Gay Activist Assaulted By Police
Larry O'Hara | 18.05.2004 20:09 | Social Struggles
photograph of leading gay activist Terry Blackham being assaulted by a Police officer while Mr Blackham was attempting to make legal representations upon his behalf in Peterboro last weekend.
Leading gay activist Terry Blackham was arrested and assualted in Peterboro last wekend attempting to enter the police station to free his long term partner Martin Webster.
Blackham from Kent, was attempting to deliver a selection of books of interest to Martin while he was being held on trumped up charges.
It is the seventh time Mr Webster has has been arrested for his activities and Terry, 35, was there to protest a ruling made by the local magistrate that neither should have access to their foster children Jemima and Alan while the investigation against them both are continuing.
Among those giving Mr Webster and Mr Blackham moral support is former Labour parliamentary candidate, Peter Tatchell who formally shared a home with Mr Blackham.
Terry told a small crowd of friends and associates that he felt "sore and violated" after his rough treatment by the burly police officer seen confronting Mr Blackham.
The police refused to comment, though Terry says he will be back in Peterboro where his partner Mr Webster was arrested for allegedly "fondling" young children. Mr Blackham says his partner denies the charges, and that "the real issue is the police brutality."
Blackham from Kent, was attempting to deliver a selection of books of interest to Martin while he was being held on trumped up charges.
It is the seventh time Mr Webster has has been arrested for his activities and Terry, 35, was there to protest a ruling made by the local magistrate that neither should have access to their foster children Jemima and Alan while the investigation against them both are continuing.
Among those giving Mr Webster and Mr Blackham moral support is former Labour parliamentary candidate, Peter Tatchell who formally shared a home with Mr Blackham.
Terry told a small crowd of friends and associates that he felt "sore and violated" after his rough treatment by the burly police officer seen confronting Mr Blackham.
The police refused to comment, though Terry says he will be back in Peterboro where his partner Mr Webster was arrested for allegedly "fondling" young children. Mr Blackham says his partner denies the charges, and that "the real issue is the police brutality."
Larry O'Hara
Comments
Hide the following 31 comments
Gay Law Graduate To The Rescue
18.05.2004 20:32
Nice jacket
Nicky Cottaging
Grab a load of me 'ten inch cock'...
19.05.2004 01:22
Liberty for All!
Screw the cops.
A.C.A.B
libellous hoax
21.05.2004 19:30
Peter Tatchell
another tedious hoax
22.05.2004 19:34
LarryO'Hara
e-mail: drlarryohara@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://www.borderland.co.uk
It may be a lot of things.....
23.05.2004 01:05
Fancy blaming Searchlight. Larry sounds like someone with a fascist paranoia.
Liam Mature
O'Hara is a clown
23.05.2004 09:10
Looking forward to seeing your knee caps going missing, Larry. It is the talk of the town down here in the big smoke.
Peter Files
Is O'Hara getting a bit from Tatchell?
23.05.2004 12:53
Terry
A quick, meaningful comment
23.05.2004 16:11
Larry O'Hara has flitted between Nazi groups and the progressive movement, all the time spreading lies and disinformation about anyone or any organisation that should see fit to disagree with him. That he has obviously taken it upon himself to attach his 'services' to Peter Tathcell's organisation of child molesters and kiddy buggerers is another indication of the damaging work that O'Hara is involved in.
A few years ago Tracey Evans, a CND activist and good comrade from Wrexham, undertook a relationship of sorts with O'Hara that ended acrimoniously. They had some issues, mostly with O'Hara's drinking and violent, paranoid temper. Among other incidents, O'Hara was caught opening her mail (including gas and electricity bills,) and accusing her of sleeping with Gerry Gable (!!!!) and working for Special Branch!
The relationship culminated with O'Hara being given a verbal warning by the plod and told to leave Wrexham or face a non-molestation order. Since that occurence, Tracey (with whom I now have a relationship,) has faced an endless barrage of filth and bile from O'Hara including accusations that the Mother of two (for she is) is actually a highly paid MI5 informant/Special Branch informer/Lesbian/Adultress etc, etc.
