Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle (Luke O'Farrell) [England]

[Alex Linder]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3f/Simon_Sheppard.jpg/180px-Simon_Sheppard.jpg

Simon Sheppard was found guilty and sentenced to 9 months imprisonment.

Simon Sheppard BSc of the Heretical Press, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England was sentenced to 9 months imprisonment at Hull Crown Court on Wednesday 14th June 2000 for the "crime" of "Publishing or Distributing racially inflammatory material."

Simon and another Hull Nationalist were arrested on June 8th 1999 whilst distributing leaflets in support of the British National Party's Euro-election campaign in the Avenues area of Hull. They were reported to the CPS and the Attorney General for the offence. The would-be ultra-respectable populist BNP leadership were furious and Simon was consequently expelled from the party. The BNP leadership has since ignored Simon's brave stand, but thankfully this cannot be said of many ordinary members of the party who have stood by him regardless of the consequences.

The other Nationalist arrrested, David Hannam of Hull, pleaded guilty to distributing the leaflet at Magistrates Court and was sentenced to 3 months in a Young Offenders' Institution. Simon, however had no intention of pleading guilty and defended himself without legal representation when he was sent for trial at Hull Crown Court on the 12th June.

The case began with the swearing in of the jury, one of whom was Chinese, another an obvious queer and the rest disinterested-looking types who looked as though they would certainly not have the moral courage to go against the judge's directions. Simon refused to plead and a "not guilty" plea was entered.

Simon's defence was that, as the Jews were expelled from England by King Edward I in 1290 AD and the Edict of Expulsion had not been revoked, Jews currently living in England were illegal immigrants. The Jews brought back into England by Cromwell had not been given legal rights, but in the 1830s and 1850s the right to vote and stand in Parliament had been granted to them in contradiction of the unrevoked 1290 Edict. As Jewish lawyers and MPs were in this country illegally and had devised and initiated the various Race Relations Acts and the Public Order Act with the craven support of gentile MPs, these laws were invalid so he could not be guilty of breaking a law that should not be on the statute books. Simon was assisted by NF activist and Wakefield Organiser Eddy Morrison, who acted as a "McKenzie Friend" and although he could not address the court, could advise Simon when needed.

There were seventeen people who were allegedly offended by the content and made a statement to the police against Simon. Only two of these, both women, took the stand and swore that they had been offended by the leaflet's contents, although they failed to mention that they were both Labour Party activists. On cross-examination by Simon they both admitted that the leaflet had not incited them to hate people of other races, so how could the leaflets have been likely to incite racial hatred Simon asked? The Judge told them they did not have to answer many of the questions Simon asked them, thus stifling his defence.

Three police witnesses were also called, including the arresting officer, who read the leaflet and had to radio for a superior to come and read the leaflet before he carried out the arrest.

On the second day of this farce of a trial, Simon called two BNP activists as defence witnesses, both of whom were excellent and informed the court of the illegality of the Jewish presence in this country. The first defence witness defence witness "X" spoke about Zionism, which is Jewish nationalism. Zionism is unique in that it condemns the very nationalism in others, i.e. gentiles, that it advocates for Jewish people – a particularly obnoxious form of hypocrisy. Both witnesses stated that they believed that the legal action against Simon was treason.

The second witness "Y" spoke on the Community Security Trust (CST), which is a Jewish paramilitary group, illegal under British law, but operating with the full approval of the British authorities. The CST has been responsible for some attacks on British nationalists. He also produced a copy of an April 1933 edition of the Daily Express which contained an article headed "Jewry declares war on Germany", i.e. an economic boycott of Germany – but the jury were not allowed to see the article. "Y" then listed the countries and places where Jews have been expelled during the last 2,500 years – places as diverse as Carthage in North Africa and Wurms in Germany. He questioned the idea that all these peoples were just prejudiced and anti-semitic. He finished by describing the disproportionate number and power of Jews in the media.

The Judge and jury seemed surprised that these two proud British Patriots were both intelligent, well-mannered individuals, who knew what they were talking about, totally contradicting the media image of White Nationalists that they had obviously believed beforehand.

In his final address to the jury Simon stated that the Act of Settlement of 1700 invalidated any laws which were detrimental to the well-being of both the Crown and its subjects. He pointed out very forcibly and incisively that these laws in particular were extremely detrimental to the indigenous British people. In his excellent defence summing-up to the jury he pointed out that for the first time in British legal history – under the 1976 Race Relations Act, an accused person was presumed guilty until found innocent, as it was not necessary to prove intent to "stir up " racial hatred. Lord Hailsham had described the Act as a "slippery slope." This act was incorporated into the 1986 Public Order Act, which for the first time allowed distributors of "hate literature" to be prosecuted without the prosecution of the editor.

The day closed with the judge's summing up – he stated that Simon had been charged under the 1986 Public Order Act, which was the law of the land, so Simon's defence arguments had obviously been effective. However, his well-argued case that there was no justification for him being tried at all was destroyed in seconds when the judge stated to the jury: "You must disregard all the arguments for the illegality of the Race Laws/Public Order Act. I must direct you now that these laws are valid and you must only try the defendant on the contents of the leaflet." The judge stressed that Simon had a degree and was a publisher of scientific books so he was obviously aware of what he was doing. The court then adjourned until the following day when the jury would be sent to make their verdict.

