[Imc-uk] BNP Election organiser exposed as gang rapist

[ANL]

Please find attached copy of the leaflet used in Oldham.  A revised 
version
has also been printed for Burnley.

Sunday Mirror
http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/shtml/NEWS/P34S2.shtml

Sunday Mirror INVESTIGATES
Exclusive by James Weatherup

A MAN convicted of a terrifying gang rape is helping to organise the
British National Party's local election campaign in trouble-torn Oldham.

Robert Bennett, 59, is in charge of distributing the far-right group's
leaflets in the town - scene of bloody race riots last summer - for the
council elections on May 2.

What voters didn't know until today is that election co-ordinator Bennett
was sentenced to five years in prison for his part in the rape of two
17-year-old girls.  The incident happened when he lured the girls to a
house with four other men claiming there was a party in progress.  But the
teenagers found they were the only guests, and they were forced into
separate bedrooms and raped repeatedly.

Afterwards they were thrown together on a bed and ordered to perform
lesbian acts.

Nick Lowles, co-editor of anti-fascism and racism magazine Searchlight,
said last night: "This makes a mockery of the BNP posing as the law and
order
party.

"Oldham BNP is full of criminals who are really violent.  They are no
better than a bunch of racist thugs who will lie and try to con their way 
to
victory.

"Hopefully the people of Oldham will see them for what they really are."

One of the girls, neither of whom can be named for legal reasons, told
Manchester Crown Court that as she was raped the first time, she heard the
screams of her friend from the next bedroom.

The other men involved were Bennett's brothers Michael, who was 21 at the
time, and Gordon, 24, as well as Leigh Harrop and his brother Alan.

The prosecution said all five men, who denied rape, had sex with one girl
and four of them were "intimate" with the other.

The judge who passed sentence on the gang in 1976 recognised Bennett's
leading role, saying: "You, Robert Bennett, are the eldest of the five and
I  am satisfied that you were one of the prime movers of what happened 
that
November evening and morning."

Last year his brother Gordon, an alcoholic now aged 49, was jailed for
life for bludgeoning a pensioner to death with a cobblestone.  Michael
Bennett
was jailed for 28 days immediately at the same hearing after he screamed
abuse at the jury.

Robert Bennett is one of several BNP supporters who have serious criminal
convictions or links to Nazi and soccer hooligan groups.  The extreme
group who stand for "Rights for Whites" and vigilante action against 
Muslims
are
expected to field a record 61 candidates nationwide next month.  Eighteen
are standing in Burnley and Oldham, which last summer witnessed the worst
rioting in Britain for nearly two decades.

The BNP even advocates illegal activity in campaign literature, such as
pursuing people suspected of criminal acts even if they are cleared by the
courts.

We can also reveal that Oldham BNP organiser Mick Treacy, who is standing
in Hollinwood ward, has five convictions for violence and theft.  He has
forged close links with Robert Bennett, who is understood to work as a
postman.

And BNP stalwart David Probert has convictions for sending packets of
excreta and pornography to Labour councillors and for using threatening
words and behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace.

Another candidate, Darren Dobson, who is standing in Royton North, was
found guilty of racially aggravated harassment by Oldham magistrates last
November and fined GBP300.

Bizarrely, despite the BNP's clear links with crime, a newsletter declares
its councillors would push for a policy of "zero tolerance" for criminal
offenders.

They also want an end to grants for ethnic organisations and say that
improvements on rundown estates should be targeted at helping "British"
families.

--
Anti Nazi League
PO Box 2566, London N4 1WJ
Phone:  020 7924 0333
Fax:  020 7924 0313
www.anl.org.uk  anl at anl.org.uk
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