| Extreme group on trial for publishing race hate mags |
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An extreme right wing group worshipped David Copeland and printed instructions on how to imitate his nail bombs, a court heard today. The group - known as the Racial Volunteer Force - preached hatred against non-whites and sung the praises of Nazis including Rudolph Hess and Hitler, the Old Bailey heard. Those involved printed three editions of racist magazine Stormer which included articles entitled "How to build a Dave Copeland Special" and instructions on making a firebomb entitled "Roast a Rabbi." They also published vile racist abuse about murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence. When one of the member's houses was searched officers discovered a baseball bat with stickers of far right group Combat 18 on it and a "federal nigger hunting licence." Max Hill, prosecuting, told the court: "This case is about racial hatred and the activities of a small number of people acting together to publicise their collective hatred of non-white people. "The perpetrators of this hatred, these defendants, belong to what is commonly called the extreme right wing in this country. Although they cannot claim affiliation to any mainstream political party they join forces under various slogans and banners. "In particular the case concerns the RVF or Racial Volunteer Force." The court heard that Mark Atkinson, 38, of Surrey, Nigel Piggins, 39, of Hull, Jonathan Hill, 33, of Oldham, Lancashire, Steven Bostock, 27, of Urmston, Manchester, and Michael Denis, 30, of Tooting, south London, have pleaded guilty to plotting to publish material designed to stir up racial hatred. Kevin Quinn, 40, of Bedford, has admitted possession of other racist material. Mr Hill told the court that the RVF had derived from ultra-violent race hate group Combat 18. The first five men had been behind the production of three editions of racist magazine Stormer, named after a 1930s Nazi publication and riddled with Nazi imagery. Articles in it included abuse aimed at the police and praise for David Copeland, said Mr Hill. Another threatened undercover journalist Donal Macintyre, warning "RIP - a bounty is on his head, no stone will be left unturned." Others abused Jews and blacks and issue one of Stormer included a guide on how to make a nailbomb under the title of "David Copeland special". Mr Hill said: "David Copeland is the Soho bomber responsible for three explosions at the end of the 1990s. This is a step by step guide on how to build the sort of nail bomb device that was used by Copeland. "There are homages to Copeland spread amongst these magazines and this represents a viable device. The article reads 'keep your nails and metal projectiles in a bag of horse manure - when embedded in the burnt flesh the shit will poison the blood." The "editorial" of the issue read: "We say fuck the Old Bill and fuck all their Jewish paymasters." And another article, under the banner headline of "Roast a Rabbi", gave instructions on how to make a firebomb. The three editions of Stormer were produced between 2002 and 2003. Mr Hill said that the RVF had put much of the Stormer material onto their website. He said that Piggins had also admitted distributing copies of DVDs featuring racist band Skrewdriver, whose songs incude "Jonny joined the Klan", about Chuck Berry, and another dedicated to Rudoplh Hess, labelling him "one of the greatest heroes of the white race". When Quinn's house was searched police found Nazi booklets entitled "The Longest Hatred". They also found a bust of Hitler and a copy of Mein Kampf. The men were arrested in 2003 after a national police operation involving six police forces in Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire, Surrey, London, Merseyside and Manchester. They are expected to be sentenced tommorow
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