Prosecutions for Antisemitism
2018 Prosecutions
18th December 2018 - Adam Thomas, 22
Adam Thomas, 22, was found guilty of being a member of the neo-Nazi National Action, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation at the culmination of a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others. Thomas stood trial with his partner, Claudia Patatas, and Daniel Bogunovic, who were also convicted of the same charge alongside him at Birmingham Crown Court. The couple gave their son the middle name “Adolf” and owned a large collection of Nazi and far-right memorabilia.
Thomas was jailed for six years and six months, Patatas for five years and Bogunovic for six years and four months. Three other men had also pleaded guilty to membership of the group.
14th November 2018 - Joseph Brogan
Joseph Brogan from Gorton had two previous convictions for racially aggravated offences before shouting “child killers” and “you people should live in Israel” at demonstrators at a rally against antisemitism in Manchester in September 2018, as well as performing a Nazi salute towards them.
Brogan was jailed for six months by Manchester Crown Court.
30th October 2018 - Two teenage boys pleaded guilty to racially/religiously aggravated public order
Two teenage boys pleaded guilty to racially/religiously aggravated public order and assault at Medway Magistrates’ Court after throwing stones at a Jewish family on Minster beach in Kent and shouting “Jews” at them.
The teenagers were sentenced to a Youth Rehabilitation Order for twelve months, as well as 160 hours of unpaid work, supervision by the Probation Service for twelve months and a 19:00-07:00 curfew for four months.
3rd September 2018 - Leighton Johnson
Leighton Johnson from Swansea was captured making a Nazi salute to Tottenham Hotspur supporters at Liberty Stadium in April 2017. Johnson denied causing racially aggravated alarm or distress and claimed that he was merely waving to a family member about going for a cigarette.
Johnson was sentenced by Swansea Crown Court to 150 hours of unpaid work and a twelve-month community order, was ordered to pay ÂŁ1,085 in costs and was banned from Swansea City home matches for three years.
22nd August 2018 - Alberto Busalacchi
Alberto Busalacchi repeatedly shouted “Heil Hitler” at local Jews and shoplifted at a kosher bakery in Stamford Hill in January 2018.
Busalacchi pleaded guilty to racially or religiously aggravated harassment and theft at Stratford Magistrates’ Court and was sentenced to six weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for twelve months, and ordered to pay £400 victim compensation.
21st August 2018 - Austin Ross
Austin Ross of Newport set fire to his old secondary school and a Masonic hall (which had a Star of David on the front), causing tens of thousands of pounds of damage, and spray-painted swastikas on a church, school, the University of South Wales campus and other local landmarks around his hometown. His Facebook account also contained links to a Hitler Youth account.
Ross pleaded guilty to fifteen charges, including arson, racially aggravated harassment and racially aggravated damage, and was jailed for six years by Cardiff Crown Court.
16th August 2018 - Peter Morgan
Peter Morgan, a far-right extremist, was convicted in Scotland of preparing acts of terrorism after being found with a bomb-making kit in his flat, along with antisemitic, anti-Muslim and neo-Nazi materials. This included al-Qaeda and IRA literature and a racist and antisemitic novel that inspired numerous historic terrorist attacks. No target for the bombing was identified.
The High Court in Edinburgh jailed Morgan for twelve years and a further three years under licence.
9th August 2018 - Jonathan Jennings
Jonathan Jennings from Carmarthenshire posted a number of messages on the Gab social networking website in which he threatened the Jewish community, Muslims and public figures. He had threatened Jews that if they did not behave themselves they would share the same fate as Muslims. Another message stated that Hitler was born too soon.
Jennings was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court to sixteen months’ imprisonment after having pleaded guilty to six counts of publishing or distributing written material intended to stir up religious hatred, contrary to section 29C of the Public Order Act 1986, and four counts of sending communications with intent to cause distress or anxiety, contrary to section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988.
19th July 2018 - Jack Coulson, 19
Jack Coulson, 19, of Mexborough but living in Bradford at the time, constructed a pipe bomb in his bedroom which was filled with Nazi memorabilia. He was a member of the neo-Nazi National Action terror group and had downloaded The Big Book Of Mischief to his phone after allegedly boasting about wanting to kill a female MP. The 60-page manual provides information on building weapons. According to prosecutors, Mr Coulson claimed that “all Jews should be exterminated”, while he was attending preventative intervention programmes.
Coulson was found guilty at Leeds Crown Court of constructing an explosive device and admitted possessing a document or record for terror purposes, and was sent to youth custody for four years and eight months.
18th July 2018 - Christopher Lythgoe, 32
Christopher Lythgoe, 32, of Warrington, and Matthew Hankinson, 24, of Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, were convicted of membership in the neo-Nazi National Action group, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation at the culmination of a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others. Lythgoe, the leader of the group, was found not guilty of encouragement to murder for allegedly giving Jack Renshaw, 23, of Skelmersdale, Lancashire, permission to kill Rosie Cooper MP on behalf of the group. Jurors at the Old Bailey were unable to decide whether Renshaw, Michal Trubini, 35, from Warrington or Andrew Clarke, 33, from Prescot, Merseyside were guilty of membership in National Action, and found Garron Helm, 24, from Seaforth in Merseyside not guilty of being a member of the group.
