A man told by a judge to read classic literature after being found guilty of a terrorism offence will be jailed after a suspended sentence was quashed. Ben John, who police described as a white supremacist, was given a two-year suspended sentence in August. The 22-year-old was convicted of having a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook on a computer hard drive. The Court of Appeal ruled the original sentence was unlawful and ordered John to serve two years in prison. He will also spend a further year on extended licence. Lord Justice Holroyde said: “We are satisfied that there must be a sentence of immediate imprisonment.” John, of Addison Drive, Lincoln, who attended the hearing via videolink, must hand himself in to police by 16:00 GMT on Thursday. Last year, police said John had collected tens of thousands of documents in bulk downloads on to hard drives, which contained “a wealth” of white supremacist and anti-Semitic material.
via bbc: Ben John: Extremist ordered to read books is jailed
siehe auch: Neo-Nazi terror offender ordered to read Jane Austen jailed after ‘unduly lenient’ sentence quashed. Court of Appeal finds decision to suspend Ben John’s original prison sentence was unlawful. A neo-Nazi terror offender who was ordered to read Jane Austen has been jailed after judges overturned his “unduly lenient” sentence. Ben John, now 22, was handed a suspended prison sentence in August for possessing a terrorist document, meaning he would not be jailed unless he broke the conditions of a court order. At the time, Judge Timothy Spencer QC urged him to swap far-right propaganda for English literature, asking John: “Have you ever read Dickens? Austen? Well, start now. Start with Pride and Prejudice. Shakespeare? Try Twelfth Night. Dickens, start with A Tale of Two Cities and, if you have time, think about Hardy and think about Trollope.” He sentenced John to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a one-year extended licence and a five-year Serious Crime Prevention Order. Court of Appeal judges found that sentence was unlawful and sent John to prison for two years on Wednesday.