The next day, Wednesday 14th June, the jury retired at approximately 10:40 AM. They returned a mere 25 minutes later with a unanimous guilty verdict on both charges (distribution and publication). The Judge then said that because David Hannam had received 3 months for one of the charges, a custodial sentence was inevitable and sentenced Simon to 9 months imprisonment. Simon was then taken down like a common criminal to begin his sentence, but still looked proud in spite of the shock of his sentence and the great effort of defending himself.

Reports of the trial appeared in the Yorkshire Post, Hull's Daily Mail and subsequently the Jewish Chronicle.

Nationalists have long claimed that the price of a multi-racial society is a high and rising crime rate and a loss of freedom. The various groups that comprise "Zog" are desperate to clamp down on nationalists, which they have done by criminalising their political enemies, smearing them in the media as violent, mindless thugs – giving the impression that most race attacks are carried out by whites on blacks. This tends to make juries hostile to nationalists. Yet ex-Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon, claimed in a speech to selected "ethnics," that 80% of muggings are carried out by blacks.

It is clear that the creeping Stalinism being imposed in the UK is gradually coming into the open. Fortunately the public are now more in sympathy with some of the issues nationalists support, such as opposition to asylum seekers. We have to broaden their support for nationalist issues and inform them of the true nature our rulers.

Please write to Simon Sheppard to show your support. He was moved to Everthorpe Prison on the 12th July, which is a category C prison. He had encountered opposition from "ethnics" at Hull Prison, as wild rumours had been circulating about him. Things became markedly worse when he was moved from the assessment wing to the main prison (C wing), where he said things were "were getting pretty hot", but fortunately he was moved within a few days to the new prison, which is much better and even has a nice view of grass and trees from his cell window. He has his own cell and is allowed two hours exercise per day. In Hull prison he had only been allowed out of the cell once a week!
Text of a Message to a Prison Governor – July

The Reality of Race Law

I am here imprisoned in what is supposed to be "Her Majesty's Prison" but which in reality is nothing of the kind. The evil law under which I was charged, which equates truth with "hatred", has been, from its inception in the early 1960's and, in the subsequent 1965, 1968, 1976 and 1986 acts, written, devised, amended and pushed through Parliament by Jews, specifically the state within a state called the Board of Deputies of British Jews. This law is in contravention of Natural Justice, in that it is impossible to know whether one is acting illegally or not, is contrary to the laws of treason and especially the Law of Attainder, which states that anyone acting in allegiance to Queen and Country is protected from prosecution for treason or any other thing, and from loss of his goods and liberties as a subject of the Crown, and any law being passed in Parliament or anywhere else saying otherwise is void, and that many of the present Members of Parliament, who passed the law under which I was charged, have no valid claim to be there, since having not been born in the United Kingdom they are excluded from Parliament by the Act of Settlement of 1700. It follows that the law under which I was charged is unconstitutional and this makes my imprisonment here unlawful.

However, having been convicted in a court of law, albeit one which is treasonably applying foreign law and with a jury which has been subjected to years of Jewish media brainwashing, I cannot ask that you take me to the prison gates and bid me on my way. But I do ask that I be restored my rights as a British Subject to read whatever I please, the material which my supporters send me for my own information and amusement, and which is not illegal even under the terms of the Zionist Occupation Government and their evil laws which have been devised to prevent their exposure as treasonous criminals and the nature of their activities – activities which aim to destroy the British Nation and make us slaves to a Zionist World Government.

Simon Sheppard

http://www.heretical.com/British/zvsgaol.html

[Alex Linder]

Nazi hate site boss is raided

Sunday Mirror, May 1, 2005 by JAMES HARPER

A BRITISH Nazi who set up an online hit list of anti-racist campaigners has been raided.

Simon Sheppard's Redwatch website publishes photos and personal details of leading left-wingers inluding singer Billy Bragg and comedian Mark Thomas to encourage attacks on them.

He was thought to be untouchable because the site was registered in the US. But police have swooped on the ex-BNP member's home in Hull and seized computers and books under legislation which outlaws incitement to racial hatred.

Addresses and phone numbers for Bragg, Thomas plus scores of journalists, trade unionists and teachers are listed.

Special Branch officers seized three computer hard drives and hate literature written by sinister Sheppard, a women-hater who is obsessed with cannibalism.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20050501/ai_n14607421

[Hawthorne]

News Article.


"Race-hate" duo flee to us


Two men, including one from Selby, convicted of publishing race-hate articles on the internet have skipped bail and fled to the United States, police have confirmed.
Simon Sheppard, 51, and Stephen Whittle, 41, were found guilty of a series of race-related offences at Leeds Crown Court.

The pair were due to return to court on Monday while a jury continued deliberating over further charges, but they failed to show up.

It is believed that the pair travelled from the UK to Ireland by ferry before taking a direct flight to Los Angeles.

Police were unable to confirm reports the pair were claiming political asylum in the US.

A spokeswoman by Humberside Police said: "The two defendants failed to appear at court and a bench warrant was issued by the court judge and Humberside Police circulated an all ports warning.

"Information has been received to suggest the pair are now in the USA and are being detained at Los Angeles Airport. Humberside Police is now in liaison with the US embassy to confirm where exactly they are and what will now happen to them."

Sheppard, of Brook Street, Selby, was found guilty after a seven-week trial of 11 counts of publishing racially inflammatory written material.

Whittle, of Avenham Lane, Preston, was convicted of five counts of publishing racially inflammatory written material.

The jury was unable to reach verdicts on seven further race-related charges which Sheppard faced. The case is due to be considered further at a hearing at Leeds Crown Court on July 28.