Lythgoe was jailed for eight years and Hankinson for six years.
15th July 2018 - Sheroz Iqbal
Sheroz Iqbal sent antisemitic e-mails to members of the North London Orthodox Jewish community. The e-mails included references to “Your Zionist murdering community.” Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, reported the incident to the Metropolitan Police Service. Iqbal was previously convicted after pleading guilty to making antisemitic death threats in September 2016 and was given a suspended sentence in that case of sixteen weeks’ imprisonment and 80 hours’ unpaid work.
Iqbal was sentenced at Thames Magistrates’ Court to eleven weeks in jail suspended for eighteen months and 60 hours’ unpaid community work, and was fined £115 and required to pay £85 court costs.
13th July 2018 - Husnain Rashid, 34
Husnain Rashid, a 34-year-old ISIS supporter from Lancashire, made repeated calls to murder British citizens, sending instructions in 300,000 posts on the heavily-encrypted Telegram network in just eighteen months and urging Islamists to wage jihad by murdering Jews.
Rashid was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court on three counts of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, and one count of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, and was sentenced to life in prison, of which he must serve at least 25 years.
June 2018 - Bashir Shamraize, 34
Bashir Shamraize, a 34-year-old business-owner from Bradford, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated threatening behaviour following an antisemitic rant on a flight from Tel Aviv to Manchester, which he blamed on smoking cannabis during Ramadan.
Shamraize was ordered by Manchester Magistrates’ Court to complete a twelve-month community order, 100 hours’ unpaid work, attend a course to address his cannabis use and pay £505 in costs.
June 2018 - Stephen Panagi
Stephen Panagi gave a Nazi salute and shouted “Heil Hitler” from his car at parents taking children into the Wolfson Hillel Primary School in Southgate, North London on 20 April 2018, a significant date in neo-Nazi circles as it was Hitler’s birthday.
Panagi was sentenced to 100 hours’ unpaid community service after pleading guilty. He was also ordered to pay £50 in compensation, a £85 surcharge, £85 in costs and to attend a session on Holocaust education.
14th June 2018 - Holocaust revisionist, Alison Chabloz
Holocaust revisionist, Alison Chabloz, from Glossop in Derbyshire, penned and sang three songs mocking Holocaust survivors and claiming that the Holocaust was a Jewish fraud. The songs were uploaded to YouTube. The lyrics included: “Did the Holocaust ever happen? Was it just a bunch of lies? Seems that some intend to pull the wool over our eyes. Eternal wandering liars haven’t got a clue, and when it comes to usury, victim’s always me and you”; “Now Auschwitz, holy temple, is a theme park just for fools, the gassing zone a proven hoax, indoctrination rules”; “Tell us another, come on, my brother, reap it, the cover, for tribal gain. Safe in our tower, now is the hour, money and power, we have no shame”; and “History repeats itself, no limit to our wealth, thanks to your debts we’re bleeding you dry. We control your media, control all your books and TV, with the daily lies we’re feeding, suffering victimisation. Sheeple have no realisation, you shall pay, all the way, until the break of day.” Chabloz was convicted in the first case of its kind, following a private prosecution by Campaign Against Antisemitism, which the CPS eventually agreed to take over.
District Judge John Zani found Chabloz guilty on all counts of criminal offences under the Communications Act at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. She was sentenced to a twenty-week prison sentence suspended for two years, 180 hours of unpaid community service and an indefinite restraining order against contacting two leaders of Campaign Against Antisemitism, as well as an order banning her from social media for twelve months. She was also ordered to pay a £115 victim surcharge, and costs of £600.
23rd May 2018 - Wayne Bell
Wayne Bell, a prominent member of National Action before it was banned in 2016, published hundreds of posts on Twitter and a Russian social media site, including one which described Jewish people as “destructive” and “vile”. Neo-Nazi National Action was proscribed a terrorist organisation at the culmination of a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others. Bell had also daubed neo-Nazi graffiti on pillars and lamp posts in his hometown of Castleford. His online activity took place between March and December 2016 when he set up a profile on the Russian site VK using the pseudonym Celtic Raider. Among his postings was an image of a man being hanged by a rope with a Star of David on his forehead.
Bell was sentenced to four years and three months in jail at Leeds Crown Court. His sentence was added on to a 30-month jail term he is already serving for involvement in violent clashes with left-wing activists in Liverpool in 2016.
