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| Fransen and Golding. |
Paul Golding, the leader
of the extreme right-wing and
racist organisation Britain
First, and his partner and
deputy leader Jayda Fransen,
were found guilty of religiously
aggravated harassment last
week and jailed at Folkestone
magistrates’ court.
The pair were arrested over
the distribution of leaflets and
posting of online videos during
a gang-rape trial.
Fransen was convicted of
three counts of religiously aggravated harassment. Golding
was found guilty of one charge.
Fransen was handed a 36-week
sentence and Golding 18 weeks.
During their trial in January,
the court heard they had targeted
homes and people in Kent whom
they believed were connected to
a rape trial at Canterbury Crown
Court where three Muslim men
and a teenager were convicted of
rape and jailed.
The pair, both from Penge
in south-east London, were ar- rested in May last year.
They
denied a total of seven counts of
harassment.
Judge Justin Barron threw
out three of the charges, whilst
Fransen was found guilty of three
and Golding of one.
He told the court the pair were
“well-known”, “controversial”
and “generate their own publicity”, but his verdict was based
“solely on admissible evidence
heard in court”.
He said their words and actions “demonstrated hostility”
towards Muslims and the Muslim
faith.
“I have no doubt it was their
joint intention to use the facts
of the case [in Canterbury] for
their own political ends. It was
a campaign to draw attention to
the race, religion and immigrant
background of the defendants.”
Both Fransen and Golding
were convicted on a joint charge
of religiously aggravated har- assment after an incident last
May at 555 Pizza take-away in
Ramsgate, when Fransen banged
on the windows and doors of the
shop and screamed “paedophile”
and “foreigner”.
In each case, they instead
targeted innocent members of the
public. They filmed the abuse and
then released it on social media
and through the Britain First
website.
They also posted offensive
leaflets through the letterboxes
of houses in the area where the
defendants lived.
Fransen was convicted of
abuse after visiting a house she
wrongly believed to be the cur- rent address of Sershah Muslim- yar, a defendant in the trial.
She was also convicted of
visiting the Kent home of another
defendant, Tamin Rahmani, and
shouting racist abuse through the
front door whilst his pregnant
partner Kelli Best was there.
During sentencing Fransen
spoke over the judge, saying:
“This is a very sad day for British
justice. Everything I did was for
the children of this country and
they are worth it.”
As Britain First supporters
left the courtroom they hurled
abuse at court staff and mem- bers of the press, shouting “no
surrender”.
Meanwhile Police are investigating after the hate-filled leaflet
called on supporters to carry out
violent attacks on Muslims
The letters incite violence
against Muslims and have been
reported to police. They call for
Muslims to be “butchered” in a
day of hate and have sparked a
police probe after they were post- ed through doors across Britain.
The disgusting propaganda
advertises “Punish a Muslim
Day” next month, encouraging
torture, acid attacks, arson of
mosques and assault.
The Metropolitan Police are
amongst the forces investigating
the leaflets, which have been re- ported in London, the Midlands
and West Yorkshire.
Activist group Tell MAMA,
which was set up to tackle an- ti-Muslim hatred, said the threats
were being treated with “the
utmost seriousness”.
In a statement, the organisa- tion said: “It is essential that all
letters and envelopes are kept
and handled minimally to pre- serve evidence for the police to
investigate.
“Incidents like this are rare
but we urge vigilance and calm
as we remind Muslim communi- ties that our confidential support
service is available to assist in
this matter."
Source: The New Worker, 16.3.2018.
