Times Online February 02, 2006
The British National Party leader Nick Griffin and Mark Collett (centre) talk to supporters at Leeds Crown Court today (John Giles/PA.)
BNP leader cleared of race hate charges
By Vik Iyer and agencies
The leader of the British National Party was today cleared of racial hatred charges stemming from a speech in which he claimed that Muslim teenagers were encouraged by the Koran to make white girls pregnant.
Nick Griffin, 45, was secretly filmed giving the speech to supporters during a rally in West Yorkshire in 2004. He also described Britain as a "multi-racial hellhole" and claimed Muslim violence would spread across the country.
Mr Griffin, of Llanerfyl, Powys, was cleared of two counts of conduct intended to stir up racial hatred by a Leeds Crown Court jury. The trial judge discharged the jury over two remaining charges after they failed to reach a verdict.
Meanwhile, another BNP activist, Mark Collett was cleared by the same jury of four counts of using words intended or likely to stir up racial hatred in relation to two speeches. The jury was discharged on four alternative charges connected to Mr Collett.
A Crown Prosecution Service decision on whether to press for a retrial on the undecided charges is expected within the next few days.
Outside the court, Mr Griffin was defiant. "If the Crown Prosecution Service feel they must continue to persecute us for speaking the truth we will see them in court," he said. Asked whether he would tone down his language in future, Griffin replied: "I don’t think so, no."
He added that Islam and the values of western democracy were incompatible. "Are we going to become an Islamic republic or stay free, democratic, western and Christian?" he asked
Mr Griffin said he did not hate asylum seekers and understood that they came here for a better life. Instead, he was angry with the politicians who gave the incomers preferential treatment.
"We are, basically, not inciting racial hatred," he said. "We blame the Government for putting these people over our people."
The charges were linked to speeches which were secretly recorded by an undercover BBC journalist, and formed part of a documentary on the BNP called The Secret Agent which was broadcast in July 2004.
The trial heard that Mr Griffin told a meeting of party supporters that Muslim teenagers were encouraged by the Koran to make white girls pregnant "so that the faith can expand".
He also predicted that Muslim extremists would attack a British city. Mr Griffin told a BNP rally in May 2004 - 14 months before the July 7 London bombings - that "sooner or later there's going to be Islamic terrorists letting off bombs in major cities".
He said that the perpetrators would be "asylum-seekers or second-generation Pakistanis living in somewhere like Bradford".
In his speech, Mr Griffin said: that "young Asians of the Muslim persuasion" had escaped justice after murdering white people. "They're free, they're laughing and joking and telling their mates that you can kill a white boy and the papers won't talk about it, the police won't do anything about it, the courts won't convict you."
Later in the speech, Mr Griffin appeared to predict his own arrest and trial. "They will take our national and our local leadership and they will throw us into prison on the pretext that, 'We're having to arrest radical Muslims who are blowing things up, and if we only arrest them it's going to upset their community and further radicalise their youth. So we've got to show we're even-handed, so while we're arresting Islamic terrorist bombers we'll also arrest elected councillors of the British National Party'. "
In another speech, Mr Griffin said that Asian crimes against whites, including paedophile drug rapes, had turned Britain into "a multiracial hell-hole". Muslim violence would expand to cover the UK, he claimed, "as the last whites try and find their way to the coast".
During his trial Mr Collett stood by a variety of allegations he had made against Asians and asylum seekers. They included claims that Asian males were soliciting white children for sex at schools in Keighley, as well as allegations that a firing range had been found under a Bradford mosque.
In his defence, Mr Collett told the court that to be called racist in 21st century Britain was "the same as being branded a witch in the Middle Ages". He denied stirring race hate, and claimed that he and the BNP spoke the truth but were victims of "the political correctness that pervades every section of modern life".
The British National Party leader Nick Griffin and Mark Collett (centre) talk to supporters at Leeds Crown Court today (John Giles/PA.)
BNP leader cleared of race hate charges
By Vik Iyer and agencies
The leader of the British National Party was today cleared of racial hatred charges stemming from a speech in which he claimed that Muslim teenagers were encouraged by the Koran to make white girls pregnant.
Nick Griffin, 45, was secretly filmed giving the speech to supporters during a rally in West Yorkshire in 2004. He also described Britain as a "multi-racial hellhole" and claimed Muslim violence would spread across the country.
Mr Griffin, of Llanerfyl, Powys, was cleared of two counts of conduct intended to stir up racial hatred by a Leeds Crown Court jury. The trial judge discharged the jury over two remaining charges after they failed to reach a verdict.
Meanwhile, another BNP activist, Mark Collett was cleared by the same jury of four counts of using words intended or likely to stir up racial hatred in relation to two speeches. The jury was discharged on four alternative charges connected to Mr Collett.
A Crown Prosecution Service decision on whether to press for a retrial on the undecided charges is expected within the next few days.
Outside the court, Mr Griffin was defiant. "If the Crown Prosecution Service feel they must continue to persecute us for speaking the truth we will see them in court," he said. Asked whether he would tone down his language in future, Griffin replied: "I don’t think so, no."
He added that Islam and the values of western democracy were incompatible. "Are we going to become an Islamic republic or stay free, democratic, western and Christian?" he asked
Mr Griffin said he did not hate asylum seekers and understood that they came here for a better life. Instead, he was angry with the politicians who gave the incomers preferential treatment.
"We are, basically, not inciting racial hatred," he said. "We blame the Government for putting these people over our people."
The charges were linked to speeches which were secretly recorded by an undercover BBC journalist, and formed part of a documentary on the BNP called The Secret Agent which was broadcast in July 2004.
The trial heard that Mr Griffin told a meeting of party supporters that Muslim teenagers were encouraged by the Koran to make white girls pregnant "so that the faith can expand".
He also predicted that Muslim extremists would attack a British city. Mr Griffin told a BNP rally in May 2004 - 14 months before the July 7 London bombings - that "sooner or later there's going to be Islamic terrorists letting off bombs in major cities".
He said that the perpetrators would be "asylum-seekers or second-generation Pakistanis living in somewhere like Bradford".
In his speech, Mr Griffin said: that "young Asians of the Muslim persuasion" had escaped justice after murdering white people. "They're free, they're laughing and joking and telling their mates that you can kill a white boy and the papers won't talk about it, the police won't do anything about it, the courts won't convict you."
Later in the speech, Mr Griffin appeared to predict his own arrest and trial. "They will take our national and our local leadership and they will throw us into prison on the pretext that, 'We're having to arrest radical Muslims who are blowing things up, and if we only arrest them it's going to upset their community and further radicalise their youth. So we've got to show we're even-handed, so while we're arresting Islamic terrorist bombers we'll also arrest elected councillors of the British National Party'. "
In another speech, Mr Griffin said that Asian crimes against whites, including paedophile drug rapes, had turned Britain into "a multiracial hell-hole". Muslim violence would expand to cover the UK, he claimed, "as the last whites try and find their way to the coast".
During his trial Mr Collett stood by a variety of allegations he had made against Asians and asylum seekers. They included claims that Asian males were soliciting white children for sex at schools in Keighley, as well as allegations that a firing range had been found under a Bradford mosque.
In his defence, Mr Collett told the court that to be called racist in 21st century Britain was "the same as being branded a witch in the Middle Ages". He denied stirring race hate, and claimed that he and the BNP spoke the truth but were victims of "the political correctness that pervades every section of modern life".