Appeal following racist attack on street near Islamic and Christian centres in Harlow

May 19, 2023 Article

Police in Harlow, Essex, are appealing for information following a racist assault on a street near an Islamic centre on Parringdon Road on May 14, just before 5 pm.

Parringdon Road is close to local Islamic and Christian centres, but it is unclear if the person attacked belonged to either faith group.

EssexLive added that the person attacked faced racist abuse from a group of young people who gave them a reason to stop their car before the assault occurred.

Inspector Natalie Rooney, Harlow Community Policing Team, who leads the investigation, said: “Officers from my community policing team are investigating this incident and supporting the victim.

“We take reports of hate crimes very seriously and we will not tolerate this behaviour within Harlow. “We will continue to work with our communities to stamp out this behaviour and bring offenders to justice. I would ask anyone who has information that could help our enquiry, to contact us.”

In a statement, the local council condemned the ‘cowardly’ racist attack, offering their support and stating that reassurance patrols would increase in the area.

The statement read: “We are concerned by the reports of a racially aggravated assault on Paringdon Road on Sunday 14 May.

“This was a cowardly act, and such attacks have no place in our town.

“Our thoughts are with those who have been affected by this incident. Our Community Safety team is stepping up patrols in the area to reassure the community.”

Anyone with information can call 101, quoting incident reference 42/87024/23 or online. Tell MAMA can pass information to the police on your behalf or anonymously.

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Categories: Essex, hate crime, News

Family threatened and told, “You f****** Muslims, go back to your country” in Epping

May 17, 2023 Article

Essex Police is investigating the targeting of a Muslim family in Epping after they faced racist abuse and threats from a motorcyclist on the high street.

Wishing to remain anonymous, one of the family members described the perpetrator singled them out on the street, perceiving that one of their young family members had gotten too close to their motorcycle, which was stationary on the high street.

That family member, who wears the hijab, described to our Casework Team how the man yelled, “This is an expensive bike, not your f******* prayer mat. You f****** Muslims, go back to your country”.

He continued to shout at the family, “You f****** immigrants,” and other hateful comments, before wildly swinging his motorcycle helmet at them, including at some of the young children present, adding that he intimidated and scared them by revving his motorcycle engine.

The family were able to call the police and safely photograph and film the perpetrator – evidence which is now with the police, who are also reviewing CCTV footage from the high street.

Tell MAMA continues to provide additional support to them, including a referral to our counselling service, as the traumatic incident has meant that one of the family members now fears walking the high street alone.

She described the perpetrator as a white male in his mid-to-late forties or early fifties, confirming that the racist abuse began around 5:30 pm GMT on May 14.

Get advice from our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Alternatively, please leave us a WhatsApp message at 0734 184 6086.

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Categories: Epping, Essex police, hate crime, Hijab, News

Far-right terrorist guilty of plotting attack he hoped would start ‘race war’ in Britain

May 16, 2023 Article

A white supremacist who plotted a terror attack on a police station to instigate a “racial war” was today (May 16) found guilty.

Luke Skelton, 19, from the village of Kielder in Northumberland, conducted hostile reconnaissance work, posted racist, sexist and anti-LGBT+ hate messages online, and drafted a screed to further his violent, racist ideology after the attack.

Details of the two-week trial revealed that Skelton spent innumerable hours online posting far-right speech and propaganda for over a year before his arrest.

19-year-old Luke Skelton joins a growing list of men convicted of far-right terrorism offences in the UK who praised or took inspiration from the Christchurch terrorist, as Tell MAMA continues to document.

Skelton, who also praised other neo-Nazi terrorists like Anders Breivik, wrote of his desire to “accelerate the coming collapse and racial war”.

He glorified fascists like Oswald Mosley and Adolf Hitler, praised Enoch Powell, and sought to propagate civil unrest in France.

Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said: “The evidence clearly demonstrated that he was not just a person who held strong views but a terrorist who wanted to cause serious harm.”

Prosecutors outlined how Skelton took a keen interest in napalm in the hopes of developing his explosive device, as expert witness Lisa Dunn, from the Ministry of Defence detailed how Skelton had gathered enough information to create, in her words, a “viable explosive”.

The Independent revealed how Skelton disengaged from the Prevent programme in May 2021 following a college referral in November 2020.

In one of the screeds penned by Skelton, he envisioned that 93 per cent of the society would be “native British”, outlaw Islam, remove suffrage for women and ban equal marriage, the Independent further revealed.

Skelton also called for violence towards drag acts.

Jurors proved unconvinced by claims that his white supremacist views were mere ‘jokes’.

Following a joint investigation between Northumbria Police and counter-terror police charges against Skelton came in November 2021.

He was found guilty of a single offence under Section 5(1) of the Terrorism Act 2006 -engaging in conduct in preparation of a terrorist act.

Sentencing will occur on June 19.

