'Casuals United' - English Defence League
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 12, 13, 14, 15  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Couchtripper Forum Index -> News mash
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Sat Oct 06, 2012 5:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Twelve arrests at EDL gathering in Sunderland
6 October 2012

Twelve people have been arrested after trouble flared at an English Defence League (EDL) gathering. Northumbria Police said around 200 people gathered at the EDL event and at a counter-demonstration in Millfield, Sunderland, when disorder broke. Witnesses said officers told residents to stay in their homes while they tried to calm the crowd.

Asst Chief Cons Steve Ashman said he was "disappointed" as both sides had said that the event would be peaceful. He said: "Despite assurances from both sides that this would be good-natured and respectful of the local communities, a number of those attending engaged in disorder. A police presence remains in the area to reassure communities. It is disappointing that a protest that was planned as peaceful has resulted in arrests. We will not tolerate any sort of disorder and those seen to be committing such offences will be arrested."

---------------

What a fucking rabble.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Sat Oct 06, 2012 7:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Neighbours Terrified As 13 Arrested At Violent Anti-Mosque Protest
Jenny Wotherspoon
Sky News
6th October 2012

Police made 13 arrests when a protest at the site of a recently-approved new mosque turned violent. Around 200 people were involved in the demonstration on St Mark's Road, which saw members of far-right groups including the English Defence League clashing with anti-fascists and members of the Muslim community.

Scores of police armed with batons were called in as the disorder escalated, and a firecracker in a glass bottle was seen being thrown at officers. Despite numerous objects hitting police officers and nearby homes, it is understood there were no injuries and no damage to property.

Police had to separate protesters during a previous event in August, but people living near the mosque site told Sky Tyne and Wear this had been the worst disorder so far. One woman who did not want to be named said: "I'm worried for my baby mostly. I'm worried things could come through the windows if it gets violent. We're looking at moving now. With everything that is going on we don't want to live here any more."

The National Front has pledged to make the demonstrations a monthly fixture, although supporters were asked not the bring NF flags to the event on pain of being removed by far-right organisers who said they would create the wrong impression. A number of protesters among the far-right groups were not from Sunderland, with some travelling from Bradford and Edinburgh.

By 3pm police had led each opposing group away from Millfield in opposite directions and the road, which had been temporarily blocked off, was re-opened.

Plans to convert a former council transport depot into a new mosque were put forward in 2011 and approved by Sunderland City Council in August. The application by the Pakistan Islamic Centre attracted almost 700 letters of objection and a petition of more than 1,400 signatures.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Sat Oct 06, 2012 8:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

English Defence League debate in London cancelled by venue
Marcus Dysch,
October 5, 2012
thejc.com

A planned debate between the leader of the English Defence League and a Muslim activist has been cancelled amid security concerns. Tommy Robinson and Abdullah al Andalusi were due to discuss “Islam or Islamophobia — which is a threat to Britain?” at an event yesterday (Thursday October 4), organised by the Muslim Debate Initiative, of which Mr al Andalusi is a co-founder.

But the host venue, Conway Hall in central London, pulled out after consulting police. In a statement, Conway Hall said the decision was due to this month’s riots in Arab countries over the Innocence of Muslims film, and the risk of public disorder. Anti-fascist groups are also thought to have pledged to attend the debate to challenge EDL members and Mr Robinson, and have applauded the cancellation of the event.

The Conway Hall statement said it had a “long and distinguished history as an inclusive and tolerant venue”, and often provided a platform for free speech and organisations and speakers with differing views. But it added that the decision to cancel the MDI event had to be taken on public safety grounds.

MDI said it “regretted” the cancellation, and would rearrange the debate for another date and venue. In a statement it said: “It should be noted that both the police and Conway Hall agreed that there were no perceived threats of disruption coming from the Muslim community. Rather, it is MDI’s experience that the Muslim community overwhelmingly welcomed such debates, and are eager for such open and frank discussions to occur. MDI believe that there should be no limits to what can be sincerely debated, and no restrictions as to what intellectual or political position can be enunciated”.