My partner confirms that "Larry" also engages in such acts the article above to rise his profile by first posting it, then denying it, then claiming conspiracy.
I also have photos of my girlfriend's injuries which Larry inflicted upon her when removed from her house by persons connected with the CND collective in Wrexham. Larry O'Hara is a very sad, and dangerous, individual. He is also the author of this original article and I would persume, the posts that followed it.
Matthew Collins
Mathew Collins
e-mail: collinsmf@hotmail.com
Larry O'Hara
23.05.2004 17:48
A fucking good knee-capping for Larry "CI5" O'Hara.
Nick Green
About time too
23.05.2004 22:31
Obviously not getting the publicity he so craves, he has turned to Indy Media to get some.
Yes, the article is false, but I think it should remain, and the debate with it, as it has certainly opened a few wounds.
The article is by Larry himself, though of course I have nothing to do with Mr Blackham himself, who is after all, a nasty and closet "queer" as he so calls those of us so "inflicted".
I believe my comments on Nick Griffin are already a matter that is on public record so I will not go into them anymore here, though I am glad that Terry's hypocrisy has been hilighted.
Jesus Larry, just print the story, don't start a whole smoke screeen instead.
Martin.
Martin W.
The Twilight Zone
23.05.2004 23:13
Larry O'Hara runs a low circulation fringe mag called 'Notes from the Borderland' which has a long-running mutual ding dong with another low circulation fringe mag called 'Searchlight.' The latter, which is a bit like the ‘National Enquirer’ sometimes has devoted entire double page spreads to attacking O’Hara, who has brought out little booklets denouncing Searchlight in response.
Matthew Collins's name appears on numerous articles in ‘Searchlight’, whether he writes them himself or not, or like the old 'Ray Hill columns' they are really written by others I do not know. He recently left Australia. Elsewhere on Indymedia it is claimed he was forced to leave because he had tried to kill someone. I'm sure Mr Collins can refute this slur on his character.
Terry Blackham is a leading member of the National Front, which these days is a very, very small party. To my knowledge, he has never been a lover of either Martin Webster or Peter Tatchell.
'Big Mart' Webster used to be leader of the NF until he was overthrown more than 20 years ago doncha know. He said he liked to have 'robust young men' in the party.
Peter Rushton is the press officer of the White Nationalist Party, and two years ago was kicked out of the BNP because he was accused of being a Searchlight spy. He’s received a few adverse comments from O’Hara in print, although no accusations about his sex life – which is just as well as he’s probably never had one.
Larry is a very rude man and has upset a lot of people. Having seen O’Hara’s gumff before I’ve never seen stuff by him like the main article though – if he did attack Blackham it would be to accuse him of being a ‘state asset’ or something. More likely by someone who
(a)wants to piss off both Blackham and Griffin big time by calling them big nelly queens
(b)get O’Hara beaten up by both the NF and BNP in retaliation
(c)smear Tatchell by linking him with Nazis and paedophilia – recent allegations about Copeland case, naughty, naughty, naughty
Funny that the “Matthew Collins” on here (not necessarily the real one) repeats the accusation of paedophilia against Tatchell’s group Also funny is his insistence that O’Hara wrote the piece, which he cannot know unless he runs the site and can check peoples ISP numbers or something. Maybe the Terry is not a real Terry and the Martin W not a real Martin W as well.
Do await the next issue of Searchlight with bated breath (as always) to see if they repeat such claims and then all will be clear.
Others with an obsessive hatred of O’Hara include the hugely talented (cough!) Stewart Home who has written major hits such as ‘Spook Fever’ in Larry’s honour.
Motive? Does there have to be one beyond general shit stirring?
If they haven’t already done so under false names expect the likes of Tim Hepple, Ray Hill, Gerry Gable, Nick Lowles, Darren Wells, Fabian Tompsett, Tony White, David Appleyard, Ian Gomeche, Kevin Watmough, Krystian Whellans, Jamie Tees, and Athena McHugh to join in the fray and denounce some or all of the above and each other. See google for further info on such exciting characters. Fun times to be had by all.
Rod Serling
Homepage: http://www.rodserling.com
Of course he writes those articles
23.05.2004 23:51
O'Hara is one sick f**k.
