TWO men behind an internet race-hate campaign who jumped bail and fled to the United States are to be sent back to Britain to face justice.
Simon Sheppard, 52, from Selby, and York University graduate Stephen Whittle, 42, claimed political asylum in California after being found guilty of publishing racially inflammatory written material on a website viewed by thousands of Far-Right supporters.
But immigration judge Rosa Peters has thrown out their case after rejecting the pair's claims to be victims of "a three-year campaign of harassment by the governing British Labour Party".
Lawyers in the UK had expected Sheppard and Whittle to lodge an appeal if the decision went against them, but it is now believed they have decided to return to Yorkshire to be sentenced.
In a letter to supporters, published on the British People's Party website, the pair wrote: "We were thinking of appealing and sticking it out, but really this place is replete with people hanging on hoping for a miracle that's never going to happen, and we don't want to join them...Better we think to go back to England, face the music and get it over with."
Sheppard, of Brook Street, Selby, and Whittle, of Avenham Lane, Preston, are believed to be the first UK citizens to be convicted of publishing racist material online. Continues here
Simon Sheppard, 52, from Selby, and York University graduate Stephen Whittle, 42, claimed political asylum in California after being found guilty of publishing racially inflammatory written material on a website viewed by thousands of Far-Right supporters.
But immigration judge Rosa Peters has thrown out their case after rejecting the pair's claims to be victims of "a three-year campaign of harassment by the governing British Labour Party".
Lawyers in the UK had expected Sheppard and Whittle to lodge an appeal if the decision went against them, but it is now believed they have decided to return to Yorkshire to be sentenced.
In a letter to supporters, published on the British People's Party website, the pair wrote: "We were thinking of appealing and sticking it out, but really this place is replete with people hanging on hoping for a miracle that's never going to happen, and we don't want to join them...Better we think to go back to England, face the music and get it over with."
Sheppard, of Brook Street, Selby, and Whittle, of Avenham Lane, Preston, are believed to be the first UK citizens to be convicted of publishing racist material online. Continues here
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1 Responses to "Race-hate pair lose US legal battle"20 April 2009 at 15:21
ALL THE WRONG STUFF
It might have been termed a "comedy of errors," except that it was not
funny, when Simon Sheppard and Steve Whittle applied for and were denied
political-asylum. The "Heretical Two", as they had dubbed themselves,
disclosed that immigration-judge Rose Peters had denied their application
in a letter to Harold Covington, who had posted an appeal on-line to
overthrow the United States and set up a "separatist" "republic." Covington
had formerly been associated with Frank Collin in an abortive "Nazi Party"
in Chicago. The enterprise folded when it was revealed that Collin, who
was later convicted of child-molestation, was Jewish.
The bearded Covington, who had been nicknamed "The Rabbi" for his
extreme girth, had been a correspondent with Whittle and Sheppard, who
spent eight months in confinement in Los Angeles, while claiming that they
were being persecuted in England for publishing articles questioning
World-War-II concentration-camps. The "Heretical Two" had served
as their own lawyers, after Marc Weber, a former cohort of conspiracy-theorist
Willis Carto, declined to finance them and Bruce Leichty, who the duo paid
$10,000.00, took the cash and bailed out. They stated that an appeal
would be "hoping for a miracle that's never going to happen."
Sheppard and Whittle had relied upon ties to ex-con Don Black, who, due to
legal-problems of his own, as a go-between for Pittsburgh home-defender
Richard Poplawski, had provided no legal-assistance. Black, whose
"Stormfront" website had claimed that such convicted-criminals as Chester
Doles, Matt Hale, David Duke and Kevin Strom had been "framed," had
stated that he "could not afford" an attorney, even for himself. Peters had
delayed the hearing, allowing time to obtain a lawyer, but Sheppard and
Whittle insisted in leaning entirely upon advice from the likes of Keith
Carney, an ex-con, who called lawyers "a waste of time."
"All the wrong stuff" had dogged Sheppard and Whittle, the same as it did
Mark Cotterill, a fellow-Brit, who was deported for associating with the late
William L. Pierce, who harbored German-fugitive Hendrick Mobus and
authored the bombing-plans used by Tim McVeigh. Cotterill, also, had
fallen in with Duke, who had been claiming that the "Heretical Two" were being
"attacked" by Peters, but who, also, provided no legal-counsel. Duke's own
attorney, Jim McPherson, quit Duke after Duke pleaded guilty to tax-evasion
and mail-fraud. "Better we think to go back to England, face the music,
and get it over with," concluded the forlorn duo.
Whittle, 42, whose extreme hair-length resembled that of Covington, and
Sheppard, 51, who was likened to a librarian, failed to convince Peters
that their conviction "in absentia" in Britain on "hate" charges amounted
to "persecution." During his address to The National Front in London,
Richard Barrett had called for repeal of the Race-Relations Act and Public
Order Law, under which the two had been convicted. Meanwhile, charges
were dropped in London against Eddie Morrison and four associates, who
had been charged with "terrorism" for possessing an insignia supporting the
Ulster Defense Association, which refuses to surrender its arms.
England has neither a First Amendment, guaranteeing free-speech, nor a
Second-Amendment, assuring the right to keep and bear arms. Paul
Ballard, an "Heretical-Two" supporter in London, had stated that Leichty
had demanded twenty, then thirty, thousand dollars, after receiving the
initial ten thousand, but that Ballard could not raise the additional funds.
Henrik Holappa, 22, has been separately seeking asylum, after being
convicted of "hate" in his native-Finland. Holappa had, also, associated
with Duke and Black and was arrested after appearing with Steve Edwards,
son of Ron Edwards, who had been fined $1.5 million for "hate."
http://www.nationalist.org/alt/2009/041801.html
Copyright 2009 The Nationalist Movement
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