BNP leader cleared of race hate charges

BNP leader Nick Griffin was today cleared of race hate charges.

The 47-year-old Cambridge graduate was found not guilty at Leeds Crown Court of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred during a speech he made in Keighley, West Yorks, in 2004.

Griffin, of Llanerfyl, Powys, Wales, denied one count of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred and an alternative count of using words or behaviour likely to stir up racial hatred.

The BNP's head of publicity Mark Collett, 26, of Swithland Lane, Rothley, Leicestershire, was also cleared of similar charges.

He denied two charges of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred and two alternative counts of using words or behaviour likely to stir up racial hatred. These charges also relate to speeches he made in Keighley.

They were both cleared a day after the jury retired to consider its verdicts.

Griffin smiled and nodded as the foreman of the jury of seven women and five men read out the not guilty plea.

In the public gallery, which was packed with his supporters, his wife Jackie burst into tears, as did some of his daughters.

There were cheers from BNP supporters in the courtroom although these were muted by the judge who insisted he wanted silence.

He advised Griffin to leave the courtroom with Collett and the party leader left, urging his supporters to be quiet as he walked out.

The jury took about five hours to come to its verdicts.

As he left the courtroom, Griffin was mobbed by more party supporters waiting in the lobby.

Outside the court, Mr Griffin said the case showed the Government and the BBC "cannot take our hearts, they cannot take our cause and they cannot take our freedom".

He said he was proud to have had Mr Collett as a co-defendant in the case and said the BNP was an "icon of resistance" to multi-cultural society.

As Mr Griffin spoke, the crowd repeatedly chanted the word "freedom".

Griffin and Collett emerged from court holding their hands above their heads to the cheers of around 200 supporters who were gathered behind crash barriers and surrounded by dozens of police.

As a small but loud group of anti-Nazi protesters shouted at him from 20 yards away, the BNP leader thanked his supporters and criticised both the Government and the BBC for their roles in his prosecution.

Collett took the microphone, telling his supporters: "I was hauled over the coals for describing Asian criminals as Asian and their white victims as white.

"That's not a crime, that's the truth of the matter."

Collett referred to parts of the speech he made on which the prosecution was based in which he described asylum seekers as "cockroaches".

He told the crowd: "We all know who the real cockroaches are - the BBC and the corrupt political establishment."

Mr Collett said: "The BBC have abused their position. They are a politically correct, politically biased organisation which has wasted taxpayers' money to bring two people in a legal democratic peaceful political party to court over speaking nothing more than the truth."

He added: "And even if we had gone to jail, I wouldn't have minded going to the jail over truth."

Mr Griffin said the decision by "12 ordinary, decent commonsense men and women" to find the pair not guilty on all charges showed the "huge gulf between us, the ordinary people and our masters", the Crown Prosecution Service, the BBC and the Attorney General.

"They believed they could get a jury to convict over what we say in private meetings but the jury said no."

He accused the authorities of wasting almost a million pounds in an attempt to convict them for "telling the truth".