Stuart Russell
Do Me A Favour
24.05.2004 00:04
The question is who got his missus pregnant when he was in the nick?
The answer of course is Tony, but that has not stopped Larry saying that I did.
Your sick O'harra
Beefy
Lies and damn lies
24.05.2004 13:37
We have little doubt that this state-engineered smear campaign is related to Notes from the Borderland's investigations into both Matthew Collins and the Copeland case. For those interested, see NFB Issue 2 with its definitive article on Collins, page 32-33, NFB Issue 3 p.59 on Collins and pages 14-38 on Copeland, and the revelatory article on the Copeland case in the current issue of NFB No 5. Website for contacts and orders is www.borderland.co.uk
Searchlight and their cronies have never referred to Notes from the Borderland in print - so much for this so-called public debaste! So far, this indymedia strand has consisted of several hoax emails and personal/physical abuse - it looks like Indymedia's open policy has been severely abused but again little sign of abuse, as both Tatchell and O'Hara have claimed that these attacks are both hoax and libel. It is also revealing that a Simon Forbes has recently published a story on the Copeland case and the Admiral duncan bombing on the Outrage website, mentioning both Tatchell and Notes from the Borderland/O'Hara - see this article at http://outrage.nabumedia.com/feature-forbes.asp
It is interesting also our enemies accuse O'Hara/NFB of libel and slurs. Our magazine address is well known - BM4769, London WC1N 3xx - yet we have never ever received any writs, legal documents, or even reasoned critiques, that's because we print the truth and the state, Searchlight and their cronies and others don't like this. We hope to discover who planted this original hoax and who has been mailing this libellous drivel about O'Hara and Tatchell to indymedia - indymedia must also look to their own guidelines and responsibilities - so anyone with any information, feel free to tell us via our website. What our enemies dont like is that we tell the truth and, whilst Notes from the Borderland is not funded other than through our own pockets leading to frequent indebtedness, we will both continue to expose tha nasties and increase our circulation and subscriptions. If your handed a bunch of lemons, all you can do is make lemon juice.
Todd
Homepage: http://www.borderland.co.uk
Antifash unite
24.05.2004 13:43
kirsty
Interesting, this
24.05.2004 16:02
I have actually never read the libels in Borderland and to be honest, cannot be bothered as the readership of Borderland is apparently tiny and therefore insignificant.
To describe O'Hara as an antifascist of any kind is however dubious. Making friends with nazis is hardly the work of a good antifascist, neither is being their errand boy.
I am not the poster above who uses my name, nor have I ever had any grievance with Peter Tatchell or the work that he does. If Mr O'Hara was to make available to me his claims/libels I would be most willing o deal with the matter with him, in person, though of course not in the matter that it has been suggested on here.
I can assure you that my life has been far less exciting than Larry would have any of you believe, of course if he was anything of a researcher, he would probably know that himself.
Mr Collins Himself
S'funny thing that outrage site
24.05.2004 16:08
Where Harry wished he worked.
Mr Collins Himself (again)
Matthew Collins: more fantasies
24.05.2004 17:09
Bearing this in mind, consider the utter illogicalitty (stupidity even) of Collins claiming on the one hand never to have read what we have said about him in NFB, yet on the other hand using the words "libellous" to describe our research findings! NFB would nevertheless be happy to print a response by Collins provided he
(a) sends us a copy of his evidence to the Lawrence Inquiry, presently not accessible.
(b) arranges for an equivalent right of reply/space in Searchlight to any we afford him in Borderland. On the conditions that just as we will not censor him (although reserve the right to reply) Searchlight does not censor me either.
As for lies concerning 'making friends' with Nazis, no Mr Collins, I am not a friend of Ray Hill, Tim Hepple, Sonia Hochfelder/Gable, Peter Rushton, yourself & all the assorted other Nazis on Searchlight's staff. All these & other smears were adequately answered 7 years ago in 'Searchlight Fiction Pulped' (available still from NFB).
