Cambridge neo-Nazi sentenced to four years in prison for antisemitic incitement online

A man has been sentenced to four years in prison by a judge at Peterborough Crown Court after being convicted of two counts of incitement to racial hatred over his antisemitic Facebook posts and a speech on YouTube at Cambridge Crown Court last year.

In December 2016, Lawrence Burns was found guilty of two charges of publishing threatening, abusive or insulting written material with intent or likely intent to stir up racial hatred by a jury at Cambridge Crown Court.

Jurors found him guilty after hearing how Burns, aged 26 from Coldham’s Lane in Cambridge, spoke in a YouTube video memorialising American white supremacist leader David Lane, accusing Jews of being “parasites” that wanted to create a “mongrelised race”.

Burns pleaded not guilty, but prosecutor Mark Weekes said: “This is a young man who is an extremist and has expressed racist views, particularly towards the Jewish and Afro-Caribbean community. On his public Facebook account, which has more than 90 friends, he expressed some of the vilest and most offensive sentiments possible. Many of the posts are abusive and insulting towards Jews, who he refers to as ‘sub human animals’.” In one post, Burns compared Jews to “maggots in a decaying body” who are “hijacking the genes of a superior white race”.

Adrian Davis, who was defending Burns said he was a “rash young man” who had never intended his words to be read by a wide audience.