The leader and deputy leader of far-right group Britain First have been found guilty of religiously-aggravated harassment.<\/p>\n
Paul Golding, 36, and Jayda Fransen, 31, were arrested over the distribution of leaflets and posting of online videos during a Muslim gang-rape trial.<\/p>\n
Fransen was convicted of three counts of religiously aggravated harassment. Golding was found guilty of one charge.<\/p>\n
The verdicts were handed down at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court.<\/p>\n
The court heard they had targeted homes and people in Kent whom they believed were connected to a rape trial at Canterbury Crown Court where three Muslim men and a teenager were convicted of rape and jailed.<\/p>\n
The pair, both from Penge in south-east London, were arrested in May last year.<\/p>\n
Fransen had denied four counts, and Golding had denied three.<\/p>\n
Judge Justin Barron dismissed the remaining counts against them, and is due to sentence them later.<\/p>\n
He told the court that Fransen and Golding were “well-known”, “controversial” and “generate their own publicity”, but his verdict was based “solely on admissible evidence heard in court”.<\/p>\n
He said their words and actions “demonstrated hostility” towards Muslims and the Muslim faith.<\/p>\n
“I have no doubt it was their joint intention to use the facts of the case [in Canterbury] for their own political ends.<\/p>\n
“It was a campaign to draw attention to the race, religion and immigrant background of the defendants,” he told the court.<\/p>\n
During their trial in January, Folkestone Magistrates’ Court heard the pair confronted people they believed were defendants in the gang-rape trial.<\/p>\n
However, in each case, they instead targeted innocent members of the public.<\/p>\n
They filmed the abuse and then released it on social media and through the Britain First website.<\/p>\n
They also posted offensive leaflets through the letterboxes of houses in the area where the rape-trial defendants lived.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"