Finally, to those readers bewildered by all this, there is one central fact to consider--in my opinion this whole strand of abuse/hoaxing was triggered ultimately by the fact that some of the truth concerning MI5/Special Branch allowing Nazi David Copekland a license to murder by bombing in Soho 1999 is beginning to unravel. Notice, if you will, how Collins refers to the Outrage site as a means of advertising SEarchlight but does not deal at all with any of this. As a Met POlice lackey that is to be expected of him, but I urge readers to check out the Outrage site, & also Gay.com UK 30/4/04 (story by Ben Townley) to see some of what the current controversy is about, then check out NFB's coverage. More will be said of this in the nerxt NFB but I will reveal here that one of the three 'lay advisors' to New Scotland Yard complicit in covering up for the state in this scandal is none other than Searchlight owner Gerry Gable. No surprise there, for just as Collins admitted to the Observer newspaper (1/5/99) he had worked for MI5, so too Gable has in the past (The Gable Memorandum) admitted dealings with such.
The basic message NFB has for Indymedia readers is this--ignore the abuse & utterly fictitious libels/evasions (eg I've never even been to Wrexham, much less been thrown out of there, or ever met this alleged CND activist etc. etc.), instead concentrate on the Copelans scandal that many want to bury. Do not be deterred by the weasel attitude of 'Collins' that because a story is little known it can be safely ignored. And while we're at it, it is patently clear that the SEarchlight/UAF 'strategy' for opposing the BNP has run into the sands too--check out NFB 5 for an alternative.
Larry O'Hara
e-mail: drlarryohara@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://www.borderland.co.uk
No such article with such a quote exists
24.05.2004 17:50
There is of course no such admittance to having worked for MI5 in the article you mention. I've heard you say this before. It is not true, it is not in any article, hence when that lie is repeated by those who listen to your paranoid smears, he gets large retractions. So far this year the BBC, the Guardian and The Independent have retracted that. And he suppossedly admitted it? Strange Larry, very strange. You seem to have a real problem with Collins, yet you have never even met the bloke or seen him close up. More nonsense Larry, absolute bullshit I'm afraid.
As far as I am aware, you accused Collins of having targetted you but could not prove it. Furthermore, he's denied it strongly and angrily when it was actually put to him at a meeting I attended couple of weeks ago. (No Larry, not at MI5 HQ, but at the postal workers union meeting)At the meeting, he was obviously given a rough time by a number of people there (more than the combined readership of both Searchlight and your paper/rag/mag,) but he answered all the accusations that were thrown at him (including yours,) and reitterated again that he would have happily done so to your face had you the decency/common sense to put them to him personally. As he is not the Editor of Searchlight, how could he offer you those things that you ask when you so obviously have such bad research?
Now, we're treading on dangerous turf here if you are asserting that Gable and co are involved in some enormous conspiracy in hiding information relevant to murdera. Again, still no proof from you Larry, just conjecture and mud slinging. I suggest you put up or shut up with your wild claims. This is how you should do it:
a)Cut and paste what "Collins" claims not to have seen here
b) Ring Collins/Searchlight for a comment in future
c) Most definitely (because no such article exists, Larry) cut and paste this mysterious Observor article, which apparently nobody but you has seen.
The evidence to the Lawrence inquiry is of course, available in the report that followed. Collins gave evidence in camera, but it is available in the MacPherson report. Are you that lazy?
More sloppy research on your behalf.
Please be so kind as to produce the article(s) on Collins here immediately.
Let's see who Larry thinks I am.
More Disinformation from Searchlight/the State
24.05.2004 20:01
1) Those who want to see what we have written about Collins can buy the relevant NFB: or send an SAE & two first class stamps to the 'Matthew Collins Doppelganger Competition, Notes From the Borderland, BM Box 4769, London, WC1N 3XX'.
2) It is interesting that Collins claims to have fully refuted arguments he has never seen--very clever (not) indeed.
3) As for ringing Searchlight/Collins for a comment--laughable. Have they ever done that before any of their 25 or so smears of me, including running stories implying I , a Catholic, have been involved in gun-running between Nazis & Loyalists? No. So I won't--but I will allow right of reply, something Searchlight does not do, and that includes Matthew Collins. I will also, as previously stated many times, be happy, providing my security is guaranteed, to engage in free & open public debate with scum like Collins or whoever else Searchlight wants to put up.