Here (http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/latest-york-and-humberside-news/Racehate-duo-flee-to-us.4295003.jp)
__________________

[Alex Linder]

Holocaust denier convicted of trying to incite race hate online

Published Date: 12 July 2008
By Rob Preece

A MAN who claims accounts of the Holocaust are "exaggerated" and describes Anne Frank's diary as "evil" has been convicted of putting articles on the internet that could stir up race hate.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court yesterday found Simon Sheppard, 51, guilty of nine counts of publishing racially inflammatory written material on his website between March 2005 and April 2006. The court heard Sheppard's website attracts 4,000 visitors a day.

Four of the articles were penned by Stephen Whittle, 41, who was yesterday convicted of four counts of publishing racially inflammatory written material.

The others included a cartoon by the American cartoonist Robert Crumb and an article written during the 1960s by the leader of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell.

Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford told the jury that Sheppard and Whittle were a pair of racists who held what they may regard as fairly extreme views about people who were Jewish, black, Asian, Chinese, Indian and, in reality, anyone who wasn't white.

"People in this country are entitled to be racist and they are entitled to hold unpleasant points of view, but what they aren't entitled to do is publish or distribute written material which is insulting, threatening or abusive and is intended to stir up racial hatred or is likely to do so."

Both Sheppard, of Brook Street, Selby, and Whittle, of Avenham Lane, Preston, told the jury that the articles were an attempt to "satirise" political correctness.

Sheppard said: "You can't blame a Jewish person for being a Jew, you can't blame a black person for being black, and you can't blame a Yorkshireman for being forthright, which I am."

The hearing will enter its seventh week on Monday, when the jury of six men and five women return to court to resume deliberations on further charges.

Sheppard is awaiting verdicts on nine charges relating to the publication, possession and distribution of written material which could stir up racial hatred.

Whittle faces a charge of publishing racially inflammatory material.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Holocaust-denier-convicted-of-trying.4282421.jp

[Alex Linder]

http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?t=76282

[Mike Parker]

Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford told the jury that Sheppard and Whittle were a pair of racists who held what they may regard as fairly extreme views about people who were Jewish, black, Asian, Chinese, Indian and, in reality, anyone who wasn't white.

The BNP Zionist Nick Griffin was acquitted so I'm pretty sure it wasn't their extreme views on niggers, gooks, chinks and dots that were too extreme for the Brit-ZOG.

[Aryan Lord]

The BNP Zionist Nick Griffin was acquitted so I'm pretty sure it wasn't their extreme views on niggers, gooks, chinks and dots that were too extreme for the Brit-ZOG.

He was acquitted because the British establishment like the BNP is pro-jew and anti-muslim.

[Alex Linder]

short video about the pair

YouTube - Fugitives from British Injustice !

[Bev]

Nice video but it's a shame it was made by a known grass who makes a living teaching those asylum seekers he's ranting about how to claim monetary benefits and social housing! Affectionately known as NorthWestGrassionalists, the bloke is banned from here several times over as are his co-editors, Seaforth/JohninBasel and Hugo Russett.

[Alex Linder]

Oh... I unbanned him today. If he causes problems it's back in the hopper.

[Bev]

Oh... I unbanned him today. If he causes problems it's back in the hopper.

He will. I give it three days before he outs me and half the Brits again! :D

edited to add - so it was four days. Not a bad guess.

[ohgolly]

Nobody seems to be paying this much attention. Anybody, please, keep an eye out for info on Sheppard and Whittle. What the hell's going on? When is their hearing? Where is it? Details!

[Alex Linder]

[October 18, 2008]


[received via email from lawyer Bruce Leichty]

NO REMEDY FOR JAILED BRITISH "HERETICS"

Los Angeles, California--(10/16/2008)--Two jailed writers who
were convicted in Britain of Internet hate speech on a U.S.-based
website will be forced to remain in special asylum proceedings with
no right to a bail hearing, a Los Angeles Immigration Court judge
ruled October 14, 2008.

"That is a very bad blow to their hopes of freedom in the near
future, and indeed to all asylum seekers and defenders of free
speech in the United States," said Paul Ballard from the United
Kingdom, coordinator of a legal defense fund for the pair known as
the "Heretical Two" (based on the website www.heretical.com).
The pair, Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle, have since July
14 been in the custody of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
in a Santa Ana, California contract detention facility, after
disembarking that same date from a plane at Los Angeles
International Airport, where they immediately asked for political
asylum. They fled Britain after being convicted July 11 in a Leeds
courtroom of inciting racial hatred for publishing writings such as
"Don't Be Sheeple" and "The Holohoax," including some published on
Sheppard's website operated from a server in Torrance, California.
Ballard noted that British law since 1986 allows for criminal
conviction for speech if the subject speech is "likely to result"
in the "stirring up" of racial hatred. A conviction requires no
proof of violence or intent. During the trial competing expert
witnesses were called to testify as to whether Jews, an offended
group, were a "religious" or "racial" group, since British law does
not criminalize stirring up religious hatred.

The Heretical Two, who consider themselves political satirists
and nonviolent gadflies, are the first persons to be prosecuted in
Britain for Internet speech made on a Web server in another
country, says Ballard. They were charged under Britain's Public
Order Act of 1986 and are subjected to penalties enhanced by the
British Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2000.

