Prosecutions for Antisemitism
2021 Prosecutions
8th December 2021 - Adam Boyle, 32
Adam Boyle, 32, from Birmingham, was “visibly intoxicated” when he approached a Jewish couple on 7th October 2021 as they waited at Victoria Station in Manchester for a train to Bury. He then hurled antisemitic abuse at them before being arrested by two nearby off-duty police officers.
Boyle was charged with racially/religiously aggravated intentional harassment and was convicted. He was sentenced at Birmingham and Solihull Magistrates’ Court to 26 weeks in prison.
3rd December 2021 - Ben Raymond, 32
Ben Raymond, 32, the co-founder of the neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action and its master propagandist, was found guilty of membership of the proscribed organisation at Bristol Crown Court. Raymond, from Swindon, helped launch the group in 2013 and reportedly coined the term “white jihad”. He was also convicted of possessing a manifesto written by the far-right terrorist Andrews Breivik, as well as a guide to homemade detonators, but was found not guilty of four counts of possessing other documents.
Raymond was sentenced to eight years in prison for membership and two years, to run concurrently, for the two offences relating to possession of terrorist documents. After release, he will be subject to terrorist notification requirements.
3rd December 2021 - Richard Hesketh, 36
Richard Hesketh, 36 from Greater Manchester, posted 4,000 antisemitic videos that garnered over 5.5 million views under the name Rick Heskey on the platforms Bitchute and Goyim TV, the latter of which is affiliated with the “Goyim Defence League”, a group whose membership reportedly contains several neo-Nazis. Hesketh described his goal as “exposing the filthy Jews” and reportedly saw himself as a “Full time Jew Namer”. It is also understood that one of his social media profiles had the title: “Dedicated to Exposing the Jew”. In one video, he said: “Hitler should have killed more Jews. Completely agree, I’d say he should have killed about 16 million, that should have finished them off.” Another video was titled “The Filthy Jews of York Castle”, in which Mr Hesketh visited Clifford’s Tower in York, where approximately 150 Jews were murdered in 1190. In August 2021, Hesketh was charged with seven counts of distributing a recording of visual images or sounds stirring up racial hatred, contrary to section 21(1) Public Order Act 1986. On 7th September 2021, he pleaded guilty to all charges.
Hesketh was sentenced to four years in jail at Manchester Crown Court.
5th November 2021 - Nathan Blagg, 21
Nathan Blagg, 21, of Retford in Nottinghamshire was charged with seven counts of sending by public communication network an offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing message which violates the Malicious Communications Act. The charges refered to seven tweets of an antisemitic nature sent between 29th September, 2020 and 5th February, 2021.
Blagg pleaded guilty and was sentenced by Westminster Magistrates’ Court to eight weeks in prison.
29th October 2021 - Keith Gowers, 59
Keith Gowers, 59, of Tottenham, followed Beilla Reis down Manor Road in Stamford Hill at approximately 18:30 on 18th March before placing a black pillowcase over her head and punching her several times in the face and torso. Ms Reis, 20, was 27 weeks’ pregnant at the time. She had her glasses broken and suffered a cut lip and thumb. Mr Gowers then fled the scene, leaving behind the pillowcase, while Ms Reis was taken to hospital.
Gowers admitted one count of assault by beating and the court determined that there was no hate element. He was sentenced at Thames Magistrates’ Court to two years’ conditional discharge and an indefinite restraining order not to contact the victim by any means and not to go within 200 metres of the victim at any location. He was also ordered to pay a £22 victim surcharge.
22nd October 2021 - The Hon. Piers Portman
The Hon. Piers Portman, the youngest living son of the 9th Viscount Portman, was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of one count of racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress in connection with a 2018 incident at Westminster Magistrates’ Court when he called Gideon Falter, Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Chief Executive, “Jewish scum”.
Portman was imprisoned for four months, with the possibility of release on licence after two months, and ordered to pay a £10,000 fine, make an additional £10,000 compensatory payment to the victim, Gideon Falter, and pay court costs. Mr Falter is donating the entire £10,000 to Campaign Against Antisemitism.
19th October 2021 - Matthew Cronjager, 18
Matthew Cronjager, 18, was found guilty at the Old Bailey of preparing for acts of terrorism and disseminating terrorist publications on Telegram after it emerged that he had planned to kill his former friend, who is Asian, for allegedly sleeping with white women. Cronjager, of Ingatestone, Essex, had attempted to obtain a 3D-printed gun or a sawn-off shotgun to commit the murder and had joined a far-right terror cell, having also discussed targeting Jews, Muslims, homosexuals and the British Government. He had also previously pleaded guilty to four separate offences.
Cronjager was jailed for eleven years.
