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A “NEONAZI” former soldier was today jailed for a year for stirring up racial hatred with an anti-semitic rant outside Downing Street.
Jeremy Bedford-Turner, 48, called for his “soldiers” to “free England from Jewish control” during a 15-minute hate speech in Whitehall in July 2015.
During a rally against Jewish community group Shomrim, Mr Bedford-Turner claimed that Jews were responsible for both world wars, Jack the Ripper and the Kray twins.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) initially decided not to charge him, but was forced to change its mind after the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) brought a legal challenge against the decision.
Prosecutor Louis Mably QC told Southwark Crown Court that Mr Bedford-Turner was “obsessed with Jewish people and he despises the Jewish race.”
After jurors took just two hours to convict Mr Bedford-Turner, judge David Tomlinson sentenced him to 12 months for his “poisonous” and “sinister” speech.
CAA chairman Gideon Falter said he was “delighted” by the result, but said: “The real question is why the Director of Public Prosecutions and CPS got this so dismally wrong.”
He criticised the CPS and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, saying: “It’s a damning indictment on her competence and on the CPS’s ability to defend British Jews.
“It should never have been needed for us to fight this case and we certainly should not have had to fight a DPP, who at times appeared determined to defend this neonazi’s right to incite hatred against British Jews.”
