Men put up racist stickers and did Hitler salute at Aston University, court told

Men accused of plastering allegedly racist stickers across a city centre university posed for a photo near the campus doing Nazi-style salutes, a court heard.

Prosecutors said several batches of “threatening, abusive or at very least insulting” stickers deposited at Aston University, Birmingham, were “recruitment tools” for right-wing group National Action.

Afterwards, one of stickering group is alleged to have bragged about how their activities appeared to have stirred up offence among “butt-hurt students, sub-humans, and traitors”.

An image showed some of the group with the far right group’s flag, and two of them giving Nazi-type salutes, posed in front of the university.

Five men are on trial at Birmingham Crown Court accused of putting up the stickers on the afternoon of July 9, 2016.

One of the stickers, put on an entrance sign, showed a white figure giving a Nazi-type salute, and carried the words “White Zone – National Action”.

Another read: “Britain is ours – the rest must go.”

A message then later appeared on the Twitter account of the group’s regional arm, the day after the stickering, stating “The fashy goys (sic) of National Action have hit Aston University campus”.

Opening the prosecution on Thursday, barrister Kelly Brocklehurst said: “When you are faced with something that says White Zone and the image of somebody with a raised right arm, stickers with swastikas, we say how can that not be threatening, abusive or at very least insulting?

“That is exactly the aim, or one of the aims, of what these defendants were seeking to achieve.”

He told jurors they would see evidence of an email from one of the accused, described as an “organiser”, to another senior group member celebrating the stickering incident.

The email stated that the group “enjoyed a pint, and relaxed as the Twitter notifications rolled in from butt-hurt students, sub-humans, and traitors”.

Mr Brocklehurst said the email showed “a clear indication that it would provide a reaction, a reaction the Crown say is in response to something threatening, abusive and insulting”.

He added: “There’s likely no dispute about what they did, the dispute is likely about why they did it.

“But we say you can be and will be sure they intended racial hatred, and if not they were well aware of what those stickers were capable of achieving.”

The barrister said: “The Crown understands though these defendants accept they put the stickers up they do not accept they incite racial hatred.”

Jurors were told they would see evidence of planning including a downloaded map of the university campus, and messages.

Chad Williams-Allen, Dean Lloyd, both of Tantany Lane, West Bromwich, and Garry Jack, of Heathland Avenue, Birmingham, deny stirring up racial hatred, alongside two other men who cannot be named for legal reasons.

All are said to have been members of the neo-Nazi group at the time.

Prosecutors claimed that Williams-Allen, a welder, was “relatively new” to the extremist group, while Lloyd, 27, and 22-year-old Jack were new recruits.

The jury were shown messages on Telegram, on March 2, 2016 in which Williams-Allen allegedly sent an image of a National Action sticker, and said: “Been taking the long route home through paki land and slapping these everywhere.”

In other messages, the 26-year-old railed against multi-culturalism, Jews and used racial slurs.

One text read: “Back in brum – disgusting n****** and pakis everywhere.”

Jurors were shown university CCTV allegedly showing the men on campus.

University security staff were later alerted to several stickers placed on official university signage and removed them.

One of the other men, 23, was described in court as a “key influencer and organiser” of National Action.

A fifth man, 26, said to have been part of the stickering gang, had images on electronic devices seized by police which stated “Hitler was right” and “bring back apartheid”.

The trial, expected to last up to three weeks, continues.