Mr al Andalusi makes media and educational appearances to discuss Islamic issues. The MDI features speakers from a range of backgrounds who specialise in theology, philosophy and politics.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 8:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It seems a truck load of EDL twats have been arrested on their way to attack a mosque. Their plan was to arrive in the truck rather than use a coach to hide the fact that it contained 50+ bigoted fuckheads intent on causing trouble. The police pulled the truck over and arrested everyone... including Kevin Carroll, the maniac who is standing for election as the Citizen's representative on the Police Commission for Bedfordshire.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 5:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote


Police arrest 53 'EDL supporters' near London
bbc.co.uk
21st October 2012

Police have arrested 53 men, believed to be supporters of the English Defence League, who were heading to London. The men were held on the M25 motorway near Heathrow Airport and Uxbridge and on the M3 near Bagshot, Surrey, on Saturday afternoon, police said. The men were heading to a location in east London, but police have not revealed where they were due to gather.

All 53 were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance, the Metropolitan Police said. They have been bailed until a later date pending further inquiries. A Met spokesman said: "This was part of an intelligence-led investigation into a planned disturbance in east London on that day (Saturday)".

One of the bail conditions imposed on the men bans them from entering east London to demonstrate for a stipulated period of time, police said.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 6:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

EDL police candidate arrested
21 October 2012
lutontoday.co.uk

A man standing for a new role overseeing policing across Bedfordshire was arrested on Saturday, according to reports. Kevin Carroll is the English Defence League (EDL) candidate to become Police And Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Bedfordshire in next month�s election.

It is claimed that he was one of 53 EDL members arrested at the weekend, along with party leader Tommy Robinson, aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. The reports appeared to be confirmed by the EDL�s official Twitter feed. Responding to one Twitter-user who posted �Is it true about Tommy and Kev getting arrested today ???� the EDL site replied: �It is true.�

Mr Carroll is one of four candidates for the newly-created commissioner role. The PCC will replace Bedfordshire Police Authority, and will scrutinise policing across the county. Their powers will include being able to appoint and dismiss the chief constables setting out a five-year police and crime plan after their election, and publishing an annual report.

--------------

For those who aren't aware, people standing for this role on the police commission must not have ever been found guilty of a crime that could have resulted in a prison sentence.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 3:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

EDL leader on false passport charge
22 October 2012
lutontoday.co.uk

English Defence League leader Stephen Lennon has appeared in court this morning charged with entering the US on a false passport. Lennon, who goes by the name Tommy Robinson, appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court and was remanded in custody, according to an EDL spokesman.

He travelled to New York in September to speak at a conference. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the unemployed 29-year-old had been charged with having “a false identity document with improper intention contrary to Section 4 of the Identity Documents Act 2010”.

----------------------

That's quite a serious offence - especially considering he's been railing against illegal immigrants. I'd imagine both the British and American authorities will want their pound of flesh from him
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 2:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote



All week on facebook and twitter these arseholes have been braying about how they're going to cause so much trouble and disruption in London.

And about 40 of them turned up

haha
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote


The History of Golden Dawn, Greek Nazis
CLICK TO READ
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 10:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ZHC have hacked the EDL's main website... the news was out earlier, but the site was still showing as normal for me - until now... haha

Code:
http://englishdefenceleague.org/
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 9:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote



What a charming bunch of racist scumbags.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 4:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote


What Is the England That English Fascists Want to Defend?
Getting to Grips with the EDL Before It Dies
Laurie Penny
vice.com/en_uk/read/tommy-robinson-edl-laurie-penny-interview

"I want to see them, and I want them to see us,” says Hamid Soorghali, 22, an Iranian-born British student. He’s peering over the throngs of jubilant anti-fascists on the streets of Walthamstow, North London, to where, if you squint, you can just about make out a small, dispirited band of English Defence League supporters. In pictures taken behind the police lines, the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim protest group looks small and bewildered compared to the locals and leftists who have come out to prevent them marching through their town.

Men and women and children of all ages and races sit down in the road to block the route of a phalanx of white guys who, despite what their website says, are doing a terrible job of not looking like your stereotypical fascist skinheads. Hamid grins. He knows that, for now, Unite Against Fascism and other anti-racist groups have won the battle on the streets.

The EDL is finished as a political force. That much was obvious within five minutes of meeting its leader, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who I interviewed in a Luton pub earlier this year. Lennon, who goes by the alias "Tommy Robinson" in press releases and among his dwindling number of loyal supporters, is a former member of the fascist British National Party. After his gang, the English Defence League, was praised by Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik, the group spent the past year trying to persuade people that really they aren’t racist – they just hate Muslims, fear immigrants and think people from other cultures are the main cause of Britain’s economic problems, which is completely different. In that time, the EDL has disappeared up its own ideological posterior, in between getting said posterior handed back to itself by anti-fascists on a regular basis.