 

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Categories: Christchurch, Enoch Powell, Far Right groups, far-right terrorism, Hitler, Neo-Nazi, Newcastle, News, Police

Teenage IS fanatic reported by mother as he plotted attack on British soldiers

May 12, 2023 Article

A teenage Islamic State fanatic was reported by his mother as he plotted an attack on British police officers or soldiers, a court has heard

Muslim convert Matthew King, 19, expressed a desire to kill military personnel as he prepared to stake out a British Army barracks in Stratford, east London.

His plans, which he discussed with an online girlfriend, were thwarted after his mother reported him to the Prevent counter-terrorism programme, the Old Bailey was told.

King, from Wickford in Essex, pleaded guilty in January to preparation of terrorist acts between December 22 2021 and May 17 2022.

On Friday, his mother and siblings attended the start of his sentencing at the Old Bailey.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC said King’s mother had “done exactly the right thing” by contacting Prevent about her son.

Opening the facts of the case, prosecutor Paul Jarvis the court that the investigation into King’s activities “strongly indicates” he has an “entrenched Islamist extremist mindset, holds extreme anti-western views and intended to commit terrorist acts both in the UK and abroad”.

In his early teens, King had “dabbled with drugs” and was expelled from school after becoming aggressive, eventually leaving education at 16.

Around 2020, he became interested in Islam, began to attend mosques and watched Muslim videos on YouTube.

By May 2021, his family noticed he had become more extreme and his mother became concerned he was watching material online promoting hatred, Mr Jarvis said.

He had also developed a friendship with a girl identified only as Miss A, who he met online.

He told her about his jihadist intent, saying: “I just wanna die a martyr.”

When Miss A appeared to support and encourage him, King responded: “I guess jihadi love is powerful. I just want to kill people.”

In further graphic chat, Miss A talked about torturing, mutilating and beheading a soldier and then cutting up the body parts, the court was told.

Meanwhile, King had set up an online account with the retailer Knife Warehouse and bought “tactical gloves” and googles.

Mr Jarvis said: “Mr King’s younger sister told the police that one day her brother had entered her bedroom dressed in combat clothing and goggles. Mr King asked her if she liked his clothes.”

King made videos as he studied potential targets including Stratford Army barracks, police officers outside Stratford Magistrates’ Court and at the railway station.

Some of his reconnaissance videos were overlaid with nasheeds – Islamic chants – and he posted on Snapchat: “Target acquired.”

While planning acts of terrorism in Britain, King had also expressed a desire to travel to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State group.

The teenager sought advice on social media about the best route to cross the border into Syria and searched for IS tactical training videos in the use of knives.

The court heard King had also done web searches for terrorist killers including the Manchester Arena bomber and Jihadi John.

Authorities were alerted after King posted on WhatsApp an image of a male holding a knife with the words: “Those who said that there is no jihad and no battle. They are lying!”

King was arrested by counter-terrorism officers at his home on May 18 last year.

He described his former Islamic name as “Abdul Kalashnikov” and told police: “The only thing which is black and white is the sharia, the law of Allah.”

On being cautioned, he said: “I don’t believe in the UK law, the only law I believe in is the law of Allah.”

After hearing submission by King’s defence barrister Hossein Zahir KC, Judge Lucraft adjourned sentencing until May 26.

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Categories: convicted, Fanatic, Islamic State, Matthew King, Teenage

Midlands neo-Nazi guilty of sharing extreme racist and anti-LGBT hate online

May 12, 2023 Article

Today (April 12), a Midlands-based white supremacist pleaded guilty to stirring up racial and anti-LGBT+ hatred by sharing over 130 extremist images and materials on the Russian social media platform VKontakte (VK).

Richard Osborne, 53, often posted graphic, dehumanising racist materials on his VK profile – ranging from Holocaust denial and trivialisation, anti-Jewish and anti-Black cartoons published on an infamous US-based white supremacist website in the early 200s, to content calling for the violent removal of Muslim, Jewish, and Black communities from the UK and Europe, our investigation unearthed. Other disturbing posts linked Muslims to bestiality.

Osborne, who uploaded photographs of his membership card for the neo-fascist National Front, further shared violent LGBT+ content, calling for their violent removal from Europe.

On September 4, 2021, he shared a video promoting the banned neo-Nazi terror group National Action that propagated the racist myth of a so-called “white genocide”.

Within this violent, racist and anti-LGBT+ echo chamber, our investigation found that throughout 2021 and after that, Osborne interacted with another convicted white supremacist – 63-year-old David Hutchinson, even lamenting his jailing.

His appearance at Birmingham Crown Court, where he will appear again for sentencing next month, revealed that the offences occurred between February 16, 2022, and January 9, 2023.

Other guilty pleas concerned the possession of a shotgun without a licence and an offensive cosh weapon.

The BBC stated that Osborne appeared before the court via a video link from HMP Wandsworth in south London.

Sentencing will occur at Birmingham Crown Court on June 9.