4) You no doubt suggested I cut & paste the Observer piece (dated 2/5/99, not 1/5/99 as I mistakenly put last time) having already ascertained that when you go to the Observer archive for that day, only the piece title & intro is there, the rest of it 'cannot be displayed'. But don't worry, just for you (whoever you are) we'll reproduce it next NFB, with the security service bit hgigh-lighted. Interestingly, the Observer at the time had the piece as by Dorota Norowicz or some such--whereas the archive admits it was none other than Yvonne Ridley, whose pro-MI5 stories are alluded to in the latest NFB (p.6). Small small world.
5) Your denial Collins is a Met Police lackey is undermined somewhat (to put it mildly) by, for example, the piece by Jason Bennetto in the Independent (26/01/04) on how a booklet Collins supposedly wrote is being used by the Met, Prison Service etc. No doubt you'll deny Gable or Lee Jasper are Met Police lackeys next.
6) Matthew Collins' evidence is not, as you well know, in the Macpherson Report, & when I wrote to the Reports publisher's to obtain it, I was told it was not publicly available.
Finally, and most importantly, yes, in relation to the Copeland case, I am accusing Gable/Searchlight/MI5/Special Branch of being complicit to/covering up the murders he carried out, and not preventing them when they could have done so--and the detail is laid down in the NFB articles in issue 3 & issue 5. To repeatedly ask me to produce evidence when I have already done so is, shall I put it thus, a trifle mendacious, but the hall-mark of a true charlatan. What was important about the Outrage/Gay.com stories recently (see above) is they provide further proof it is not just NFB taking up this matter, and rest assured, NFB will returning to it yet again, in more detail. I again ask Indymedia readers to realise this is not merely a spat between two (or more) sides as bad as each other--this whole exchange is because Mr Anonymous, Matthew Collins (or should that be Matthew Collins?) and company are desperate to suppress this story, which is thankfully beginning to surface.
Larry O'Hara
e-mail: drlarryohara@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://www.borderland.co.uk
This is (not) interesting
24.05.2004 23:02
Yes, I am the real Mr Collins, or "scum" as you so put it.
I shall email you privately and away from this forum should you wish to continue this discussion or meet with me in person.
As for the other imposters on this board, I am tres amused that they should take the time to immitate me!
I am however well aware of Indymedia and Mr O'Hara as has been stated previously by other person(s) using my name. I am not however or ever have been a member of the INLA/IRSP. The last time I heard this a Fleet Street/television no-mark wrote asmuch in an internal NF bulletin. That's interesting that it should resurface here.
Larry, I have never given an interview to the Observer, would you please supply a link to the opening paragraph or whatsover it is, so that I may be aware of it for future reference.
I can only take it on face value from what I have seen and read here that the person posting under the name 'Larry O'Hara' is the person that this thread purpots it to be.
To clear up a few things however;
1)I do not have any issues with Peter Tatchell or Outrage.
2)I am not on record anywhere (to my knowledge) of ever having "admitted" to working for MI5. Should this article exist, I am certain that people would have drawn it to my attention at the time. I will take appropriate action (assuming there is no time limit on these things??) should such a piece exist. I have never been interviewd by the Observer or any of the writers' that this mystery article alludes to be written by. I will say however, repeating a libel is also a libel. I have asked for proof it exists, none exists, apparently. Very convenient.
3) I have never dated a member of CND, let alone been to Wrexham, or Wales in fact.
4) I do not work for the police, neither am I their errand boy or such thing. Draw your own conclusions from the Independent article, which says that the police have utilised Signs of Hate as a tool. Good for them.
5) I take great offence to being calleed "scum", when as he has been asked, O'Hara refuses to upload the piece he has been asked to by other posters' on here in which he has such damning evidence against me.
6)This is a strange thread, not I agree, particularly humorous either. Whether Larry did post it then respond simply to draw attention to himself/his hatred of Searchlight etc, I cannot and will not comment. But I do know that any serious researcher or journalist would obviously have taken the time to contact me (it's hardly impossible, is it?) to varify or at least gain comment from the subject.
7) I did speak at the post office workers union, I assume you are the chap who rung my mobile? Thanks for that.