8th October 2021 - Tejinder Lohia
Tejinder Lohia subjected members of the Jewish community in Stamford Hill to a “torrent of racist abuse” which included “Kill you Jews, F*** Jews” and invoking Adolf Hitler’s name. He pleaded guilty to one count of using threatening, abusive or insulting words with intent to cause fear of/provoke unlawful violence, two counts of racially or religiously aggravated fear/provocation of violence by words, and three counts of possession of a controlled Class A drug (cocaine).
Lohia was sentenced at Thames Magistrates Court to a twelve-week prison term, suspended for twelve months, and unpaid work and alcohol treatment.
9th September 2021 - A fifteen-year-old from Derbyshire
A fifteen-year-old from Derbyshire who cannot be named for legal reasons discussed carrying out a terrorist attack at Dover on a far-right Telegram channel that he had created, explaining his intentions and potential weapons. He pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to encouraging terrorism and possessing and disseminating a terrorist publication. He had a previous conviction for threatening to blow up a mosque last year but claimed that it was a “bomb hoax, a prank and a joke”, appearing at that time alongside a sixteen-year-old co-defendant who admitted dissemination of a terrorist publication after an investigation showed that he had made videos featuring Hitler, Nazis murdering victims in concentration camps and a woman singing “All Jews should die, race mixing is a sin”, and had searched the internet for weapons.
The teenager was given a two-year youth referral order.
31st August 2021 - Ben John, 21
Ben John, 21, was convicted by a jury at Leicester Crown Court of possessing information likely to be useful for preparing an act of terror – a charge that carries a maximum jail sentence of fifteen years. John downloaded the the Anarchist Cookbook, a guide to making bombs and illegal drugs at home and collated 67,788 documents which contained a large quantity of National Socialist, white supremacist and antisemitic material, as well as information relating to a Satanic organisation. John had previously failed to heed warnings by counter-terrorism officers and a referral to the Government’s counter-terrorism scheme, Prevent, was apparently not effective.
John was handed a two-year jail sentence suspended for two years plus a further year on licence, monitored by the probation service. Instead of prison, the judge required John to read works of literature and come before the court every four months in order to be tested on his reading. John was also given a five-year Serious Crime Prevention Order requiring him to stay in touch with the police and let them monitor his online activity and up to 30 days on a Healthy Identity Intervention programme. The Attorney-General referred the sentence to the Court of Appeal owing to it appearing to be “unduly lenient”. Following the Attorney-General’s referral, in January 2022 the Court of Appeal jailed John for two years with a one-year extended licence.
19th August 2021 - David Elwyn Richards, 52
David Elwyn Richards, 52, admitted to shouting abuse and racially harassing a victim in Wrexham and to racially aggravated damage after he painted the hairdressers above which the victim resided with swastikas and racist slogans. It was also reported that Richards had Nazi-related tattoos on his body, and when police visited his home, they found that his bedroom was covered in “racist and antisemitic symbols and slogans”.
Richards was sentenced at Mold Crown Court to nine months in prison, of which he must serve half, and was given a restraining order, until a further order, not to contact the victim or the owner of the hairdressers or from entering the street where the hairdressers is located and where the victim resides.
6th August 2021 - Graham Hart, 68
Graham Hart, 68, a Hitler-loving radio host, pleaded guilty to eight counts of inciting racial hatred after action by Campaign Against Antisemitism. Hart, of Penponds, Camborne, was charged with five counts of incitement to racial hatred, including using offending words or behaviour in a programme involving threatening, abusive or insulting visual images or sounds which was included in a programme service, intending thereby to stir up racial hatred or, having regard to all the circumstances, whereby racial hatred was likely to be stirred up. Three further charges were subsequently added following a further investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism. Hart had repeatedly made antisemitic comments on his show, including claiming that Jews are “filth”, questioned whether six million Jews were really murdered in the Holocaust and praised Adolf Hitler. He also claimed that Jews “run everything” and argued that the Jews have “got to go down, they’ve just got to go down”. There were further inflammatory statements, and the three further charges arose from comments including: “Let’s get rid of the Jews”. He also invoked antisemitic tropes, and said: “I’m a little bit over the top but I say wipe them all out” and “So, if you’re listening out there Mr Jew, we’re coming to get you.”
Hart was sentenced at Truro Crown Court to sixteen months in prison, which comprises two years’ imprisonment on the first five counts and 32 months for the remaining three counts to run concurrently and of which he will serve half. He was also sentenced to a criminal behaviour order of ten years, prohibiting him from engaging in similar activities on the internet, as well as a forfeiture order allowing the police to destroy the equipment that they seized. The sentence reflects the one-third discount for Mr Hart’s guilty pleas.
