East London News A Force for the community…
BRITAIN FIRST is in crisis as its Leader and Deputy Leader are jailed for religiously aggravated harassment. Sentencing the two, Judge Barron said that they had demonstrated hostility towards Muslims and the Muslim faith.
Jayda Fransen gained notoriety last year when some of her anti-Muslim rants on Twitter were re-tweeted by US President Donald Trump. So far Trump has not tweeted about her new conviction.
Leader Paul Golding, 36, was convicted of three counts of religiously aggravated harassment and sentenced to 36 weeks in jail.
Deputy Leader Jayda Fransen, 32, was convicted of one count of religiously aggravated harassment and sentenced to 18 weeks in jail.
The offences occurred when the two tried to capitalise on a rape trial at Canterbury Crown Court which ended with four Muslims being convicted of rape and being given jail sentences. Golding and Fransen raised the issue on social media and distributed leaflets door to door around the homes of the defendants. These communications were anti-Muslim.
The two, who both live in Penge, also shouted abuse – include the words “paedophile” and “foreigner” – at a Pizza takeway in Ramsgate. Fransen also shouted abuse at the home of one of the defendants in the trial and at what she thought was the home of another defendant (which wasn’t).
Judge Barron said that he was aware the two defendants in this case were controversial figures and he made it clear that his verdict, that the two were guilty, was based only on the evidence presented during the court hearing. He said that he had been left in no doubt that they had highlighted the “race, religion and immigrant background” of the defendants in the Canterbury rape trial.
•Read more about it
Britain First launch token mini-invasion of East London Mosque
Biggs absent as Britain First arrive at ELM
[Adverts]
