Court hears Griffin's tirade against 'evil' Asians

The leader of the British National Party fabricated a "nightmare vision" to provoke fear and resentment of British Asians, a jury was told yesterday.

At the start of Nick Griffin's trial on charges of inciting racial hatred, Rodney Jameson QC described how, in a speech taped by an undercover BBC documentary team, the BNP leader conjured a picture of rapes and muggings which he said Asian people were "entirely responsible for" and boasted he "could get seven years" in prison if what he said was reported to police.

His speech included statistics stating the white population of Bradford was just 1 per cent, and that it was 0 per cent in nearby Keighley. He made allegations of paedophile drug rapes by Asian Muslims in Keighley, blamed British Asians for the crimes and spoke of "the evil of what these people have done to our country".

He also attempted to inflame tension with claims about Asian attempts to "take over our country." The "last whites" would "try and find their way to the sea," he claimed.

The prosecution was not aiming to restrict freedom of expression by trying Mr Griffin and a fellow activist, Mark Collett, Mr Jameson said, at Leeds Crown Court. "We agree freedom of expression is an important right but it cannot be unfettered. But no society can permit disapproval of another race to be expressed in such strong terms that hatred be stirred up against people on the basis of race or ethnicity."

Mr Griffin, 45, of Llanerfyl, Powys, denies two counts of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred and two of using words or behaviour likely to stir up racial hatred. Mr Collett, 24, of Rothley, Leicestershire, denies four counts of the first offence and four of the second.

Citing several other speeches made by the defendants, Mr Jameson described how Mr Collett's more extreme statements included accusations that Muslim boys were being trained to use AK-47s and Asians were "spilling out" from Bradford to Leeds "because of the rate they breed". He said Asians did not produce 2.4 children "like us" (white people) but instead "they have 10 of them, all stuck in one council house".

In a speech at The Crossroads pub in Keighley on 31 March 2004, he told the crowd that Asians hated white people and again referred to rapes and muggings by Asians on white people. Mr Collett then turned his attention to asylum-seekers, describing them as "cockroaches [who] can't help what they do". His speech was greeted by cheers and applause from the crowd that had gathered.

In a similar speech at another pub on 14 April, 2004, Mr Collett said there was no such thing as a genuine asylum-seeker and a high proportion of all asylum-seekers were terrorists.

In a political speech on 5 May 2004 Mr Griffin had said "all the hatred" between races would spill out if it was kept "bottled up".

In the televised speech, Mr Griffin alleged Asians had recently attacked whites and stated: "The bastards that are in that gang, they are in prison so the public think it's all over. Well it's not. Because there's more of them. The police force and elected governors haven't done a damn thing about it. Their good book [the Koran] tells them that that's acceptable. If you doubt it, go and buy a copy and you will find verse after verse and you can take any woman you want as long as it's not Muslim women."

Mr Griffin's speech allegedly then turned to claims of violence by Asian Muslims against whites. Mr Jameson told the court that Mr Griffin had said: "These 18, 19, and 25-year-old Asian Muslims are seducing and raping white girls in this town right now."

Mr Jameson said Mr Griffin had said Asian community leaders would condemn the attacks to the press but not to the attackers themselves. "It's part of their plan for conquering countries. It's how they do it," Mr Griffin said.

The trial continues.