When the opportunity to do this interview came up, I hesitated. As a reporter, I was fascinated by the possibility of getting to see the pocks and pores on the human face of British fascism, but as an anti-fascist, I’m aware that UK organisers have maintained a long tradition of refusing to grant any sort of media or speaking platform to the far-right. The "no platform" principle keeps right-wing extremists on the fringe by denying them the legitimacy they crave. No room for racists, neither in the public conversation nor on the streets. It’s part of a strategy that has been successful in driving back wave after wave of far-right organisations in this country down the years.

So, that’s one reason that this interview will not reproduce any of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s actual opinions about Muslims, immigrants and people of other faiths in Britain. The other reason is that his actual opinions are boring and predictable.


Robinson being protected by police in Luton after getting punched in the face by a fellow EDL member

I could fill a small book with the interminable argument I had with the EDL leader in a Luton pub about the human rights of Muslim Britons, but it would boil down to: “RACIST IN SAYING RACIST THINGS SHOCKER.” There are many intriguing things about Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, but his ideas about Islam aren’t among them. There are more interesting questions – such as why a man who claims to be an authentic, representative voice of “working class” Britain turns up to a meeting in a shiny new BMW 1 series with leather seats, kitted out from top to toe in designer sports gear and reeking of posh cologne.

Lennon used to run a chain of tanning salons in Luton, the EDL’s hometown. After the group formed in 2009, with help from wealthy far-right backers like millionaire Alan Ayling, Lennon gained a reputation for being charismatic and personable. He’s known for besting television interviewers and making racism sound reasonable. On Newsnight, Lennon plays the part of a working class lad with something to say. As I make the necessary small talk and climb into his BMW, along with the two student journalists I’ve taken along with me for safety reasons, I wonder where that Stephen Lennon has gone.

The man who drives us out to a steakhouse on the outskirts of Luton, claiming that he’ll get beaten up if he shows his face anywhere else, is irritable and erratic and keeps glancing over his shoulder for the enemies he says are waiting for him. He orders the most expensive steak on the menu, with an enormous plate of cheesy potato skins, and chuckles that this is why he likes to meet left-wing journalists: so he can have dinner on their dollar.

Lennon begins to argue finer points of the Koran with my student companions. When one of them actually produces a copy of the book, he is unable to identify which precise passages call for the murder of non-Muslims, and this makes him angry. He starts explaining, again, why he is not racist, why the EDL isn’t a racist group. One of the student journalists, who is Asian, gets exasperated.

“Whatever the EDL claims, there’s a hardcore of racists in the movement and there are people who would, you know, assume I was a Muslim because of the colour of my skin and beat me up.”


Tommy Robinson presides over another successful EDL demo in Walsall, September 2012

“I have been to EDL demos,” I say, “at the one that you were on last year in September, in East London, I saw EDL members start screaming racist abuse at kids who came out of their houses to see what was going on. Just kids down the alley. Your guys had no idea whether these kids were Muslims or not, they just started screaming at them because they had brown skin. And this was hundreds of members doing this, this wasn’t just a few outliers.”

“I wasn't there, but I’d have to beg to differ,” says Lennon. “Down most of those side streets was gangs of young, hooded Muslim youths with balaclavas covering their faces and trying to attack us.”

I ask him how he can tell the religion of a person in a hoodie from 50 feet away. I tell him again that what I saw that day, what hundreds of us saw that day, was the EDL terrorising children and families in a multi-cultural neighbourhood just because of the colour of their skin.

“Well, I wasn’t there, as I said.”

I remind Lennon that a great deal of pictures of him were taken there, on the day, and published later in newspapers across the country.

“I was in East London, yeah,” he admits. “I was arrested.”

It’s like arguing with a toddler. He wasn’t there, nobody he knows was there, the EDL members who beat up brown-skinned people and graffiti their houses are outliers, and anyway, he isn’t a racist, it’s the Muslims who are racist, Muslims and leftists like me who are reverse racists. He has nothing to do with it. He wasn’t there.

Lennon really seems to believe himself to be some sort of revolutionary leader. He will not say quite how many members remain in the group he’s currently leading. “it’s very loose,” he says. “Um... if you ask me, if I go to a pub on a Saturday night and go round talking to people, how many people support us? The majority.”