8)I will not be knee-capping anyone.
9) Kindly desist from immitating me, though it could be seen as flattering. It is not though.
Matthew Collins
There is no article on the Observer website, Larry!!
24.05.2004 23:33
I'll post it here seems at it is impossible for Larry to do it
Focus: Inside Britain's neo-Nazis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One man's war against his demons
When Matthew Collins became sickened by his far-right BNP comrades, he betrayed them. He tells Rosie Boycott his story
Sunday March 10, 2002
The Observer
Matthew Collins knew he was taking a big risk when he agreed to appear on a TV programme to expose Combat 18, the far-right terror group that began its life as a security wing of the British National Party.
As a mole for four years, he had secretly passed information to Searchlight , an anti-fascist magazine, about his work for the National Front and the BNP. Being caught would have cost him his life.
Although an actor was used to tell his story, police warned Collins his life was in danger just two days later. 'They're going to shoot you. Your former friends in the National Front and the BNP would like nothing more than to see you dead,' a Special Branch officer said.
After telling the police all he knew, the 21-year-old was given a fixed residency visa for a Commonwealth country and put on a plane to a new life. 'I'd left behind my family, my job, my girlfriend, everything that was dear to me. I was terrified - not just in terms of what I had left behind, but what I actually had to do now, all on my own.'
Collins will tell me his story tomorrow as part of a new BBC2 programme called Life etc which features people who have had to confront tough, often unthinkable, situations. He returned to Britain under a cover name to tell his story because he fears that the far Right is becoming a stronger presence every day.
He grew up in a tough, deprived part of south London with high unemployment. When the National Front started handing out leaflets they found a willing recruit. 'The far Right breeds in areas of greatest social deprivation. The main political parties don't bother to get their hands dirty with areas like where I grew up. Our votes don't count.
'I probably hate the Labour Party most, because they are meant to be for the working man. In fact, they despise us. They're a disaster and a failure and very middle-class. The NF and BNP understood that - they gave a voice and a direction to all that anger, all that pointlessness and waste.'
One edition of the BNP newspaper had an obituary of Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess. 'It was dangerous and exciting. So I got in touch with them.' They invited him to a meeting at a pub in Bromley, where he was told that the Holocaust was a hoax and the Jews were poisoning water supplies.
Collins was sceptical but he liked the camaraderie. He liked being 15 and drinking in the pub with a bunch of older blokes. Soon he met Richard Edmonds, a former teacher whose home in Welling served as the BNP headquarters. Edmonds took Collins under his wing. He said: 'They were good to me. I belonged, I felt included, part of it.' There is no suggestion that Edmonds sanctioned, or even knew about, the later threats against Collins.
He became a full-time employee of the BNP - writing the press releases, working directly under the chairman. 'I was privy to a lot of information. I was the person who always answered the phone.' He was, he admitted, mixing with 'psychopaths, dirty old men, football hooligans, thieves, Jew-haters, black-haters, people that went on to become involved in murder, with supplying firearms.'
He went on marches and regularly got beaten up. In his eyes, everyone who wasn't inside the exclusive club was the enemy. Blacks, Jews, immigrants of all kinds, but their most virulent anger was reserved for the anti-fascist action groups, members of the Socialist Workers Party, and often the police.
Belonging to the group gave him a feeling of power. 'If you went into a pub, people would automatically know and they'd look into their beers or turn away. I thought I was morally right. I felt untouchable. A lot of the people involved had unhappy childhoods, no brothers or sisters, not much hope. In the group we felt empowered with family spirit.'
Collins served his masters well. He appeared 'quite presentable and reasonably artic ulate' in comparison with his colleagues. He was almost too successful - more seasoned members began to resent his rapid promotions and his closeness to the older leaders.
His rejection of the far Right and all it offered came in 1989. In what was dubbed 'the battle of Welling library', 40 men viciously attacked a group of elderly people who were protesting about the BNP setting up their head office in that area of south London
Collins was unaware that his superiors had drafted in a squad of football hooligans from Essex to help foment trouble. 'When we got to the meeting it was just a whole lot of old women. I saw an elected official of the BNP with a motorcycle helmet in one hand and a hammer in the other.