Since that time, Britain has arrested another man, Frederick
Toben, an Australian, for speech denying "the Holocaust," based on
a German arrest warrant issued for Toben. Toben was taken into
custody October during a layover at Heathrow Airport.

"These two alarming cases are related in that both of them are
attempts by the British Crown to criminalize speech regardless of
where it takes place and whether it is legal in the place where it
was made," noted Bruce Leichty, a San Diego County attorney who was
retained in September to represent the Heretical Two.

The October 14 Los Angeles Immigration Court decision in the
Sheppard and Whittle cases leaves the two in need of the remedy of
habeas corpus (literally: we have the body), a process which
federal legislators in the U.S. have made more difficult and costly
for immigrants in recent years, according to Leichty.

Leichty said the actions of the U.S. government to date have
added insult to injury. "Here are two British individuals who
published speech that was legally protected in the United States,
for which they were criminally prosecuted in Britain," said
Leichty, "and now the case has taken an even more Kafkaesque turn
since the one country that should be protecting them from
imprisonment in Britain has instead thrown them into U.S. jail for an indefinite period of time, based only on the fact that they
requested political asylum.

"Refugees are protected by international treaty; no country
should treat political refugees like these two have been treated,
particularly where they enter the host country legally."

Leichty notes that Homeland Security admitted in its
Immigration Court brief that the two were admitted to the United
States under the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, and that until they made
their request for political asylum at Los Angeles Airport DHS had
no reason to suspect or detain them. Once the two told their story
to airport officers, however, DHS attempted to revoke its decision
admitting them to the U.S. and to declare the two "inadmissible" on
the ground that they entered with the intent to stay in the U.S. as
immigrants, which Leichty says is both preposterous on the facts of
the case and in any event not within the powers of airport
officers.

"It is well established that an asylum claimant does not give
up his nonimmigrant status simply by telling his host country that
he needs the protection of political asylum."

The special type of proceeding that the two were put into,
called an "asylum-only proceeding" where immigration judges do not
have the authority to release the alien from detention, is used in
connection with the Visa Waiver program only for asylum applicants
who are not already admitted into the country, or those who have
overstayed their authorized periods of stay--neither of which
applied to Sheppard and Whittle when they sought asylum. But
Leichty says that Immigration Judge Rose Peters turned a deaf ear

to these points and ruled that DHS officers had "discretion" to
issue the notices that put the two into the special proceedings.

Leichty said that, although the recent and more notorious
arrest of Frederick Toben in London involves a German extradition
request, he is not aware of any request by the U.K. for the
extradition of Sheppard and Whittle, and in any case the United
States typically does not extradite persons who are convicted of
crimes which are not crimes in the U.S.

"It is clear that obsessive security apparatuses in two
different countries have now run amok, by respectively making
criminals out of dissidents and by locking them up even though they
are not criminals. One does not have to share the views or style
of the Heretical Two to appreciate the threat posed by this type of
case to individual rights and liberties."

"The laws under which Sheppard and Whittle were prosecuted
could just as easily be used to subject nonconformist American
publishers to criminal penalties in Britain."

Sheppard has described his website as a mixture of
"blasphemies, heresies, and scientific and general interest
material" established to promote his ideas on subjects such as
politics, race and gender relations. He holds an Honors bachelor's
of science degree in mathematics from the University of Sussex and
published two medical scientific papers prior to becoming a
publisher and web developer. Whittle is a First Class Honors B.A.
graduate in languages and linguistic science from the University of
York, and has written numerous books.

Sheppard says he and Whittle were prosecuted based on the
charge that their writings could be viewed by persons in England
and Wales, and not even on any evidence that the writings had
actually been viewed by anyone other than a police officer who
downloaded material for the purpose of bringing charges.
"Both men state that they were living peaceably and civilly in
Britain until the police disrupted their lives by raiding their
flats and seizing their papers and property," says Leichty. The
British press has repeatedly referred to them as the "race hate
pair."

"There are people who want to criminalize `hate speech' in the
U.S., too," noted Leichty. "But as officers of the court,
attorneys should remind people that even speech perceived as
hateful deserves protection. One man's `hate' may be another man's
passion or critique, or even another man's creed. The United
States should lead the way in showing disapproval of those nations
who have sought to restrict the nonviolent expression of opinion
and belief.

"The Heretical Two are no more criminal than many of our
American forebears who fled repression to settle this country--and
no doubt they may say repugnant things just like other blogging
Americans. Ignore or despise them or ridicule them if you wish,
dialogue with them if you dare, but don't imprison them."
In choosing Los Angeles as their destination, the pair had
hoped to visit with other dissidents at the Institute for
Historical Review, Costa Mesa, one of whom had been designated by
the defendants as an expert witness in their British case on the
historicity of various standard Holocaust accounts, said Leichty.

Ballard says the U.S. imprisonment of the two, and the legal
costs associated with their defense, caught British nationalist
activists by surprise. Asylum claimants are on their own in the
U.S. unless they can afford attorneys. "This is such an important
case with such far-reaching implications that my colleagues and I
could not simply let Simon and Stephen languish in detention
without counsel," Ballard said.

Ballard is spearheading the Legal Defence Fund that has been
set up in the U.K., which he says is accepting contributions in all
currencies addressed as follows: Croydon Preservation Society, P.
O. Box 301, Carshalton, Surrey, SM5 4QW, United Kingdom.
"The need for American participation in legal defense costs is
critical," he urged. "American interests are at stake here, too."