Really? “Alright,” I say, “let’s put that to the test.” Leaving Lennon to wolf down his giant steak, which he eats crouched over the plate, as if someone is about to snatch it away from him, I take my recorder on a brief tour of the pub. I asking evening customers what they really think of neo-fascists on the streets of Luton. “It’s bad how people just jump on the bandwagon and follow EDL – people who aren’t Islamic or like terrorists, they get accused as well,” says Ravdi, 22, who has been the victim of racist abuse in his hometown.


EDL supporters at a protest in Central London, October 2012

“I’ll tell you what I think about it,” says Julie, who’s having a quiet drink with her girlfriends, “I’ve got two little boys – one’s a beaver, one’s a cub. They couldn’t have their march through town, ‘cause all the money went to policing the EDL, so little kids lost out on marching through the town holding their flags.”

“It’s in the media, giving Luton a bad name,” says Cameron, 29. “We’d all be better off, whether Muslim or not, not having people like that around.” I meet only one supporter, a man in his early fifties. “There’s just lots of Muslims here,” he says, stating plainly what Stephen Lennon spends an hour not saying to me. “It’s just dreadful what’s happened to this town. I don’t want to live next door to someone that’s veiled, thank you very much.” “That’s rubbish, Paul,” says his Asian friend, rolling his eyes fondly. I thank them for their time, and then they go back to sharing a drink.

When I return, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is trying to explain the vital difference between attacking Muslims in the street and "real racism" to my student journalist friends. I find myself getting angry. Worse, I'm engaging with Lennon on his terms, which is precisely what he wants. I don’t know what part of me imagines that anything I say, any evidence I lay in front of him, is going to change his mind. Right now he seems determined to introduce me to the torturous logic by which he has convinced himself that he is not racist. I almost wonder if he’s about to start telling me he has lots of Muslim friends.

“I have Muslim friends,” says Lennon. “I could sit here now and ring them in front of you if you want.” He gets his phone out, hands it to me when it picks up, at which point one must note that it’s a funny kind of friend who saves your name in his phone simply as “Bradford Paki”.

“D’you want to speak to this? This is a Pakistani Muslim,” says Lennon. The man at the end of the line is rather confused. He says he doesn’t know Tommy that well, but he’s not a racist, right, he’s just a weird guy. On that count, I notice, he’s right. Lennon is peering twitchily around the pub and has begun telling us again how many people in Luton are out to get him. He tells us that he is being persecuted by the police, by leftists, by Muslims, Muslims everywhere out to get him. He tells me that they even graffiti their own houses with racist slogans in order to make the EDL look bad, and there’s apparently an enormous police and media conspiracy to cover this up.

I experience a brief, appalling stab of sympathy for Lennon. He is, among other things, obviously unwell. I have had close friends who have experienced paranoid delusions, and they’re not funny, not while you’re having them and not from the outside. Most people who have this kind of problem, however, manage to deal with it without spreading hatred and suspicion in communities across an entire country. I’m glad that I met this man in person. And I’m glad that his project of taking an army of anti-immigrant thugs to every town in Britain seems pretty much buggered.

“Groups like the EDL must toe a fine line between violence and attracting enough moderate support to seem legitimate,” says Dan Trilling, author of the recently released Bloody Nasty People: The Rise of Britain’s Far Right. “It's hard to keep members disciplined, and to prevent them from becoming demoralised in the face of successful anti-fascist campaigns."

Lennon is realistic about the prospects of a far right takeover in Britain any time soon. Explaining the attempts to set up an electoral arm of the EDL, he tells me that rather than seeking power, people who think like him would prefer to force power to the right by force of publicity. His vision is that parties like the "British Freedom Party" – currently the fascist equivalent of a doomed start-up, with its clunky website and batty, rotating leadership – will “start taking a little percentage of those other parties' votes. Those parties... will then start changing things for what we’re saying. So that’s our goal, start nicking some of their Labour votes,” says Lennon.

The strategy is actually pretty sound. The brains behind Britain’s far right – and there are brains, much as others might like to reduce them to the boozy, bleary skinhead thugs who appear at their increasingly embarrassing demonstrations – know what they’re doing in terms of changing the national conversation. “I think David Cameron’s tried to appeal to our supporters a couple of times in the last few years,” says Lennon. “he did his speech [condemning multiculturalism] on the same day as our Luton demo. It’s so obvious.”

Last year, when Cameron’s flagship speech about taking a tougher line on immigrant integration was timed to coincide with the EDL’s largest demonstration to date, many supporters took it as a sign that the government was shifting its position to incorporate some of the racist rhetoric of far-right groups. The EDL is now disintegrating – but the shift it encouraged in the language of mainstream politics remains robust.