 

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Categories: anti-LGBT, Antisemitism, Far Right groups, Neo-Nazi, News, VK

Neo-Nazi guilty of terror offences after making explosives in aunt’s kitchen

May 2, 2023 Article

A self-described “dangerous lunatic” and white supremacist from Walsall was found guilty of various terrorism offences after blowing up his family’s kitchen whilst making gunpowder.

Vaughn Dolphin, then 19, had caused a fireball in his aunt’s kitchen as police uncovered a weapons factory in the family shed – including an improvised musket and bomb-making chemicals in a fridge in his bedroom.

Dolphin had downloaded bomb-making materials onto a USB stick inside a folder named “Boogaloo” – a broad anti-government extremist movement that seeks to propel the United States towards civil war, which has white supremacist and non-white supremacist elements to the movements online and offline.

Police also found homemade body armour adorned in Nazi iconography.

The BBC reported that he possessed guides on building a shotgun, how to carry out arson attacks, and building homemade explosives.

Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Payne, head of Counter Terrorism Policing West Midlands CTU, said in a video statement: “We became aware that he was trying to acquire or had acquired explosive materials or weapons. So, within forty-eight hours, we had from acquiring the information, we went through his front door”.

In court, it emerged that Dolphin spent an obsessive amount of time in white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups online, including the Telegram channels Pol/4chan, Hitler Group, and the Segregation Wagon.

On June 14 last year, Vaughn Dolphin uploaded footage of the kitchen fire to the Segregation Wagon channel, commenting, “That was a bad f****** idea, it was so bad the f****** carbon monoxide meter went off. I started choking, so I had to put this on. Oh my gosh,” Sky News reported.

Other online comments included Dolphin expressing a desire to sell weapons to The Base – a violent, neo-Nazi paramilitary group in the United States. In 2021, neo-Nazi accelerationist groups like the infamous Attomwaffen Division (and affiliates) made the proscribed terror list in the UK.

Dolphin, now 20, joins a growing list of those convicted of far-right terrorism offences in the UK who took inspiration from or glorified the anti-Muslim terror attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, which claimed the lives of 51 Muslims in March 2019.

The court heard how Dolphin had downloaded the Christchurch terror attacks, commenting online, “Shame it doesn’t have the music,” The Times newspaper reported.

Counter-terror police disclosed that Dolphin had downloaded the Christchurch terrorist’s screed and other manifestos from similar terror attacks in the United States.

The jury found Dolphin guilty of various terrorism offences – including six counts that concerned the possession and distribution of terrorist manuals, two further charges of disseminating a terrorist publication, a charge of “being reckless” as to whether or terrorist activity would be encouraged and possession of a firearm.

Dolphin, now aged 20, was found guilty of six counts of possessing articles useful for terrorism, two counts of disseminating terrorist material and two of possessing explosive substances and one charge of possessing a firearm.

In a further written statement, Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Payne, head of Counter Terrorism Policing West Midlands CTU, stated: “Dolphin had claimed he had an interest in chemicals and military memorabilia however he combined a toxic extremist mindset, sharing right wing material online with the real-world acquisition of explosive material and homemade weapons.

“His mindset is one of a dangerous individual equipping themselves to harm others who did not look like him or who he disagreed with.

“Extremists use this kind of ideology to create discord, distrust and fear among our communities, our work to target dangerous individuals continues.”

Sentencing will occur on May 11.

 

 

 

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Categories: Christchurch, Far Right groups, Neo-Nazi, News, terrorism, Walsall, West Midlands Police

Hungary’s president pardons right-wing terrorists as pope visits

May 2, 2023 Article

Hungarian President Katalin Novák has pardoned several convicted far-right terrorists on the occasion of Pope Francis’ trip to Budapest.

“The week of the Pope’s visit offers a special opportunity for the head of state to make use of her right of amnesty,” the presidential chancellery announced in Budapest on Thursday evening.

The amnesty affected the right-wing terrorist György Budahazy, whom an appeals court in Budapest sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in March this year, and nine other members of his far-right Hunnia group. Between 2007 and 2009, the gang carried out numerous arson and explosive attacks targeting the houses of left-wing and liberal politicians, planned an assassination attempt, and beat up and seriously injured a television producer.

The trials dragged on for more than ten years. Budahazy is considered an iconic figure of the far right, but also enjoys sympathy among supporters of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, of which Novák is also a member. After the amnesty decree, he was able to leave the Vac prison north of Budapest early on Friday.

Budahazy had a horse brought to him and rode away shouting “Freedom!” Hungarian media reported. In addition, Budahazy told the tabloid Blikk that he would attend Pope Francis’ mass in Budapest on Sunday to offer a prayer of thanksgiving for him.

The head of the Catholic Church began a three-day visit to the Hungarian capital on Friday. The highlight will be a mass celebrated by Francis on Sunday morning in the square in front of the parliament.

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Categories: Far Right Terrorists, Fidesz, Gyorgy Budahazy, Hungarian President, Katalin Novak, Pope Francis