In a letter from prison, Sheppard wrote: "Detention is
stressful and disorienting. [We] appear before the Immigration
Court shackled hand and foot....[We] have no access to the legal
material and evidence which is stored in the baggage [we] carried
on arrival....[We undertook our action to seek asylum] as a matter
of principle, as a political gesture to protest an iniquitous
British law which inhibits free speech and the democratic process."

To win political asylum in the U.S., claimants must prove that
they have a well-founded fear of persecution in their homeland, on
one of several grounds including political opinion. While U.S.
courts have frequently stated that "prosecution" does not equate to
"persecution," there are cases where confinement and prosecution
under repressive laws have been held to constitute persecution,
says Leichty.

Leichty is best known previously for representing Ernst
Zundel, an internationally known Holocaust revisionist and
publisher who in 2003 was arrested in Tennessee, taken away from
his U.S. citizen wife, and deported to Canada on the pretext that
he had missed an INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service)
appointment. After Leichty was hired to succeed Zundel's first
Tennessee immigration lawyer, Zundel won the right to a hearing in
Knoxville federal court, but his initial bid to overturn his
deportation on habeas corpus grounds was rejected in an unpublished
decision of a federal court of appeals in Cincinnati, and Leichty
says he and Mrs. Zundel are now prosecuting Zundel's remaining
claims in Knoxville.

-30-

Bruce Leichty
Law Offices of Bruce Leichty
leichty@sbcglobal.net

Clovis office:
625-A 3rd St.
Clovis, CA 93612
(559) 298-5900
(559) 322-2425 (fax)

Escondido office:
220 W. Grand Ave.
Escondido, CA 92025
(760) 839-2200
(760) 294-9071 (fax)

[Kelly]

Two recent articles on Simon and Stephen:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/the-hilarious-haters/holocaust-denying-brits-langui/

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/news/Police-close-race-hate-duo/article-851921-detail/article.html

Good luck to Simon and Stephen. May Judge Peters find in favor of free speech and let these men walk free.

[Jim Anderson]

According to some reports they trusted Mark Weber. Weber is a Jewish name.

I respect Sheppard and Whittle, it's tragic they didn't trust their gut and Jewdar about the name Weber. Carto long ago fingered Weber as a Jew.

I guess that's how they live and learn.

There are a million ways to go into exile, but you don't get famous. Legendary perhaps, but not famous.

The Judge Rose Peters in thier case has a Jewish name, also the DHS prosecutor Ms. Myers has a a Jewish name.

Then we still have Jews in our White areas saying Myers, Weber, Peters, are not Jew names. The Yggdrasil types they can be called.

Weber left them out to dry. It was a setup.

Sheppard and Whittle were the bait in the net Weber set to draw out all the WN from the Los Angeles area, so the Jews could life comfortably in their sunny warm hive, without fear of people around them knowing the truth.

Weber set the net at the behest of the ADL. It didn't work.

[Bev]

This is from Simon's local paper.

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/news/Police-close-race-hate-duo/article-851921-detail/article.html

POLICE in Hull say they are close to winning an extradition battle to bring two men back from America wanted for distributing racist material.

Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle fled the country last summer after been found guilty of numerous race-hate offences.

The trial at Leeds Crown Court came after Sheppard's flat in the Avenues area of the city was raided in 2005.

But now, as a judge is set to sentence them in their absence on Monday, Special Branch officers believe they are closer than ever to getting the pair back into the country to face justice.

Adil Kahn, head of diversity and community cohesion for Humberside Police, said: "I think it is a question of when not if for their return to the UK.
This has been a lengthy operation, but will on Monday, if the judge decides to sentence them in their absence, be closer to conclusion.

"The US authorities have been great, but we have had to go through the due process. *Sheppard and Whittle will be here to face justice for their victims and for the hard work of all the officers involved in this case."

Sheppard, 51, was found guilty of 16 race hate crimes, 11 in July 2008 and five in January 09. Whittle, 41, was found guilty of five race hate crimes in July 2008.

Sheppard, who boasts on his website about being banned from every library in Hull, was convicted for a series of charges relating to publishing racially inflammatory material, distributing racially inflammatory material or possessing racially inflammatory material with a view to distribution under the Public Order Act 1986.

He had been responsible for a website containing anti-semetic views. He also published and distributed a leaflet likening notorious Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz to a holiday resort.

The investigation began when a complaint about a leaflet called Tales Of The Holohoax was reported to police in 2004 after being pushed through the door of a Blackpool synagogue.

It was traced back to a post office box in Hull registered to Sheppard.

A lengthy police operation took place, with several forces across the country working together.

The pair, who have began calling themselves the Heretical Two, after the racist website Sheppard presided over, disappeared to Ireland, then flew to Los Angeles International Airport and surrendered to officials claiming political asylum.

They are currently being held under the Department of Homeland Security at Santa Ana Jail.

On Tuesday a court hearing took place in the US with Sheppard and Whittle addressing the judge. Her Honour Judge Rose Peters reserved judgement which will be handed down in writing.

Some comments from locals make interesting reading.

*Worth noting that the only "victim" they managed to produce in court was apparently a police officer who had downloaded the website material for this specific purpose.

It was not, as far as I know, proven who printed off and put the leaflet through the synagogue letterbox.

Spelling mistakes all courtesy of the paper, not me.

[ohgolly]

The latest news is that Simon and Steve have lost their Claim for asylum April 5 - judge Peters has previously granted asylum to the murderer of two British policemen because he ‘could not get a fair trial in the UK’ - so she is not noted for her rationality, or consistency.

