The white supremacist who broadcast hate from a quiet west Wales community

Neighbours had no idea who James Allchurch – who called himself Sven Longshanks online – was up to. Blink and you could miss Gelli – half a dozen houses, a post box, a chapel, and a defibrillator on the banks of the Afon Syfni stream. A quieter place it is hard to imagine. So when armed police turned up to raid a one-bedroom cottage in the Pembrokeshire hamlet just before Christmas 2019 it’s fair to say it caused something of a stir. In the way of rumours, there were suggestions the convoy of police vehicles had come to town in connection with firearm offences or possibly the downloading of indecent images. If the police raid surprised locals, the reason for their presence shocked them – their neighbour James Allchurch had been running a far-right racist podcast right under their noses. Allchurch had lived in the little rented cottage in Gelli for four or five years by the time police came knocking. People living in the area say the 51-year-old kept himself to himself and didn’t go out much, nor did he seem to have many visitors. Unemployed, with mobility problems, and taking regular doses of testosterone, he would occasionally pick up shopping for the older residents. Behind closed doors and unbeknown to those living around him Allchurch was spending upwards of 12 hours a day producing material for his podcast which was originally called Radio Aryan but was later renamed Radio Albion. He may have been James in the village but online he used the alias Sven Longshanks, a reference to King Edward I who was known as Edward Longshanks and was responsible for expelling Jewish people from England in 1290. The listening figures for the podcast may have been modest – around 4,000 people apparently listened to the pods when they were published, though the overall listenership to the huge archive of episodes is unclear – but it came to the attention of counter-terrorism police in the north of England following concerns it featured thousands of recordings which contained material that could be considered racist, homophobic, sexist, anti-Semitic or anti-Islamic. Following a lengthy investigation by detectives Allchurch was eventually charged with 15 offences under the Public Order Act of distributing audio material to stir up racial hatred.

via walesonline: The white supremacist who broadcast hate from a quiet west Wales community

siehe auch: Neo-Nazi podcaster’s website still online after jailing. A Neo-Nazi’s website is still online despite him being jailed for hate crimes. James Allchurch, 51, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years on Monday for spreading racist and anti-Semitic material. But the site remained accessible and new posts were uploaded as recently as Friday. Counter-terrorism police said only material that met a criminal threshold could be removed. On the site, Allchurch goes by the name Sven Longshanks. Edward I, also known as Edward Longshanks, ordered the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290.