A far-right extremist from Lancashire who posted offensive content on social media and glorified the murderer of MP Jo Cox has been jailed.
Kieran Turner began his offending in 2016 when he opened an account on alternative social media platform GAB. Three years later, Turner wrote: “Britain needs 650 Thomas Mairs” in reference to Thomas Mair who murdered the Yorkshire MP in 2016 and the number of MPs who sit in the House of Commons.
Joe Allman, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court the case arose out of the defendant’s activities on GAB where he described himself as “British Army veteran English Nationalist”. Turner had an “impressionable audience” of 773 followers on his publicly accessible account and he in turn followed 213 users, the court was told.
Between 2016 and 2020, the army veteran, from Earby, posted and re-shared material expressing antisemitic, transphobic, misogynistic, homophobic, racist and islamophobic views. The 36-year-old also used video sharing platform ‘Bitchute’ and Facebook to post offensive content that included live-streamed video footage of the 15 March 2019 terrorist attack – the day of the Christchurch mosque shootings.
He was arrested on 9 November 2021 by Lancashire Police at his home in Earlesdown Avenue and a Samsung tablet, on which the GAB account was present, was found under his bed. The prosecutor said Turner used the platform to share and re-share material which expressed “virulent” misogynistic, homophobic and transphobic views, as well as displaying extreme racism, Islamophobia and “deep hostility” towards Jewish people.
Mr Allman said the comment about the Batley and Spen MP’s murder in June 2016 was made in reply to a post from another platform user and included a reference to the number of members of Parliament and the hashtag “ThomasMairHero”.
Turner had also reposted a link to the Christchurch mass murderer’s “manifesto”. Commenting on the video footage the defendant wrote: “Cheers. Just the thing to put a smile on my face before heading to work this morning.”
In another post, he said: “It should be on repeat on ITV every couple of hours instead of Jeremy Kyle.”
The Lancashire army veteran was jailed yesterday for glorifying Jo Cox’s killer
Mr Allman said the Crown did not accept Turner’s explanation that his postings were intended to be humorous. Turner pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to one count of encouraging terrorism, two counts of disseminating terrorist publications and seven counts of stirring up racial hatred between January 2019 and September 2020.
He was sentenced yesterday (February 8) at Manchester Crown Court to two years and eight months in custody followed by a period of 12 months on extended licence.
Judge Alan Conrad KC told him: “I find you were at least reckless as to whether other people would act on your opinions. The danger in these cases is that there is a risk that one person could act on these posts with terrible consequences.”
He noted that Turner, who had no previous convictions, was more prone to radicalisation because of his diagnosed autism spectrum disorder. Sarah Day, defending, said Turner had features of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following his time in the armed forces and had also suffered from depression.
She said: “He very much now recognises what he has done and is genuinely ashamed and remorseful for it. It is quite clear that he has taken steps to move himself away from that behaviour and that mindset.”
Nick Price, Head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: “Kieran Turner’s extreme views and his relentless attempts to stir up hatred have no place in society. His online posts and comments were abhorrent and far-right extremists such as Turner have the potential to threaten public safety and security.
“The CPS will always seek to prosecute such appalling online criminal behaviour, and it is only right that Turner has been sentenced today for his crimes.”
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