Simon Sheppard & Stephen Whittle : “The Heretical Two” // Redwatch

http://www.heretical.com/

Prosecution of the Heretical Two (H2).

Simon Sheppard was found guilty on Friday July 14, 2008 of eleven counts of ‘race hate’ – all relating to internet publishing posted on servers in the U.S.A. Stephen Whittle (Luke O’Farrell) was found guilty on five counts also relating to internet publishing.

The case has some analogies with the (failed) extradition hearings in London for Dr Toben’s deportation for trial in Germany for ‘holocaust denial’ and with the Zundel trial. However the Germans claim jurisdiction over German nationals even if they post material on the internet abroad and / or live abroad. In the case of the H2 an English court is going further still by asserting jurisdiction over writings on the internet if they can be downloaded in England.

    Toben flies home to ‘freedom’, ABC, December 3, 2008, “South Australian man Frederick Toben has returned to Adelaide after avoiding a recent German attempt to extradite him from the United Kingdom…”

Simon’s remaining seven charges were to be considered by the jury on the following Monday. These related mainly to printed material on which the jury was unable to reach a decision. However, the authorities neglected to take their passports and they left over the weekend for Ireland, then flew to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and surrendered to officials in order to seek political asylum in the U.S.A.

The law over internet publishing in the UK has been reinterpreted without debate to end freedom of speech on the internet, presumably acting on the orders of their masters in the E.U. and the Heretical Two were facing the imminent prospect of lengthy prison sentences. They are currently being held under the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) System at Santa Ana Jail, P.O. Box 22003, Santa Ana, CA 92701, USA.

Simon’s prison number is 0800006404 and Stephen’s number is 0800006408…

The first immigration court session was held on September 17 with Bruce Leichty as defence attorney. The judge claimed that she did not have the power to release the Heretical Two under the defensive procedures adopted by the US authorities. The ‘asylum-only proceedings’ for the Heretical Two was heard by immigration judge, Rose Peters, on October 14. The move by their attorney to get them released before the ruling on asylum was denied by the judge, whose reasoning appeared contradictory.

At the ‘calendar meeting’ of the immigration court on Thursday 13 November – the judge set the merits (main) appeal for three afternoons in blocks of four hours from 2 pm on March 10, 12 and 24 of 2009. It therefore looks very likely that the H2 will spend at least another 4 months in prison in the USA for activities in America which the British government now deems to be crimes, i.e. exercising the right to free speech, but which ironically are not held to be crimes under American law.

Simon’s retrial on the outstanding six charges [one charge was dropped] was held in his absence, as the British government was not prepared to wait for the outcome of the political asylum proceedings in the US. The new trial commenced on Monday December 8 at Leeds Crown Court and was deferred on December 22 to January 5, 2009 – the following day the jury went out to deliberate and on January 8 found Simon guilty on three counts relating to Tales of the Holocaust and later in the day, by a majority verdict on two charges relating to Don’t be Sheeple – even Professor Rabkin’s cogent arguments that the Jews were a religion and not a race had failed to impress the jury.

Although the establishment have so far effectively managed to contain reporting on the trials and asylum attempt to cold and slanted reports in the Yorkshire media, without any discussion of the many issues arising the case, the Heretical Two are, at least, getting considerable publicity at last in this area – the most extensive being in the Yorkshire Post.

Simon Sheppard is a racist, right-wing lunatic, whose writings are both disturbing and occasionally funny — devoted to publicising theories of “procedural analysis”, racist theories and caricatures, holocaust denial and the inferiority of women. (Stephen Whittle wrote a column on Simon’s site about the ‘Brave Jew World’ the White Man is forced to inhabit: http://www.heretical.com/ofarrell/index.html.) Simon was also responsible for establishing ‘Redwatch’, a website dedicated to publishing photos of ‘Reds’ and asking The World if anyone knows who the Hell the people in the funny pictures are (names, aliases, homes, workplaces, telephone numbers, et cetera).

On 8 June 1999, Sheppard and David Hannam were arrested in Hull for distributing racist election literature on behalf of the British National Party. He was expelled from the BNP the same day (though not Hannam, who remains a senior administrator in the party), and on 14 June 2000, Sheppard was convicted at Hull Crown Court of publishing or distributing racially inflammatory material. According to his own website, Sheppard has been banned from every public library in Hull, Hull University and Hull College “merely for expressing opinions”.

Supposedly, Redwatch was largely the work of Tony Foy, Simon Sheppard, Kevin Watmough and Carol White; it is now — again, apparently — largely the work of Kev the Head. Kev is a member of a tiny nutzi party in the UK called the British People’s Party (BPP). The BPP’s most recent claim to fame was in October last year when a little more than a dozen hardy souls stood together outside a shop in Leeds. Or: Leeds Under Threat from ’90s Rap: BPP Takes Courageous Stand (to Popular Acclaim).