[Bev]

http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?t=92444

[Harry Flash]

http://www.thejc.com/articles/race-hate-pair-rejected-us

http://www.selbytimes.co.uk/selby-news/Racehate-pair-will-face-justice.5192915.jp

[Donnie in Ohio]

These men are being imprisoned for their words.

Think about that for a second.

The truth can't be suppressed forever.

[Kievsky]

Look at the ocweekly article. I just realized that newspaper writers have become merely the opening comment, and commenters get in their and rip him to shreds.

Journalists are no longer opinion monopolists thanks to comment boards. I think this is driving the social and cultural change very quickly.

[Gibson]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-brits-jailed3-2009jun03,0,2587039.story

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-06/47249892.jpg
Stephen Whittle, left, and Simon Sheppard, convicted of disseminating hate speech in Britain, skipped bail and came to Los Angeles in July 2008, thinking they’d find asylum in the U.S., where such laws are less stringent. Instead, they have spent the last 10 months held in the Santa Ana city jail after a federal immigration judge denied them asylum and put them on a slow track back to Britain.

Convicted in England of hate-related writings, Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle believed they would find a free-speech haven in the U.S. The plan backfired.

By Dana Parsons
June 3, 2009
When Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle stepped off a plane at LAX in July 2008 -- a couple of jet-lagged Brits on the lam from the United Kingdom -- they looked for the first uniformed U.S. official they could find. Unfortunately for them, they found one.

They thought they had found safe harbor from the English court that three days earlier had convicted them of hate-related writings originating on their website. Rather than wait for sentencing -- expected to range from a year or two for Whittle to perhaps five years or more for Sheppard -- the men skipped bail and hopped a plane in Dublin, believing that U.S. free-speech traditions and the visa waivers they secured at an Irish airport would shield them.

Sheppard says he approached a U.S. official in Los Angeles, showed him the visa waiver and said in effect, "I'm sorry to be a nuisance, but we want to claim political asylum in the United States."

Eleven months later, Sheppard, 52, and Whittle, 42, remain in U.S. custody, spending their days in orange jumpsuits in the Santa Ana City Jail and awaiting a return to England and likely jail sentences. Since arriving in America, they haven't spent a single day as free men.

"We thought they'd hold us for a day or so," Sheppard said through a Plexiglas window in a jail interview. "We couldn't see how they wouldn't grant us asylum. The things we supposedly had done in Britain aren't illegal in America."

As it turned out, that was beside the point.

The men, known as the "heretical two" to supporters, aren't in U.S. custody because of their world views. Nor have they committed any crime in America. Their lengthy detention is largely the product of the asylum-seeking process that Sheppard and Whittle brought on themselves when they entered the country. They and their original attorney acknowledge that motions they filed helped prolong the case.

That concession, however, is somewhat lost on the men, convinced that their ongoing incarceration has as much to do with threats to the 1st Amendment as to the laborious nature of the asylum process.

"We came to the beacon of free speech in the Western world," Sheppard said, "which turned out to be a complete fantasy."

U.S. officials won't discuss the men's case, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice in Orange County said their visa waivers became invalid once they indicated to officers at LAX that they intended to try to stay in the United States. She said that U.S. authorities learned early on about the men's legal situation in Britain and that it was a factor in their lengthy detention.

Brits are no strangers to irony, and Sheppard and Whittle are well aware of its presence in their situation. "All they had to do," says attorney Bruce Leichty, who represented them early in the case, "was get off the plane in LAX and walk off into the free world."

Leichty, who no longer represents the men, said that U.S. officials should have told them to find an asylum attorney and that the visa waivers granted at a U.S. Port of Entry in Dublin should have protected them from incarceration.

A federal immigration judge in Los Angeles disagreed. In October, Judge Rose Peters sided with a government attorney who argued that officials acted properly in detaining the men for further questioning after they sought asylum.

Sheppard and Whittle were convicted in England for a string of essays and other published material on Sheppard's heretical.com website, which uses a server based in Torrance. Sheppard was convicted on 11 counts, Whittle on five. In January, Sheppard was retried in absentia and convicted on five more charges.

Their online entries follow the well-traveled path of other nationalist polemicists, with particular emphasis on decrying the influence and power of Jews in the world.

"People are entitled to hold racist and extreme opinions which others may find unpleasant and obnoxious," Mari Reid, a lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service's Counter Terrorism Division in England said in a prepared statement earlier this year about the case.

"What they are not allowed to do is to publish or distribute those opinions to the public in a threatening, abusive or insulting manner either intending to stir up racial hatred or in circumstances where it is likely racial hatred will be stirred up."

The vast majority of the material in this case concerned Jewish people, Reid said, "but there was also material relating to black, Asian and non-white people generally, all described in derogatory terms using offensive language."

Because of the right-wing nature of much of their material, Sheppard and Whittle believe Britain's Labor government has targeted them for prosecution. That belief formed part of the basis for their asylum request.

Sheppard, who sold computer equipment before he bolted to America, said he considers himself more of a scientist interested in human behavior. Whittle, a freelance writer, describes himself as an "anti-Marxist" satirist who doesn't subscribe to all of the traditional extreme right-wing positions, such as enmity toward gays or working women.

Sheppard said whatever anger he has is mostly directed at British authorities. His feelings about America, he says, are not so much anger "as sadness and disappointment, as we were led to believe that we would be sympathetically received here by virtue of its tradition of free speech."

