Jayda Fransen: Britain First deputy leader to face trial over 'threatening' Belfast speech on Islam

Far-right leader poses in Belfast City Hall wearing ceremonial robes after hearing

The deputy leader of Britain First is to go on trial over a speech made at a far-right rally in Belfast.

Jayda Fransen, who rose to international prominence after her Twitter posts were shared by Donald Trump, faces two charges related to her comments at the Northern Ireland Against Terrorism rally in August.

District judge Fiona Bagnall said the 31-year-old, from Anerley in south-east London, would go on trial on 6 April as her supporters looked on from the public gallery.

Paul Golding, the leader of Britain First, was arrested while attending Ms Fransen’s previous court appearance in Belfast and is due at a hearing later this week over his own speech at the same rally.

A third person, understood to be 55-year-old far-right activist Paul Rimmer, from Liverpool, has also been charged over comments made at the same event.

Mr Golding and Ms Fransen face separate legal action in England over their activities with Britain First, which posts incendiary videos on social media and became notorious for its “invasions” of supposedly Muslim-majority areas, mosques and shops.

Ms Fransen is also charged with four unrelated counts of using threatening behaviour or language in a video filmed at a peace wall dividing Catholics from Protestants in Belfast last month.

The footage, which contained comments on Islam, was posted on social media from the unionist Shankill area. A date for that trial has not yet been fixed.

Following her court appearance on Tuesday, Ms Fransen posted a bizarre video from Belfast City Hall, showing her wearing red robes and sitting in the mayor’s ceremonial chair.

She claimed Britain First supporters had been sending her messages and financial donations to fight for “free speech”.

Ms Fransen was accompanied by an independent unionist councillor, Jolene Bunting, who has openly expressed her support for Britain First and the far-right groups Traditional Britain and Generation Identity.

Ms Bunting was pictured on social media with Ms Fransen, Mr Golding and other Britain First members on Tuesday, but declined to comment on the nature of the meeting when contacted by The Independent.

She runs a Facebook group called “Exposing Islam – Northern Ireland”, and is planning another so-called free speech rally outside Belfast City Hall on Saturday.

Pamela Geller, an anti-Muslim American activist infamous for her claims of “creeping Sharia”, is among those listed as speakers.

Britain First has enjoyed added prominence after the US President retweeted three Islamophobic videos posted by Ms Fransen’s Twitter account, which has since been suspended by the social media giant as part of a crackdown on hate speech.

Mr Trump’s posts, championed as a mark of tacit support by Ms Fransen, sparked outrage and triggered an open row with Downing Street seeing Theresa May condemn his actions as “wrong” and the President telling her to focus on “radical Islamic terrorism”.

Britain First has since boasted that it received hundreds of new membership applications and said its Facebook posts were reaching hundreds of thousands more users.

The group is planning to hold a "Rally for Trump" outside the US Embassy in London to coincide with the President's working visit to the UK next month.

Additional reporting by PA