BNP election organiser is convicted gang rapist

Sunday Mirror INVESTIGATES
Exclusive by James Weatherup

SEX ATTACKER: Bennett (circled) led the rape of two girls but now hands out pamphlets (left) pledging a crime crackdown

A MAN convicted of a terrifying gang rape is helping to organise the British National Party's local election campaign in trouble-torn Oldham.

Robert Bennett, 59, is in charge of distributing the far-right group's leaflets in the town - scene of bloody race riots last summer - for the council elections on May 2.

What voters didn't know until today is that election co-ordinator Bennett was sentenced to five years in prison for his part in the rape of two 17-year-old girls. The incident happened when he lured the girls to a house with four other men claiming there was a party in progress. But the teenagers found they were the only guests, and they were forced into separate bedrooms and raped repeatedly.

Afterwards they were thrown together on a bed and ordered to perform lesbian acts.

Nick Lowles, co-editor of anti-fascism and racism magazine Searchlight, said last night: "This makes a mockery of the BNP posing as the law and order party.

"Oldham BNP is full of criminals who are really violent. They are no better than a bunch of racist thugs who will lie and try to con their way to victory.
"Hopefully the people of Oldham will see them for what they really are."

One of the girls, neither of whom can be named for legal reasons, told Manchester Crown Court that as she was raped the first time, she heard the screams of her friend from the next bedroom.

The other men involved were Bennett's brothers Michael, who was 21 at the time, and Gordon, 24, as well as Leigh Harrop and his brother Alan.

The prosecution said all five men, who denied rape, had sex with one girl and four of them were "intimate" with the other.

The judge who passed sentence on the gang in 1976 recognised Bennett's leading role, saying: "You, Robert Bennett, are the eldest of the five and I am satisfied that you were one of the prime movers of what happened that November evening and morning."

Last year his brother Gordon, an alcoholic now aged 49, was jailed for life for bludgeoning a pensioner to death with a cobblestone. Michael Bennett was jailed for 28 days immediately at the same hearing after he screamed abuse at the jury.

Robert Bennett is one of several BNP supporters who have serious criminal convictions or links to Nazi and soccer hooligan groups. The extreme group who stand for "Rights for Whites" and vigilante action against Muslims are expected to field a record 61 candidates nationwide next month. Eighteen are standing in Burnley and Oldham, which last summer witnessed the worst rioting in Britain for nearly two decades.

TERRIFYING: Riots in Oldham

The BNP even advocates illegal activity in campaign literature, such as pursuing people suspected of criminal acts even if they are cleared by the courts.

We can also reveal that Oldham BNP organiser Mick Treacy, who is standing in Hollinwood ward, has five convictions for violence and theft. He has forged close links with Robert Bennett, who is understood to work as a postman. And BNP stalwart David Probert has convictions for sending packets of excreta and pornography to Labour councillors and for using threatening words and behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace.

Another candidate, Darren Dobson, who is standing in Royton North, was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment by Oldham magistrates last November and fined £300.

Bizarrely, despite the BNP's clear links with crime, a newsletter declares its councillors would push for a policy of "zero tolerance" for criminal offenders.

They also want an end to grants for ethnic organisations and say that improvements on rundown estates should be targeted at helping "British" families.