17th May 2018 - Jack Renshaw, 22
Jack Renshaw, 22, made speeches describing Jewish people as “parasites” and proclaimed himself a Nazi. Renshaw made a speech on Blackpool promenade in March 2016 at a far-right demonstration during which he stated that Hitler had got it wrong by showing mercy to Jewish people. In another speech at a far-right gathering in North Yorkshire, he said that Jewish people did not deserve to be shown any mercy and needed to be eradicated. He also showed support for the neo-Nazi National Action which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation after a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others. The CPS decided to prosecute Renshaw after lawyers for Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to declare our intention to launch a private prosecution.
Renshaw was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by Preston Crown Court for stirring up racial hatred and calling for the genocide of the Jewish people.
14th May 2018 - Neo-Nazi leader Jeremy Bedford-Turner
Neo-Nazi leader Jeremy Bedford-Turner gave a speech in 2015 at a demonstration called to protest against the “Jewification” of Golders Green. In his speech to neo-Nazis, surrounded by police, Mr Bedford-Turner said that: “…all politicians are nothing but a bunch of puppets dancing to a Jewish tune, and the ruling regimes in the West for the last one hundred years have danced to the same tune.” Evoking medieval libels which claimed that Jews drank the blood of non-Jewish children, Mr Bedford-Turner told his followers, one third of whom were from the violent far-right National Rebirth of Poland group, that the French Revolution and both World Wars were massacres perpetrated by Jews. He concluded that England was “merry” during the period of the expulsion of Jews from England and demanded: “Let’s free England from Jewish control.” Campaign Against Antisemitism had to battle the CPS since 2015 to take on the case, eventually winning a landmark judicial review which forced the CPS to prosecute Mr Bedford-Turner.
Bedford-Turner was jailed for twelve months after being unanimously convicted by a jury of incitement to racial hatred at Southwark Crown Court.
23rd April 2018 - Mark Meechan
Mark Meechan, who uses the online name Count Dankula, posted to YouTube a video of a dog he had trained to give Nazi salutes when it hears certain phrases, including “gas the Jews” and “Sieg Heil”. Meechan, a UKIP member from Coatbridge North Lanarkshire, denied committing an offence and said that he had made the video to annoy his girlfriend in April 2016. He subsequently attempted to overturn the conviction and sentence but was refused leave to appeal by the Sheriff Court in Edinburgh. In a YouTube video, Meechan suggested that he would refuse to pay the £800 fine by the October deadline or carry out any other punishment or community order that the court may impose. His appeal was refused in August.
Meehan was fined ÂŁ800 at Airdrie Sheriff Court for an offence under the Communications Act.
6th April 2018 - Aweys Shikhey
Aweys Shikhey, a delivery driver of Somali origin from Tottenham, discussed killing “the old woman Elizabeth” and former Prime Minister David Cameron and attacking Jewish football fans with an AK-47 at nearby White Hart Lane and Stamford Hill on online chat room. He also applied for loans to fund a trip to join ISIS, securing £10,000 from Barclays for a “wedding”.
Shikhey was convicted of preparing terrorist acts at the Old Bailey and jailed for eight years.
3rd March 2018 - Lee Munns
Lee Munns posted an antisemitic tweet in August 2017, in which he wrote that “Hitler isn’t the only one that can silence 70,000 Yids” after Chelsea F.C. beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 at Wembley Stadium.
Munns was sentenced to 70 hours supervised community service and a ÂŁ85 fine after being found guilty of committing an offence under section 4a Public Order Act 1986.
16th February 2018 - David Bitton, 40
David Bitton, a 40-year-old from Altrincham, tweeted around 600 posts on Twitter over the course of one weekend in May 2016, many directed at Greater Manchester Police, making highly abusive and antisemitic, racist and anti-gay comments. In the police interview, Bitton claimed that he had only written the tweets in order to gain followers and deleted them soon after.
Bitton was jailed for four years by Minshull Street Crown Court after pleading guilty to thirteen separate charges of sending racist and threatening communications.
14th February 2018 - Marcin Zych
Marcin Zych pleaded guilty to three driving offences and two charges of causing racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm and distress at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court following an incident on 28th January 2018 in which he had shouted “You f***ing Jew” at another motorist after crashing his car and failing to remain at the scene and provide a breath sample to police officers.
Zych was fined ÂŁ250, ordered to pay court costs and ÂŁ50 in compensation to his victim, sentenced to 100 hours of compulsory unpaid community work and disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving licence for 18 months, however he was offered a 4-month reduction in the period of disqualification if he satisfactorily completed a government-approved course.
11th January 2018 - Jason Galvin, 46
Jason Galvin, 46, from Oxford pleaded guilty to using a public communication network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety under section 127 of the Communication Act 2003 at Oxford Magistrates’ Court. He had sent messages such as “you Jewish f***ing c***” and “all you people are the same” on 21st April 2017 to a Jewish man whom he incorrectly believed had failed to pay for his plumbing services.
Galvin was ordered to pay a fine of ÂŁ300, costs of ÂŁ85, compensation of ÂŁ100 and a victim surcharge ÂŁ30. He was also referred to a restorative justice programme to facilitate an apology.