A series of graphics and posts published by far-right group Britain First claim or suggest that their leader and deputy leader had “exposed” a gang of paedophiles and were subsequently arrested by authorities for doing so.
Other posts from the group imply that the authorities were not interested in arresting paedophile rings and only interested in arresting members of Britain First for exposing such gangs.
Such posts make two claims –
1. Britain First (specifically their leader and deputy leader) exposed a paedophile gang.
2. Authorities were not interested in making any arrests related to those gangs, but instead arrested the Britain First leader and deputy leader.
We rate both claims entirely false.
In 2018, Britain First leader Paul Golding and deputy leader Jayda Fransen were sentenced to prison (18 weeks and 36 weeks respectively) for charges including religiously aggravated harassment.
The sentences were in response to actions by both Golding and Fransen during a 2017 trial at Canterbury Crown Court where 3 Muslim men and a [then] teenager were on trial for raping a 16-year old girl above a takeaway outlet in Ramsgate. According to authorities, Golding and Fransen distributed leaflets in the areas where the pair believed the rape trial defendants lived, posted online inflammatory content on their social media channels as well as targeting the homes where Golding and Fransen believed the rape trial defendants lived.
Claim 1. Britain First exposed members of a paedophile gang.
Despite a number of posts by Britain First claiming as much, this is patently false, and there is no evidence that any member of the Britain First group were responsible for exposing any of the defendants. In this case, reports demonstrate that it was the rape victim herself, who had been left on the street “distressed” after her ordeal, that had subsequently told authorities what had happened, resulting in the identification and arrests of three men and a teenager.
From what we can determine, Britain First had not been involved at all up until the point when the trial had already begun.
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Of course, if we play on the meaning of “exposed”, then one could argue that Britain First mean that they “exposed” the trial defendants to the public through their distribution of leaflets, social media posts and turning up at houses they believed to be the homes of the defendants. Again, however, this claim would be more false than true, since throughout their involvement, Britain First incorrectly identified people as the defendants, both on social media and in person, as well as harassed people at their homes who had nothing to do with the case.
For example, Britain First members incorrectly identified one of the defendant’s brothers, as well as turned up at a previous home address of one of the defendants which was now occupied by people unrelated to the case, who had to endure a barrage of misdirected insults from Jayda Fransen.
Since this happened during the trial, this type of action is always ill-advised since it can potentially damage the case of the prosecution.
If this is Britain First’s definition of “exposed”, we would instead replace it with “ill-advised meddling, fuelled by racial hatred, resulting in the harassment of innocent people that could potentially have had endangered the rape trial itself.”
Or, as a court sentencing defined it, religiously aggravated harassment.
Claim 2. Authorities will arrest Britain First members, but not arrest paedophile gangs
Britain First continually imply that the authorities are not interested in arresting “true criminals” but would rather instead arrest members of Britain First in “politically motivated arrests”.
This claim is also patently untrue. For starters, Britain First seem to have conveniently ignored the obvious fact that their actions that led to the sentencing of Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen occurred during a criminal trial where four defendants were being charged by the authorities for rape of a 16 year old girl.
Shortly after, all four defendants were found guilty of rape, and were subsequently sentenced to a combined 49 years imprisonment.
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As such, the claim that the authorities did not (or would not) arrest those responsible for such horrific crimes simply holds no grounds, and since Britain First have failed to provide any compelling evidence that authorities actively ignore rapists or paedophiles, this entire claim is baseless.
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As is typical with far-right groups within the ilk of Britain First, concocting stories identifying themselves as the “patriotic stalwarts” that dedicate their lives to “exposing” crooks only to be thwarted by the authorities seeking to silence them is a popular modus operandi for drumming up support for their racially spurred hate campaigns.
In reality, nothing is further from the truth. In this case, Britain First, without knowing the full facts, foolishly attempted to harass those it believed to be involved in this particular rape case – something that is ill-advised at the best of times since it can endanger a court trial, but especially foolish in this case since Britain First ended up targeting and harassing innocent people. A perfect demonstration as to why this reckless brand of vigilante “justice” should never be condoned in the first place.
Ultimately, Britain First’s meddling did not result in the apprehension and conviction of 4 rapists. The rapists were convicted in spite of Britain First’s meddling.
UPDATE: Less than 24 hours from the date of this post, Facebook has now removed the Britain First Facebook page as well as the pages of its leaders.