Black Country Extremist Jailed For Racist Messages

1 May 2015, 14:30 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A Black Country extremist has been jailed for a second time after breaching an Asbo by posting racist comments online.

Darren Fletcher described Jews as "the enemy'' and called for a newspaper's offices to be bombed while writing on an anti-semitic Facebook page.

The 25-year-old was handed an Asbo and sentenced to a 12-month jail term in January last year after stirring up racial hatred while wearing a Ku Klux Klan costume.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that Fletcher breached the terms of the Asbo after his release from prison by writing racist remarks on a site supporting a fellow extremist.

In a series of highly offensive postings, Fletcher said of the Wolverhampton Express and Star, which had covered his previous offence: "Their head office needs f****** bombing.''

The messages, posted last October and November, also included derogatory comments about black people and a statement expressing hope that members of Islamic State would attack British police.

Judge John Warner heard that Fletcher, of Kitchen Lane, Wednesfield, West Midlands, went on to complain that Jews were responsible for the "tyranny of jailing patriots''.

Fletcher, previously known as Christopher Philips and Darren Clifft, showed no emotion as he was jailed for eight months for breaching his Asbo.

Judge Warner told forklift truck driver Fletcher that the breaches of the Asbo had "echoes'' of his previous offence.

"The issue is quite simple,'' Judge Warner told Fletcher. "This court ordered you to refrain from certain behaviour. You quite deliberately and flagrantly breached that order.''

Prior to sentence, defence barrister Nicholas Towers said his client suffered from Asperger's syndrome.

Urging the judge to pass a non-custodial sentence, Mr Towers said the postings breaching the Asbo had been intended for an audience sympathetic to convicted extremist Garron Helm.

"This wasn't someone on the streets shouting abuse,'' Mr Towers added. "It was supposed to be for a relatively limited audience.''

Helm, 21, was jailed for a month last October after sending a grossly offensive anti-semitic tweet to Labour MP Luciana Berger.

The jailing of Helm, from Litherland, Merseyside, prompted the MP for Liverpool Wavertree to issue a statement encouraging others to report hate crime.