3rd August 2021 - Gareth Bradley, 31
Gareth Bradley, 31, admitted vandalising a memorial in Rhyl, Wales with swastikas and vile messages referring to the murder of Jews and gassing of soldiers. The graffiti also contained the line, in German, that “the time has come for a Reich [empire]: we must exterminate the Jews.” He also pleaded guilty to defacing his prison cell with graffiti of a swastika.
Caernarfon Crown Court handed Bradley an eighteen-month sentence, suspended for two years, for this offence and several other offences, including racially abusing policing officers. Bradley was also ordered to carry out a 50-day rehabilitation requirement.
30th July 2021 - Police found images of a teenager
Police found images of a teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, performing Nazi salutes, along with memes that glorified the Norwegian neo-Nazi terrorist Anders Breivik. It was also said that the boy had downloaded several terrorist manuals and had accumulated thousands of images depicting a “concerning level of commitment to an extreme ideology.” He also possessed a collection of neo-Nazi writings. The teenager had swastikas, a noose, and the letters “DOTR” carved into his bedroom desk, a reference to the Day of the Rope ideology that advocates the mass lynching of all those considered to be “race traitors”. Detailed methods of how to murder someone were also found on his phone. The teenager admitted eleven counts of collecting material of use to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism contrary to section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Bristol Youth Court gave the teenager, who was fifteen and sixteen-years-old at the time of the committed offenses and seventeen when sentenced, a twelve-month referral order for terror offences in lieu of a twelve-month custody sentence, which was initially considered.
21st July 2021 Andrew Dymock, 24
Andrew Dymock, a 24-year-old politics graduate who was accused of creating and running the website of the neo-Nazi System Resistance Network group, was found guilty of fifteen terrorism and hate charges at the Old Bailey, including five counts of encouraging terrorism, four of disseminating terrorist publications, two of terrorist fundraising, one of possessing material useful to a terrorist, one of possessing racially inflammatory material, one of stirring up racial hatred, and one of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation. Dymock wrote and shared several antisemitic and hate-motivated articles through the website, including one titled “Join your local Nazis” and another called “The Truth about the Holocaust”.System Resistance Network is the successor to National Action, which the Government proscribed as a terrorist organisation following a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others.
Dymock was jailed for seven years, with a further three years on extended licence, for terror and hate crimes.
23rd June 2021 - Michael Nugent, 38
Michael Nugent, 38, used online chat groups to disseminate violent, neo-Nazi ideas, which included advocating terrorism. He also shared information of how to make explosives. Nugent pleaded guilty at Kingston Crown Court to five counts of dissemination of terrorist publications and eleven of possessing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
Nugent was sentenced to three and a half years’ imprisonment.
14th June 2021 - Dean Morrice, 34
Dean Morrice, 34, was found guilty at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court on ten counts related to terrorism and explosives. A neo-Nazi and former UKIP member who advocated the murder of Jewish people, Morrice was reported to have posted “violent racist, antisemitic and Islamophobic propaganda online and collected the means for making bombs.” Morrice, who previously drove a truck in the army, also reportedly ran a Telegram channel which disseminated virulently antisemitic, neo-Nazi content that encouraged the killing of Jews and other minorities.
Morrice was given a 23-year custodial sentence, of which he will spend a minimum of eighteen years in prison.
25th May 2021 - Stephen Lee Short, 32
Stephen Lee Short, 32, made five videos where he filmed a woman placing a dog into a microwave and other kitchen appliances. In one of the clips, Short was understood to have made antisemitic comments about the Holocaust. At Wolverhampton Magistrates Court, Short, of Oxley, pleaded guilty to sending an offensive message by public communication.
Short was given a twelve-month community order which included fifteen Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days, an alcohol treatment requirement and a 21-day thinking skills programme. The court also ordered Short to undergo 200 hours of unpaid work which, considering the racial aspect to the offense, had been increased by 50 hours.
21st May 2021 - Oliver Bel, 24
Oliver Bel, 24, of Salford, called for the extermination of all Jewish people and was said to have been in possession of a bomb-making manual. In 2016 the Cambridge University graduate was reportedly in contact with members of National Action, a far-right neo-Nazi terrorist organisation proscribed by the Government following a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others. In a raid of Mr Bel’s house, anti-terror police found Nazi memorabilia and books about Hitler, and he had a long record of antisemitic comments. Bel was convicted of collecting information useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
Manchester Crown Court sentenced Bel to two years in prison.
14th May 2021 - Tobias Powell, 33
Tobias Powell, 33, of Bognor Regis, convicted of posting “abhorrent” racist material online. Powell, who has a Nazi tattoo, had called for a civil war to stop the ethnic suicide of white people; showed support for the terrorist organisation National Action; and shared a picture of his tattoo which contained the Nazi emblem. He had set his Apple ID to “Adolf Hitler” and filmed his dog performing a Nazi salute, and had also said in an e-mail that he would have no problem “shooting off a kneecap” or “scalping” someone, referring to the cutting or tearing off of part of a human head.
