Mugshots of Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen released as Britain First leaders jailed for hate crime
Mugshots of Britain First leader Paul Golding and deputy leader Jayda Fransen have emerged as the pair are jailed for hate crimes.
Kent Police released the mugshots of the far-right pair in custody, deeming it to be in the public interest.
Golding, 36, and Fransen, 32, both of Penge, south-east London, were jailed on Wednesday at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court for 18 weeks and 36 weeks respectively after standing trial for religiously-aggravated harassment which they carried out in Kent in May last year.
The pair launched a political campaign in which they claimed to be trying to expose Muslim men who were the subject of a rape trial.
However, instead they ended up branding innocent Muslims paedophiles and rapists.
When Fransen and Golding were being sentenced, members of the press requested the release of the pictures but were told force policy was only to release images if a defendant had been handed an immediate jail sentence of more than a year.
The force broke with regular procedure today, when the force said it believed it was in the public interest to do so due to the nature of the offences.
Detective Inspector Bill Thornton, of Kent Police, said the crimes were ‘abhorrent’ and the force would not tolerate crimes motivated by prejudice and hate, adding: ‘The fact that completely innocent members of the public were accused of being rapists, making them fear for their own safety, shows how little regard they [Golding and Fransen] have for the consequences of their actions.’
Requests for the release of footage depicting the crimes, which was played in open court, was denied due to concerns the videos could cause offence and because the files were not ‘readily available’.
During the Britain First leaders’ trial Fransen talked over Judge Barron to say: ‘This is a very sad day for British justice. Everything I did was for the children of this country and they are worth it.’
This sparked cheers and applause to erupt from the public gallery as the pair were led away. Judge Barron temporarily left the courtroom before concluding his directions.
When Britain First supporters left the courtroom, they hurled abuse at court staff and members of the press, branding the proceedings a ‘shambles’ and shouting: ‘No surrender’.
While delivering his judgment, Judge Justin Barron told the court Fransen and Golding were ‘well-known’, ‘controversial’ and ‘generate their own publicity’.
He made clear that his verdict was based ‘solely on admissible evidence heard in court.’