Tommy getting arrested for assaulting a police officer in London, Remembrance Day, 2010.
Extremist Muslims had been burning poppies to protest against the US and UK's foreign policy.
One could argue that that’s always been the real danger with Britain’s racist fringe movement, which prides itself on blaming minorities for problems, like lack of housing and jobs, which are structural. "Far-right movements are parasitical on the mainstream: they benefit from racism, and they make it worse, but they don't create it all by themselves,” explains Trilling.

“In the age of austerity, people in Britain have more reason than ever to fear for the future, and the right-wing media is in overdrive trying to shift the blame for the crisis onto the shoulders of minorities and the 'undeserving' poor.

At the end of the interview, Lennon offers us a lift back to the station in his BMW. On the way, he takes us on a little detour around Bury Park, an area of Luton with a large immigrant population, and points to all the mosques, shaking his head, telling us how violent they all are. “This is the Islamic centre, the most extreme mosque,” he says, pointing to a huge building down the street.

“Um - it says it’s a church?” I say. He tells us that the mosque is somewhere behind the church. It's like going on a guided bus-tour with a cracked-out stormtrooper. But there’s one thing I really do want to know.

Does Mr Yaxley-Lennon – sorry, Tommy Robinson – actually have any idea what he's trying to defend? What is this England that he and his shady friends are attempting to preserve? In two hours of chat and dodgy driving I'm no closer to understanding. I ask him again: can he describe the England he wants to protect?

He prevaricates. "One without Sharia law," he says, sounding unsure. "One without bombs going off every month. One without paedophiles running round under the banner of religion, raping kids." Lennon is unable to describe any positive features of the country in which he lives – instead he conjures up a fantasy nightmare society run by feral kids, immigrants and welfare scroungers just around the corner and encourages others to lash out. It's not a technique that's unique to the far-right fringe. It happens, in fact, to be the current British Conservative party's only electoral strategy.

As I write, Yaxley-Lennon is in Wandsworth Prison, on remand before his trial for trying to use a false passport to enter the United States, whose border guards aren't the friendliest to far-right spokespeople with assault convictions. Wandsworth prison is not a happy place. I've got friends who've spent time within its squat brick walls, and I wouldn't wish that even on someone whose views I find disgusting. In fact, the imprisonment of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is probably one of the few things the British government could have done to lift the spirits of the English Defence League, magically transforming an embarrassing and erratic figurehead into what approaches a martyr. But it hasn’t worked.

Straggly gangs of supporters have held vigils outside the jail, and far-right sympathisers have protested in Germany, but so far the call for a countrywide "I Am Spartacus"-style groundswell of popular protest has failed to gain momentum, in part because Lennon is the head of a gang which has consistently intimidated foreign-born people in Britain and called for a complete ban on Islamic immigration, and he has been arrested for – well, for trying to enter another country illegally.

Most people don't seem very keen to stand on a street corner shouting "I am Tommy Robinson". It's becoming clear that, in fact, most people aren't.

Most British people do not share Lennon's paranoid prejudices, and following last year’s mass murders in Norway, even sympathisers find the violence of the EDL difficult to stomach. Attendance at marches is dwindling. The last, in Walthamstow, attracted only 50 demonstrators against a thousand anti-fascists. The xenophobic rhetoric of Lennon and his followers lingers on the lips of mainstream politicians and pundits – but the short, ugly story of the English Defence league is, at least, coming to an end.

Follow Laurie on Twitter: @PennyRed
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote


Ruthless - Fuck the EDL
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
faceless
admin


Joined: 25 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 3:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote


EDL leader jailed for being illegal immigrant after entering US on friend's passport
The leader of the English Defence League was today jailed for 10 months after admitting using someone else's passport to unlawfully travel to the United States.
7 Jan 2013
telegraph.co.uk

Stephen Lennon, 30, pleaded guilty to possession of a false identity document with improper intention, contrary to the Identity Documents Act 2010, at Southwark Crown Court. Lennon used a passport in the name of Andrew McMaster to board a Virgin Atlantic Flight from Heathrow to New York, but was caught out after his fingerprints were taken by customs officials. He left the airport and entered the US illegally but left the country the following day, using his own passport to return to the UK.

The court heard that Lennon, who had previously been refused entry to the US, used his friend's passport to travel to the country in September. He used a self check-in kiosk to board the Virgin Atlantic flight at Heathrow, and was allowed through when the document was checked in the bag drop area. But when he arrived at New York's JFK Airport, customs officials who took his fingerprints realised he was not Mr McMaster.

