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'Aryan Strike Force' on trial

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Two men whose avowed aim was to eradicate Jews from Britain have gone on trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

Trevor Hannington, 58, from South Wales, and Michael Heaton, 42, from Manchester, have been accused of soliciting people to kill Jews through postings on a web site.

Hannington denied one count of soliciting to murder, while Heaton was on trial for four comments he made on a website run by an organisation called the Aryan Strike Force (ASF) between January and April, 2008.

Prosecutor Andrew Edis, QC, told the court that both men were proud to call themselves neo-Nazis and that both were members of the ASF, which wanted all ethnic minorities to be removed from Britain.

Hannington posted: “Kill the Jew, Kill the Jew, Burn down a synagogue today!... Burn the scum...” But he denied the charge that it was soliciting people to murder Jews.

Heaton said about Jewish people in two posts: “They will always be scum, destroy ‘em with whatever it takes” and “I would encourage any religion or race that wants to destroy the Jews, I hate them with a passion,” the court was told.

In another, he wrote that black people are “less intelligent than other species”" and in another he described Jewish people as “leeches” and “treacherous scum”.

The jury heard that there was no question over whether the defendants made the postings.

“It's what he wanted to achieve when he put that on a forum on a website that matters,” Mr Edis added.

The court was told Hannington had already pleaded guilty to possessing information which may be useful to terrorists - the Anarchist's Cookbook, Kitchen Complete and The Terrorist Encyclopaedia.

He also pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred and publishing a post on the internet with instructions on how to make a flame thrower out of a water pistol.

Mr Edis said the guilty pleas demonstrated that he was "to be taken seriously".

The trial continues.

'Aryan Strike Force' in pictures

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