That miscalculation aside, the men don't know when they will be returned to Britain, and U.S. authorities won't say.

In denying asylum, Peters ruled that the men hadn't shown they had been persecuted in the past or likely to face future persecution.

Sheppard and Whittle had hoped their story would attract media attention, but that never materialized.

"I think it has very wide ramifications," Leichty says of their convictions. "I don't share their views or the way they communicate their views, but I certainly don't think we should be incarcerating people for what they did."

Sheppard said he and Whittle are merely waiting for a middle-of-the-night wake-up and a quick trip to the airport.

"We're not cowed and we're not repentant," Sheppard says. "We have the right even to make mistakes. We could be wrong, it's not inconceivable. We have a right to be wrong. All we're doing is speaking our minds."

Whittle says he isn't keen on making a career out of being a political prisoner in England. "Simon is from Yorkshire," he says. "People from Yorkshire are strong-willed. I'm not from Yorkshire. He sticks to his guns. I don't have his willpower and tenacity."

After 11 months in custody, Whittle is not sure anymore that he and Sheppard would have remained free even if they had quietly gone through customs, left LAX and found a lawyer to handle their asylum request. "Once they became aware of who we were and that we came to the U.S. to flee," Whittle says, "we would have ended up in detention."

That is how it played out. Coming to America has been a bust.

"We've never seen California but through bars," Whittle says.

[Harry Flash]

Britain's "Heretical Two" held in UK Jail after Asylum refused in USA

Two British writers Simon Sheppard and Steve Whittle have been held in jail for over a year in the United States and now in the United Kingdom for items published on their US-based Internet website. There has been scant attention to this unusual case in the British and American media.

The two men were convicted at Leeds Crown Court, in England, of offences under the Public Order Act 1986 for material that appeared on a web site in Torrance, California. The case is ground-breaking because it involves the assertion by an English court of universal jurisdiction over Internet web sites wherever hosted, if they can be accessed in England. So far only Germany makes similar claims.

The US Department of Justice found that the writings of Sheppard and Whittle were constitutionally protected under the First Amendment but after they fled to the United States, an immigration judge refused them asylum. The Los Angeles Times published a very good feature article on their predicament.

The two men were deported back to England recently, and are now awaiting sentencing for writing on an American-based web site.

We invite readers to write to them at

Her Majesty's Prison Leeds, 2 Gloucester Terrace, Stanningley Road, Leeds, LS12 2TJ, England.

Simon's prison number is A8042AA and Steve's number is A8041AA. They would appreciate letters and other means of support.

[Alex Linder]

[Would be hard to write a more biased article, nor one that travels further to obscure the essential fact here: the two are in jail for expressing opinions. This is just how the judeo-left would like it everywhere: words equated with violent actions, and punished even more harshly since they come out of the mouths and pens of hated 'white males.']

The neo-Nazi 'asylum seekers'

By Jon Kelly
BBC News

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46040000/gif/_46040007__46039886_racism-1.gif
Simon Sheppard (left) and Stephen Whittle [Pic: Humberside Police]
Sheppard and Whittle tried to claim political asylum in Los Angeles

They looked like a pair of cranks straight out of a Louis Theroux documentary.

One was an unrepentant woman hater whose racist and anti-Semitic views were too hard-line even for the British National Party.

The other, his long-haired sidekick, sought the protection of a pseudonym that he used to make extremist rants.

Their hunger to stir up controversy saw them flee from justice in the north of England and stage an unlikely claim for political asylum in Los Angeles.

But their journey has now ended with jail sentences in the UK.

Jurors at Leeds Crown Court decided neo-Nazis Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle were not just harmless oddballs, but dangerous propagandists dedicated to whipping up racism.

On Friday, Sheppard was jailed for four years, 10 months and Whittle for two years, four months.

In a landmark case, they have become the first Britons to be convicted of inciting racial hatred online, having printed leaflets and controlled websites featuring racist material.

'Obnoxious and abhorrent'

The court heard the investigation into the pair began when a complaint about an anti-Semitic comic book called Tales of the Holohoax was made to the police in 2004 after it was pushed through the door of a synagogue in Blackpool, Lancashire.

It was traced back to a post office box in Hull registered to Sheppard, 51, a former BNP organiser kicked out of the far-right party after he was jailed in 2000 for distributing a racially inflammatory election leaflet.

The spotlight fell on the publishing activities of Sheppard, of Selby, North Yorkshire, a self-styled "scientific publisher", whose online ramblings took in a hatred of women and a morbid fixation with cannibalism.

But a police investigation discovered that his prime motivation was racism and he dedicated himself to producing what prosecutors called "obnoxious and abhorrent'' books, pamphlets and web pages.

What they are not entitled to do is to publish or distribute those opinions to the public in a threatening, abusive or insulting manner either intending to stir up racial hatred or in circumstances where it is likely racial hatred will be stirred up
Mari Reid, CPS Counter Terrorism Division

On his website, Sheppard employed Whittle, 42, of Preston, Lancashire, as a columnist under the pseudonym "Luke O'Farrell".

Although their vitriol was variously directed at black, Asian and other non-white people, most of the material shown to the jury was virulently anti-Semitic.

The language and racial slurs used by the pair cannot be repeated here, but some of the excerpts presented to the court offered a flavour of their discourse.

One leaflet claimed that Auschwitz had not really been the location of industrial mass murder but had been, instead, a holiday camp provided by a benevolent Nazi regime for Europe's Jewish population.