Redwatch – BBC 31.10.2007:

Since the BBC report, Redwatch has experienced some turbulence on teh Interwebs, and a number of its mirrors — redwatch.org.uk / redwatch.net / redwatch.org — have gone kaput!, but the site is still available here http://www.redwatchonline.org/indexx.html here http://www.aryanunity.com/redwatchonline//index2.html and here http://elvis.redwatch.org/. Redwatch Poland, while also having experienced some turbulence, and even prosecutions, is also still alive and well (see: http://www.redwatch.info/) as is http://www.antiantifa.net/.

Antifa England has made the following, rather disrespectful, remarks on the subject of Redwatch:

11/05: “Redwatch” – Do we care? Do we f**k!

Redwatch’ is a so-called fascist ‘hate-site’, where members of the far-right post pictures of the enemies they will ‘one day make pay’. While the site is undoubtedly designed to intimidate, as with many myths by and about fascists, and often circulated by the pseudo antifascist entity Searchlight, the reality about ‘Redwatch’, is very different to the fascist wanking fantasy they would like us to believe.

Experienced antifascists have long realised that fascist fantasies about ‘Aryan hard-men’, also long propagated by Searchlight, were far from the truth. The reality is that most fascists are snivelling little cowards.

So it is with ‘Redwatch’, the reality is very far from the myth Searchlight have helped to create. The site is filled with photos taken from Indymedia and suchlike, showing trade unionists, anti-war protestors, students, and liberal anti-racists. Along with the photos are a sprinkling of contact details gleaned from public sources. Much of this information is out of date, and frankly drivel.

Included in the glaring lack of information posted on ‘Redwatch’, mixed in with pictures of people who happened to go on a demo at some point in their lives, are pics of a few militant antifascists. But so what?

Do we really care that Kevin Watmough, the main architect of Redwatch, knows what a few of our comrades may look like? Do we f**k! Watmough, of 58 Abbeydale Oval, Leeds, LS5 3RF is typical of the fascist reality – A pathetic degenerate, who when he leaves his bedroom, shambles about in his dirty, un-ironed clothes, afraid to take his eyes from the pavement.

‘Redwatch’ may be violence by proxy, but there’s a big difference between Watmough cackling in his bedroom because he’s taken a new picture from Indymedia, and any threat. Despite the occasional secret gatherings of inbred swastika-wearing morons, the far-Right are not in a position to carry out their pathetic fantasies.

If it were not for the likelihood that we’d be inundated with unwanted pizza, and we thought these cowards would actually come to us for a change, we’d post up our addresses ourselves, so that we didn’t have to spend so much time chasing gutless Nazis.

The reality is that we know more about the fascists than they ever will about us, and unlike them we have the guts and determination to act. While we advise all antifascists to take their personal security seriously, ‘Redwatch’ is a joke.

Despite their well-publicised antipathy, the state manipulated bogey-man ‘Redwatch’, and the state affiliated Searchlight, enjoy an almost symbiotic relationship. If ‘Redwatch’ didn’t exist, then Searchlight would probably invent it – that’s if they didn’t anyway!

Searchlight on Redwatch:

Gerry Gable, British nazis exploit internet freedom, April 2003: “Last month’s jailing of a nazi thug [Tony White] led to an almost immediate reprisal against a teacher whose complaint to the police had resulted in the prosecution. The reason why the nazis could so easily exact their revenge by fire-bombing the teacher’s car was that details of the victim appeared on the nazi Redwatch website…”
Nick Lowles, Redwatch, November 2003: “Redwatch is the scourge of anti-racists everywhere…”
The case against Redwatch, September 2006: “It has become common wisdom that the authorities cannot act against Redwatch. It is hosted by a US server, so outside the jurisdiction of the British authorities, and as a result it is protected under the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which enshrines Freedom of Speech…”
Nick Lowles, It’s time to get Watty! – British nazi admits to running Redwatch, September 2006: “A veteran British nazi has publicly admitted to being behind the pernicious Redwatch website. Kevin Watmough, from West Yorkshire, made the claim in June on a nazi bulletin board. While Watmough’s role has long been known to Searchlight, this is the first time he has publicly confirmed his involvement in writing…”

About @ndy

I live in Melbourne, Australia. I like anarchy. I don't like nazis. I enjoy eating pizza and drinking beer. I barrack for the greatest football team on Earth: Collingwood Magpies. The 2024 premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.
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One Response to Simon Sheppard & Stephen Whittle : “The Heretical Two” // Redwatch

  1. Pingback: References on the web… | Free The Heretical Two

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