

Miss Blackwell said the investigation began after Mrs Cottage, who suffers from schizophrenia, reported her husband to her social worker who called the police.

She said: "At the start of the relationship all was well but it degenerated. Robert Cottage met a member of the BNP and both he and Kerena joined the organisation. Kerena says some times they would go to meetings very regularly, at which times she described his attitude as radical. He stood on two occasions for the local elections and wasn't selected. Through his membership he met his co-defendant, who wasn't a member but attended meetings.

"Kerena Cottage describes her husband beginning to discuss Asian and white cultures and began listening to what she considered radical radio broadcasts over the internet."

Some time after the chemicals were delivered on 27 September to Cottage's home in Talbot Street, Colne, police arrested him.

The Crown say Cottage also had BB guns, a cross bow, gas masks, two 56 kilogram bags of sugar, a box of mini flares, half a ton of rice, 34 gas canisters, a selection of pellets and an air pistol. Also, officers found a series of printed bomb recipes from "The Anarchist's Handbook", downloaded from the internet.

"The prosecution say these recipes, particularly though not exclusively,show what the intention was of these defendants," said Miss Blackwell.

"Namely, they intended to make an explosion from what they had. These two men agreed to order chemicals that put together would cause an explosion and had the ability to endanger life or cause damage to property. They didn't have them for any lawful purpose."

(proceeding)

Burnley Citizen

Thug action of the BNP

You carried an article reporting on the visit of George Galloway to Swansea, to speak at a Respect meeting (Post, March 15).The proprietor of the Four Seasons club contacted me personally to say he was worried about security after receiving warnings from a local BNP member that people from around the country would smash up the club if the meeting proceeded.

I immediately brought this to the attention of the police, who agreed to have officers in the vicinity of the meeting, before the owner cancelled. The meeting eventually went ahead successfully at the university with more than 200 people attending.

A BNP spokesman claimed the organisation was not violent. This flies in the face of the facts. BNP member and former election candidate Robert Cottage recently pleaded guilty to the possession of one of the biggest hoards of explosives ever discovered in the UK, in preparation for "race war''.

Richard Stone, a member of the Stephen Lawrence public inquiry, said: "Whenever the BNP are active, police always do report a rise in racist attacks. There is a correlation between BNP activity and the rise in race attacks.''

The BNP is not a legitimate party for working people - it is a fascist organisation of violent thugs who stand in the tradition of Hitler.

Jonny Jones
Respect Wales Steering Committee

Letter to South Wales Evening Post