Jonathan Sandiford, prosecuting, told the jury that it held up survivors of the Holocaust to "ridicule and contempt", accusing them of lying about the genocide of six million Jews.

Another story was illustrated with photographs of dead Jews. Sheppard also wrote that Holocaust victim Anne Frank's diary was "evil".

Reviewing lawyer Mari Reid, of the Crown Prosecution Service's counter-terrorism division, said members of the public were entitled under the law to hold racist and extreme views.

But she added: "What they are not entitled to do is to publish or distribute those opinions to the public in a threatening, abusive or insulting manner either intending to stir up racial hatred or in circumstances where it is likely racial hatred will be stirred up."

Thrown out

The defence argued that the online material did not fall under the jurisdiction of UK law, because Sheppard's site was hosted on servers in California.

But in a landmark ruling, the judge dismissed this - potentially paving the way for further prosecutions against the owners of other hate sites who believe they are exploiting a legal loophole.

Jurors, too, rejected the defence's claim that the pair's writings were merely satirical.

Sheppard was found guilty of 11 offences and Whittle was found guilty of five offences in July 2008.

Sheppard was found guilty of a further five charges in January 2009.

But the pair were not in court to hear the verdicts against them.

Before the jury in the first trial could return verdicts, both men fled to Los Angeles International airport and attempted to claim political asylum.

But their bid was thrown out by an immigration judge, and they were held at Santa Ana prison in California until they were returned to the UK to serve their sentences.

The irony of two racists attempting to exploit the immigration and asylum system was lost on no-one who followed the case.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8010537.stm

[John Cassidy]

I must be naive, but this blows my mind. Nigh five years for writing public letters? America is a massive fakery and England is downright weird.

[8Man]

Canada has Brad Love (http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%22brad+love%22+canada&meta=). He's been sentenced to prison for writing letters that upset some politicians.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_XLxL5xIl-m8/SWZ1b-DYTwI/AAAAAAAABnc/j7eu4v4D3LA/s400/Simon&Steve.jpg

The current prison addresses of the Heretical Two are:

Simon Sheppard #A8042AA
HMP Leeds, 2 Gloucester Terrace,
Stanningley Road, Leeds, LS12 2TJ,
United Kingdom

Steven Whittle #A8041AA
HMP Leeds, 2 Gloucester Terrace,
Stanningley Road, Leeds, LS12 2TJ,
United Kingdom

Like HAC (http://nwhomeland.blogspot.com) says:
We have this horrible habit of slacking off and forgetting our men in prison. These two men are genuine martyrs to freedom and political prisoners, and we need to keep their spirits up and let them know that they're not forgotten.

[Heather Blue]

I received another letter from Simon Sheppard mailed from Leeds, Yorkshire, England.

Just a short note to thank you for your good wishes, cards and money orders. I'm also writing on behalf of Steve. We got your money orders shortly before being shipped out, and at first I thought they were just the job(??) as I was running low, but then came the news that we were being shipped back into the eager arms of Britzog. After waiting 2-1/2 months for it I was beginning to wonder if there might be another outcome, like being sent to Iceland or Argentina. At least with this outcome I get to emerge eventually with the ability to live here in my beloved home country, plus can expect some minimal old age pension which I could not expect in the USA.

We are up for sentencing on the 10th of July and my barrister (who is also a friend) will be heard on the 14th July. I just think of myself as being in the "hands of the gods" and one (almost) past worrying - except a ???? "pre-sentence report" which will involve steering a fine line between expressing contrition (to get a lighter sentence) and sticking to my deeply-held beliefs. Also, I do not want to let down all the fine people, such as you, who have supported us during this ordeal. TRUTH WILL PREVAIL IN THE END
Very best wishes,
Simon Sheppard

My advice to the Heretical Two would be to lie through their teeth to get as much as they can get out of this unfair situation. Anything that out-smarts the Jews in our favor is true honesty.

[Bev]

On Tuesday, July 14 the Court of Appeal (Richards LJ, Jack J and HHJ Baker QC) gave leave to appeal against conviction on all the Internet counts, but refused leave to appeal with respect to the hard copy counts. The full appeal hearing will take place later this year, and take a day. A forfeiture hearing took place on Friday July 31st before judge Grant at Leeds. On the way to court Simon and Steve were attacked by a half caste. Simon feared that his jaw was broken, but fortunately was not the case, although he still had great difficulty eating several days later. The judge decided every contested point against Simon and contravened the letter, as well as the spirit of the law, as many items had been illegally seized by the police in the first place on their three raids. He ordered the forfeiture and destruction of large amounts of valuable office equipment - mainly comprising large printers, which Simon had serviced. An appeal was lodged against sentence, and will be held within the statutory twenty-one days against forfeiture of the printers and other office equipment. An appeal will also be made to the European Court of Human Rights over the decision by the Appeal Court not to review the notorious decision in Reg. v. Birdwood when Judge Pownall's decision that ‘the truth is no defence’ in race cases was upheld. The appeal should result in some useful publicity in a few years time. The prison is so overcrowded that they lost their original cells through their court appearance and and they are now back together pending transfer to a lower category prison. Please write to them at HMP Leeds, 2 Gloucester Terrace, Stanningley Road, Leeds, LS12 2TJ, UK (Wing D4-05) - Simon's prison number is A8042AA and Steve's number is A8041AA.

Source (http://www.heretical.com/)