'People were kicking and punching, I was too, I hit someone in the face. They fell down. People were stamping on fallen bodies. They picked them up off the floor and hit them again. I'd been involved in lots of fights but I'd never seen anything as terrifying and pointless as this.
'I left and ran off - feeling physically sick. I sat in my bedroom for the rest of the evening, I couldn't believe anyone wasn't killed.'
Nine people ended up in hospital. Two days later, still frightened, he went back to the local BNP headquarters. 'They were sitting around, talking about how they'd bashed those Reds and those Pakis. But they weren't - they were women. Old women.'
Collins was asked to contribute towards a fund for the four men who had been arrested after the attack. 'I thought, this is unbelievable, and it set me thinking. These were the same people who'd told me the Holocaust didn't happen and now they're telling me what a wonderful thing it is that 40 grown men attack a meeting of women. It had been so violent they didn't even show it on the TV.'
It was time to act. Scared and bewildered, he phoned Searchlight , the anti-fascist magazine and organisation set up by a man called Gerry Gable. By carrying on with his BNP activities and talking to Searchlight he could provide intelligence that might help to combat fascism.
'I couldn't just quit. It was my life. I'd forgone everything for the far Right by this time. They were my only friends, my social life, everything. They were psychopaths, but they were my friends.'
He began taking enormous risks, often phoning the Searchlight office from his desk at the BNP head office. 'The party knew they had informers in their midst. Suspicion alone had led to broken legs or arms, being beaten unconscious, setting fire to your house, breaking all your windows. I felt scared for my family, but I had to do it.'
Gable soon wanted a face-to-face meeting. 'We used to meet in the various museums around central London. They gave me the pseudonym Brian. The first meeting was terrifying. Searchlight was the most hated and despised magazine. There were stories in the far Right that Gable was a baby-eater, an evil person who hated the white race.
'When I met him I thought he was a pretty normal bloke. We had tea and scones. It was clear that I knew a great deal about the Right. I realised he must have other agents in the organisation and I felt comfortable with that.'
Gable's relationship with Collins soon became paternal. He would give him books on poetry and art which Collins would put at the other end of his bookshelf from the books Richard Edmonds had given him on Holocaust denial and other right-wing tracts.
He passed on names of people who'd been involved in particular incidents, dates of forthcoming demonstrations, told who was attending branch meetings, identified people in photographs and once gave details of a plan to desecrate Jewish graves. Gable paid him in book tokens.
'I was scared all the time. I cut down my drinking with the Nazis - I'd just have shandy so that I didn't slip up. Then I pretended that I'd had a religious conversion so that I had an excuse not to turn up to demos on Sundays.'
Collins resigned from his full-time employment and got work as a security guard, but carried on being the chairman of the South London BNP. He would sit in its offices going through the files, late into the night. No one suspected him. He was still only 19.
Despite his work informing on the BNP, he was also instrumental in exposing Combat 18, the far Right terror group that began life as a 'security wing' for the activists and which also had links with loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. Collins took part in the World in Action documentary which resulted in his forced exile from Britain and his information led to the arrests of three men.
His recent trip to Britain was his first in many years. He visited his mother and went to a football match. He misses home but thinks little has changed. He is also alarmed at the growing support for the BNP in flashpoint areas such as Oldham and Bradford.
'Politicians ignore the underclass that I grew up in, the people joining the far Right in places like Bradford and Oldham, at their peril. This isn't going away.'
Rosie Boycott talks to Matthew Collins on BBC2's Life Etc, tomorrow at 7.30pm.
Old Speckled Hen
More twilight in the twilight zone
25.05.2004 00:10
There must be enough clues for those in the know by now to ID both the fake Collins and the fake O'Hara - prob the same person. The INLA/NF internal bulletin clue may be crucial.
You couldn't make it up - although apparently somebody has. Do not adjust your PC screens what you are about to see...
Rod Serling
Homepage: http://www.rodserling.com
Brainteaser
25.05.2004 05:39
Could this be some "playful" Neoist satire (hah ... hah ... haaah)? If so SH will probably give us a twirl at some point.