Lennon was asked to attend a second interview but left the airport, entering the US illegally. He stayed just one night and travelled back to the UK the following day using his own legitimate passport - which bears the name Paul Harris. The court heard that is the name that appears on the EDL leader's passport, although he uses aliases.

Lennon, who was arrested in October, was jailed for 10 months today. The court heard that he was previously jailed for assault in 2005 and also has previous convictions for drugs offences and public order offences. Sentencing the 30-year-old, Judge Alistair McCreath, told him: "I am going to sentence you under the name of Stephen Lennon although I suspect that is not actually your true name, in the sense that it is not the name that appears on your passport.

"What I have to deal with you for is clear enough. You knew perfectly well that you were not welcome in the United States. You knew that because you tried before and you had not got in, and you knew the reason for that - because, rightly or wrongly, the US authorities do not welcome people in their country who have convictions of the kind that you have.

"With that full knowledge, you equipped yourself with a passport. I am told that it was given you by way of a loan from your friend Andrew McMaster, to which you bore, I am told, some resemblance. And by use of that passport you did what you could to get into the United States. But you did not get in because they took your fingerprints and they worked out that you were not who you claimed to be. I am told that, by whatever means, you slipped away from the US authorities, got into the country and then very rapidly - and understandably so - got out of it."

He said Lennon had used his own passport to get out of the US, adding: "You did so, I am quite sure, in order to avoid the consequences that would have fallen upon you had you been caught by the authorities in America."

The judge went on: "What you did went absolutely to the heart of the immigration controls that the United States are entitled to have. Had it been known in this country that you were proposing to leave under a false passport, you would not have been accepted on to the plane and you would not have been permitted to leave this country on a false passport. It's not in any sense trivial."

He sentenced Lennon to 10 months in prison, minus the days he has already served in custody. Prosecutor Simon Sandford said it was the Crown's case that Lennon committed the offence while on bail for breaching an International Football Banning Order - of which the court heard he was acquitted.

Opening the case, Mr Sandford told the court: "On Monday September 10 2012, the defendant travelled from Heathrow Airport to New York on a Virgin Atlantic flight, travelling using a passport in the name of Andrew McMaster, believed to be a colleague of the defendant. He checked in using a self check-in kiosk at Heathrow before proceeding to the baggage drop area."

The court heard that baggage assistant Debra Oylea did not recall Lennon specifically but would have checked that his passport matched his ticket and that there was a likeness between him and the photograph in it.

"The defendant then proceeded through security and boarded the flight," Mr Sandford said. "Upon arrival in New York, he was the subject of immigration checks as with everybody else. He identified himself to the United States Customs and Border Protection officials as Andy McMaster." Photographs and fingerprints were taken, and US customs officials realised that Lennon was not who he said he was.

"He had been previously refused entry to the US on the grounds of his previous convictions and he was directed to attend a secondary investigation but he did not report for that," the prosecutor said. "He left the immigration and customs area, entered the United States unlawfully and then he returned to Heathrow, via Shannon Airport, and used his passport in the name of Paul Harris, which is a name he does go by."

The court heard that although Lennon has only one passport, which is in that name, he uses aliases. US officials produced fingerprints and photographs proving that Lennon was not Mr McMaster, the court heard, and there was also CCTV from JFK Airport showing him arriving. Lennon was arrested in October and did not reply to questions in interview.

In mitigation, his defence barrister, Giles Cockings, told the court that Lennon had not stolen the passport, and had only used it for a day. He told the court his client had pleaded guilty straightaway, demonstrating "a certain amount of courage". "Perhaps what screams volumes from this particular case are two main areas," he told the court. "Firstly, this passport was not stolen, it was lent by a friend for whatever purpose. Secondly, he was only using the passport, it transpires, for a day and a half. In fact he only spent one evening in the United States of America.

"I think the intention was simply to avoid a necessity for a visa into the United States. Upon realising that in actual fact it was not going to assist matters, on realising he had committed an offence, he used his own passport to come back. It is not, I would suggest, the most aggravating of cases of this kind."

------------------

Sounds like his lawyer imagined he was talking to people as credulous as the average EDL...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Couchtripper Forum Index -> News mash All times are GMT
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 12, 13, 14, 15  Next
Page 13 of 15

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You cannot download files in this forum


Couchtripper - 2005-2015