Liverpool court to sentence race hate Nazis

Two men who peddled a creed of vile race hate against jews and black people on the internet, are facing jail terms of up to seven years.

Food packer Michael Heaton, 42, idolised Nazi warlord Rudolf Hess and kept piles of memorabilia including swaztikas and a fearsome armory of weapons.

After a 12 day trial at Liverpool Crown Court Heaton was convicted on four counts of "using threatening and abusive language likely to stir up racial hatred".

At an earlier hearing, his co-defendant Trevor Hannington, 58, admitted six further counts of using threatning and abusive language, and possessing notorious terrorism handbooks "The Anarchists Cookbook" and "The Complete Improvise Kitchen".

The jury heard that both Hannington and Heaton published a string of vile messages on the Aryan Strike Force website, which the pair operated together, between January and June 2008.

Hannington, of Cardiff, South Wales, described as a lonely "Walter Mitty" character, also admitted posting instructions for making a home made flame-thrower on the site operated from his home.

After four-and-a-half hours of deliberation the jury of seven men and five women returned guilty verdicts on the four charges against Heaton. He was found not guilty on two counts of "soliciting to murder".

Hannintong was also found not guilty of "soliciting to murder"..

As the verdict was delivered, stony-faced Heaton buried his head in his hands before turning to his young blonde girlfriend, who was at the back of the court.

She and another female, believed to be Heaton's daughter, wept and wailed as the pair were led from down to the cells, flanked by two security guards.

Hannington's hate-filled postings include messages which read: "Kill the Jew, Kill the Jew, Burn the synagogues, and Burn the Scum".

Heaton wrote, "Jews will always be scum, and must be destroyed, I would encourage any race who wants to destroy the Jews, I hate them with a passion."

During the 12 day trial, Mr. Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, told the court how "fantasist" Hannington lived a double life under the online alias of Fist, in a bid to appear more threatening to fellow members of the right wing group.

The court was also told of Heaton's connections with other convicted neo-nazi extremists, including Mark Atkinson, who was jailed for five years in 2005 for publishing racial hatred in a right-wing magazine called Stormer.

Heaton's relationship with another activist, named only as Maroney, was also described. Maroney is currently serving a life sentence after "fire-bombing" the home of a Yemeni neighbour, before firing a crossbow wildly down the street, and for sexually assaulting his girlfriend.

The court heard that Heaton, who describes himself as "slightly National Socialist", had expressed his anger at Maroney's conviction on the ASF website, writing: "Life, for singeing a Paki's grass!"

The court heard that Michael Heaton had made more than 3,000 obscene and inflammatory postings on the website under a string of pseudonyms while his co defendant operated under the aliases of Fist and Lee88.

During a search of Heaton's home, in Greater Manchester, detectives unearthed large quantities of Nazi and Hitler-related material, and a vast array of weapons.

A copy of the Nazi dictator's book, Mein Kampf, was also available to users of the website.

But in interview Heaton confessed that the man he really he idolised Hitler's upper-class henchman Rudolf Hess.

Throughout the trial, jurors were shown evidence of the pair's neo-nazi activities, including a series of videos designed for the training of extremists and activists which featured Mr Heaton violently attacking another man, in a demonstration of strength and aggression.

Members of the jury visibly winced as each blow was struck, and the thud echoed around the courtroom.

Further images showed 6 ft 2 inch Heaton at a Neo-Nazi demonstration in Manchester where he was seen making the Nazi salute.

Mr Edis added that in another posting, Heaton had written: "We are set up to be a force for action, not a gang of keyboard warriors. This is a street active militant organisation."

After a major bust-up with other Aryan Strike Force members, the court heard that Heaton had left the group to form his own extremist organisation known as the 'British Freedom Fighters'.

However, Hannington remained a leader of the ASF, whose mission statement was "We must secure the existence of our people and the future of our white children" - a quote from Mein Kampf.

Judge Stephen Irwin QC, will sentence both men on Friday morning on the charges which carry a maximum term of seven years.

Outside the court North East Anti-terrorism unit boss Det Chief Supt David Buxton, said: "Heaton and Hannington are white supremacists. They peddled hatred against innocent people, purely on the basis of their ethnicity, religion and culture.

"Their intolerance is obsessive and they clearly demonstrated the will and the potential to act on their views. We are thankful they have been denied the opportunity to do so."

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