Or could it be some other people? - far more nasty and malicious, who will reamin hidden?
Rod Serling
Homepage: http://www.reodserling.com
DANCING IN THE TWILIGHT?
25.05.2004 09:15
Two further points. First, it is a bare-faced lie to say that there is no reference on the Observer web-site. All anybody has to do is go there, click archive, then put in the date 2/5/99, the name Matthew Collins and what comes up is 'Combat 18 infiltrator warns of copycat attacks by Yvonne Ridley May 02 1999. A chilling portarait of Combat 18...has been provided by an undercover agent". The article then stops, & next page states that there is a link problem, and to get it rectified you have to submit a request, and, it seems, be a subscriber to the online service. Which we are not, and do not intend to be, so could not pursue it. Old Speckled Hen knows all this of course, they are hoping browsers will not see our reference was not to the March 2002 article, but the May 1999 one, not by Boycott, but Ridley. My last point is simply this--what started off with a bogus posting in Larry's name was soon transformed into a non-debate concerning Matthew Collins. Why exactly, should we at NFB respond to demands from anonymous cowards who dare not debate with us in public, or the pages of Searchlight? As all contributors sympathetic to NFB have pointed out, the real issue of importance is the Copeland scandal--which is we believe the real story that needs to be covered. We again suggest browsers do that. While I have put my email address on here, the only 100% sure way of getting a bona fide NFB on this or other matters is to go onto our web-site 'borderland.co.uk' and follow the prompts to send us an email, which will get a response.
HEIDI SVENSON
e-mail: heidisvenson.fem@yahoo.co.uk
who created the hoax? and how did Collins get involved?
25.05.2004 15:08
1. who created the original hoax, purporting to be O'Hara and libelling Tatchell? and who later created the next glaringly obvious hoax to do with a supposed Tracey Evans and Wrexham? This one libelling O'Hara - my guess would be the wanker Stewart Home, who considers himself an artist but is really a Tony Wakeford acolyte and a more sinister figure, having harassed for example Robin Ramsey of Lobster magazine.
2. How actually did the real Matthew Collins get involved? It was originally nothing to do with Collins but then someone using a pseudonym alludes to him and then Collins name starts to appear, finishing with what appears to be the real Collins, accusing others of imitating him! A rather bizarre twist - but this thread is not really visible now so who told Collins about it or was he aware of the whole hoax story from the start?
3. What's all this shit - lies - about Wrexham CND got to do with it? Why?
4. Why was the hoax perpetrated? Usually because of higher stakes - is it because tv documentary films are presently investigating the Outrage story on the Copeland bombings originally covered in Notes from the Borderland? Sounds quite feasible. This would certainly rattle Home, Searchlight and the state who dont want O'Hara getting publicity.
pedro casillas
The Observer Article 2 May 1999
25.05.2004 21:05
Talking of C18 paragraph two states "Matthew Collins informed on the groups activities to the anti-fascist Searchlight organisation and the security services for three years until he was exposed"
The article concludes that Mr Collins was not paid for the interview, but the Observer instead made a donation to the Searchlight Educational Trust.
Is that too difficult to remember Matthew?
Rosie Boycott
Who is Rod Sterling????????????????????????
26.05.2004 16:30
I am unawares has to how my name came up in this list! I, and any decent person refuse to be likened to the Combat 18 scum named Watmough!
Needless to say, I had to change my name following Police advice after a troll named Ian Gomeche attacked me in the holy name of NAZI SCUM and threatened to kill me!
So please - get your facts str8 Rod before labelling me OK!
Maybe do a Google on Ian Gomeche but i expect you are him!
Krystian Whellans
e-mail: krystian@krystianwhellans.com
Homepage: http://www.krystianwhellans.com
Finally, you own up!
26.05.2004 23:17
You have libelled three or four professional people engaged in the struggle(or whatever they wish to call it, ) then turn up on a hidden post!!
I don't think Collins, O'Hara or Tatchell will take much pity on you now.
You know
Indymedia should get this sorted
29.05.2004 12:21
Prince peter kropotkin
Indymedia does not log IP addresses
29.05.2004 20:33
cheers
an IMC admin