Powell was sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court to three years in prison.
7th May 2021 - Dennis McNulty
Dennis McNulty, a GBM union activist, assaulted a Jewish barrister in an antisemitic attack and saying: “It’s always you f***ing people, you’re always the problem.” The remark was made during a heated political discussion in the King William IV pub in Hampstead in 2018, with McNulty apparently becoming angered even further upon discovering that his interlocutor was Jewish. McNulty was ejected from the pub, but found the victim on the bench outside, upon which he attacked him, causing a broken nose and a torn retina and necessitating emergency surgery in order to save his eye.
McNulty was jailed for nine years by Isleworth Crown Court, of which time he must serve at least six years.
30th April 2021 - Benjamin Hannam, 22
Benjamin Hannam, a 22-year-old from Edmonton in North London, was convicted at the Old Bailey of belonging to the proscribed group National Action between December 2016 and January 2018, lying on his application to join the police and possessing guides to knife-fighting and bomb-making. He became the first police officer to be convicted of far-right terrorism. The ban on reporting the case was lifted after Hannam admitted possessing an indecent image of a child.
Hannam was fired from the Metropolitan Police for gross misconduct and jailed for four years and four months.
31st March 2021 - The notorious antisemite Alison Chabloz
The notorious antisemite Alison Chabloz was found guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on charges under section 127 of the Communications Act relating to two interviews that she gave to far-right online outlets. She then publicised the interviews via her account on Gab, a social network associated with the far-right, claiming that “anything that’s worth controlling will have Jews there controlling it” and accusing Jews of turning their children into “psychopathic maniacs” because they are “indoctrinated from birth” with the idea that “their grandparents were gassed.” The prosecution followed action by Campaign Against Antisemitism.
Chabloz was sentenced to eighteen weeks in prison, of which she had to serve nine. She later humiliatingly lost her appeal and was sentenced to 32 weeks in prison, which represented both an uplift from the original eighteen-week sentence and the re-imposition of part of the suspended sentence that Chabloz received in her first conviction in 2018. She must serve half of this 32-week sentence, i.e. sixteen weeks, of which she has already served nine, leaving seven weeks of the custodial sentence to be served. There was no criminal behaviour order, because the court did not consider that such an order would prevent Chabloz from re-offending, but she was ordered to pay the court £1,800.
30th March 2021 - A sixteen-year-old
A sixteen-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted to four counts of inviting support for the proscribed neo-Nazi terror group, National Action, as well as three counts of encouraging terrorism and four counts of stirring racial and religious hatred. The teenager, from Newcastle, called himself Hitler on numerous social media platforms and an online group that he created glorifying far-right violence, and had posted antisemitic and anti-Muslim material and created stickers with his group’s logo, which he disseminated in his local area.
North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court, sitting as a youth court, sentenced the teenager to a twelve-month intensive referral order. He will also be subject to terrorism notification requirements for ten years, mandating him to inform the authorities of his whereabouts and certain activities.
8th February 2021 - A sixteen-year-old neo-Nazi teenager
A sixteen-year-old neo-Nazi teenager admitted two counts of dissemination of terrorist documents and ten of possession of terrorist material, after he downloaded his first bombmaking manual at thirteen, and joined the far-right Fascist Forge. In 2018 and 2019, he expressed antisemitic, racist and anti-gay views online, reportedly talking about “gassing” Jewish people and hanging gay people. He is also believed to have been in contact with the founder of the proscribed neo-Nazi terror group Feuerkrieg Division. His home was searched and police found a Nazi flag, a racist slogan on the garden shed and manuals on his computer and phone about making weapons. He is also understood to have recruited other young people to the cause.
The teenager, who became the UK’s youngest terror offender, received a two-year youth rehabilitation order, after the judge told the Old Bailey that a custodial sentence would “undo” the progress made since the teenager was arrested in July 2019.
13th January 2021 - Louis Mann, 28
Louis Mann, 28, was filmed giving a racist rant and performing Nazi salutes towards a family member of Holocaust victims on a flight from Warsaw to Liverpool on 19th October 2019. Mann, a medical student from Morecambe studying in Poland, was allegedly under the influence of alcohol during the incident. He admitted being drunk on the plane but denied a charge of racially aggravated harassment. The court found him to have “entrenched racist views” and upheld the drunkenness charge, increasing the sentence to reflect the racial element.
Mann was handed an eight month sentence, suspended for two years, and 20 Rehabilitation Activity Requirements. The judge did not apply a punitive element due to the Mann’s mental health. A victim surcharge was also applied.