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Five jailed for producing race-hate magazine

Shenai Raif
Saturday 05 November 2005 01:00 GMT

Judge Jeremy Roberts, sitting at the Old Bailey, told the members of the Racial Volunteer Force, who were sentenced to a total of 15 years in jail, that they had been trying to stir up race hate and encourage race crime. He added: "No one is being sentenced for their political beliefs - this is a free country."

Judge Roberts said the RVF was a white supremacist group which had sprung up in early 2003 to "encourage readers to resort to violence against people with non-white backgrounds".

"The danger is that [the magazine] only needs to fall into the hands of one or two individuals who might be persuaded to take up the suggestions and cause a great deal of damage," he said.

The five had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to publish the magazine Stormer with the intention of stirring up racial hatred. It included a step-by-step guide to making a nail bomb and a petrol bomb.

Other charges related to the RVF's website and distribution of extreme racist pop group Skrewdriver's DVD Live in Germany.

After the case, Peter Davies, Assistant Chief Constable of Lincolnshire, said: "It is difficult to imagine more extreme race hatred than was contained in the material seized during this inquiry. Thissends a message to anyone inclined to stir up race hatred that they will be tracked down and brought before the courts."

Carmen Dowd, head of special crimes at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "You only need to look at the detail of these magazines to show how despicable and heinous the material is."

The prosecution followed raids by police in London, Lincolnshire, Surrey, Bedfordshire and Greater Manchester after the RVF's website was discovered.

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