The trial of ‘Wigan Mike’ Heaton and Trevor Hannington began this week and it has caused a few micro-ripples on the internet. The 2 Nazis are charged with "using threatening or abusive language likely to stir up racial hatred" which relates to comments on the now defunct Aryan Strike Force website. Their trial follows on from that of Sheppard and Whittle who were jailed last year for “publishing racially inflammatory material, distributing racially inflammatory material and possessing racially inflammatory material with a view to distribution” and the sentences they got do not bode well for Heaton and Hannington. Nor do the sentences passed down to the Davidsons, the Newcastle father and son terror-clown act, who got jailed for setting up the ASF site this year and possessing ricin. Heaton pleaded guilty to 5 charges despite having denied them initially. Having assessed the situation he presumably changed his plea in order to get a lighter sentence. However, he is contesting the ‘soliciting to commit murder’ charges.

Heaton is out on bail whilst Hannington languishes in jail for the duration. Heaton has also been told to keep away from the English Defence League and other Nazi cliques. However, a question remains unanswered. When Heaton and Hannington were first arrested, Heaton was released whilst Hannington was remanded. On the VNNuk forum at the time several posters queried this but Liam Pinkham posting as Pino88 said that the British Freedom Fighters (another obscure Nazi grupuscule) would be releasing a statement to clarify this. We are still waiting. A poster on Stormfront has also been asking the same question and according to them Pinkham has since been booted out of the BFF having been accused of passing info to the cops and having an underage girlfriend. These rumours are being spread without being substantiated but someone has got it in for him. The Nazi websites are monitoring proceedings closely and although the NWN, VNN and Stormfronters are often at odds with each other some posters have expressed concerns over things they have previously posted that may be used against them in similar cases.

EDL
The article about Heaton and Hannington was posted on the EDL forum which elicited some interesting responses. It seems that the left know more about who is in the EDL than they do themselves as the EDL apparently still believe that there are no racists, BNP members or fascists amongst their numbers despite all the photographic evidence to the contrary. On the EDL forum one poster claims that although Heaton (and Pinkham) may have gone on the earlier demos (which they did) they have since been booted: ‘mike heatons barred from demos anyway isnt he? (aka wigan mike - pinos buddy)’ and another says ‘Wigan Mike turned up in Leeds but not many people knew who he was, he was there with another well known lad from Leeds. He was banned from demos along with Mr pino from both the forums and demos there after when people realised who he was.’ So we can assume Heaton is not going to be seen at the EDL demo’s for a while.

The EDL have also called off the proposed demo in Tower Hamlets later this month following the cancellation of the meeting they were protesting. The EDL are claiming a victory. The local council have cited public order concerns. The EDL are now proposing to go to Wembley the following week to protest the Al-Khair Peace Convention where a ‘controversial’ Muslim cleric Zakir Naik will be speaking. Many militant anti-fascists will be unconcerned that the Troxy conference is cancelled as we oppose all religious dogmatism. But the EDL, in their usual political naivety, will think that any demonstration against them in East London is therefore in support of radical Islamists rather than to oppose a bunch of pissed up hooligans marching about to ‘make a point’ and causing annoyance in our communities. Thanks to the EDL the ‘Islamification’ of Europe has been temporarily halted. Phew!