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| Ricky Jones hides his face as he leaves court during his trial |
The trial of Cllr Ricky Jones was much anticipated by those of us with a keen eye on examples of two tier Britain. Sure enough, Ricky walked free, after less than half an hour of jury deliberation. Clearly, the defence case had swung it for them quite easily.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall when what seemed on the surface to be a rather open and shut case, dragged on for almost a week. The defence appeared to draw on every possible sympathetic aspect of Ricky's life - he was bullied at school, he was racially abused, he suffered from multiple mental impairments that left him on the autism spectrum. The latter, we were told, meant that he could say things 'he didn't mean'. So why did he make a speech in front of an angry mob - who had turned up to oppose a rumoured 'far right' gathering that never happened - through a loudspeaker? Why did he turn up in the first place, making a 25 mile journey from Dartford to Walthamstow? Evidence showed that his party had advised against it.
The Jones defence was further helped by the full context of his controversial outburst. What had been edited out of viral clips showing his throat cutting gesture and accompanying threat, were his preceding words. He described how National Front stickers had been left on local trains with razor blades hidden behind them. He then talks about how 'children and women use those trains during the summer holidays' before he launches into his now infamous disgusting Nazi fascists line. Therefore, his defence argued that he was referring to the individuals behind the stickers.
It's a fair argument, although the timing of his words remain clearly ill-judged and duly render his acquittal subject to accusations of two-tier justice. However, there is a key difference that is largely overlooked when comparisons are made between his case and others stemming from the reaction to the Southport massacre. Whereas Lucy Connolly, Peter Lynch and others pleaded guilty and were then sentenced by judges tasked with meting out swift and tough justice as a deterrent to others, Jones wisely decided to fight his case - whether of his own volition or under advice from his swanky legal team. This gave him the opportunity to be tried by jury.
It was a winning strategy, but he was not alone in following this path to victory.
Ex-Royal Marine Jamie Michael expressed multiple concerns about Islamism and mass immigration in social media posts following the Southport massacre and was arrested and charged with 'stirring up racial hatred'. Like the others, he was initially advised to plead guilty, but decided to ignore his legal team and force a trial. After facing a two day trial, the jury took just 17 minutes to acquit him.
We will never know for sure whether or not Connolly would be a free woman now if she too had ignored legal advice, but it's a fair bet that she would. Tragically, Peter Lynch would also still be alive if he had avoided prison by contesting the absurd charges against him. Perhaps the all important key difference between Jones and the aforementioned was the quality of their legal advice.
So just how did a lowly borough councillor with apparently no other income, afford what was quite obviously a very good barrister? From what we gather, it appears that a combination of Ricky's ethnicity and political persuasion led to him receiving a little bit of help from like-minded comrades. His solicitor was Hossein Zahir KC, who has links to anti-racist (anti-white) organisations such as the Newham Monitoring Project and the Runnymede Trust. The latter has worked alongside the Labour party throughout its almost 60 year existence and is credited with having coined the term 'Islamophobia'.
Although founded by two wealthy Jews, the Runnymede Trust's inaugural director was Dipak Nandy, father of none other than current Labour frontbencher Lisa Nandy. Perhaps it is no great surprise that mixed race Ricky Jones ended up with such a prestigious lawyer. It's unfortunate and perhaps another indicator of two tier Britain, that the likes of Lucy Connolly and Peter Lynch were not afforded such luxurious legal advice.
Jones remains suspended from the Labour party while an investigation is ongoing.
