HOPE not hate exposes the individuals behind the disturbances and their links to far-right organisations and longstanding anti-migrant campaigns.
The week of 29 July to 5 August 2024 witnessed the largest outbreak of far-right rioting and disorder in the post-war period.
As we have previously written, these events reflect the “post-organisational” nature of the modern far right. The disorder was primarily driven by local people who are not members of any formal far-right organisations, but are plugged into decentralised networks online.
However, HOPE not hate has identified numerous individuals linked to a broad sweep of far-right groups present at the disturbances. They include convicted child sex offenders, animal abusers, burglars and more. Some cannot be named at present due to ongoing legal proceedings.
This is the first entry in a new series exposing the links between convicted participants in the disorder and far-right organisations, including Reform UK, Britain First, Patriotic Alternative, the National Rebirth Party, the North West Infidels and ongoing anti-migrant campaigns. We have already exposed some participants in an earlier blog.
The first major disturbance took place in Southport, Merseyside on 30 July, triggered by the horrific killing of three local children the previous day. The event and ensuing blizzard of misinformation prompted a riot in which a mosque was besieged, 50 police officers were injured, vehicles were torched and homes vandalised.
At the forefront of the violence was Joshua Jones, sentenced to three years and two months for hurling objects at the police. Jones is a serial criminal, holding 15 previous convictions for 26 offences, including football hooliganism, grievous bodily harm, assaulting a police officer, possession of a fighting dog, theft and criminal damage.
We can reveal that Jones is also a former English Defence League (EDL) activist, attending a series of disorderly protests organised by the now-defunct anti-Muslim group between 2010 and 2014. He was also active in the openly nazi North West Infidels, and posed with Nick Griffin, then-British National Party (BNP) leader, while holding a white supremacist flag in 2012.
Dylan Carey is likewise serving time for violent disorder, receiving eighteen months for kicking and throwing missiles at a police van. Carey actively campaigned for Robert Kenyon, a candidate for the radical right political party Reform UK, in Makerfield, Greater Manchester, ahead of the General Election last month.
On 3 August, racist violence also broke out in Manchester, including an appalling mob attack on a lone Black man in Piccadilly Gardens.
Warren Gilchrest, who filmed the attack while repeatedly shouting “kill him” and “stamp on his face”, has been jailed for three years. Gilchrest also assaulted two police officers who were trying to rescue the victim of the attack.
Gilchrest has dozens of previous convictions, including sexual offences against children under the age of 13. Police also found disturbing Nazi material, some of which included depictions of children, at his home.
HOPE not hate can reveal that Gilchrest is a former activist of the anti-Muslim party Britain First, accompanying leaders Paul Golding and Ashlea Simon on actions in Burnley and Rotherham in 2019.
Gilchrest also posted footage of far-right events to his little-viewed YouTube channel, including anti-migrant protests in Rotherham, Leeds and Dover last year headed by the fascist activists Alek Yerbury, Steve Laws and others.
Also serving time for the aforementioned racist attack is Joseph Ley, who threw the victim to the ground and then punched and kicked him. We can reveal that just two months previously, Ley travelled to London for a large protest organised by far-right figurehead Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson). Lennon’s name was chanted at many of the recent disturbances across the country.
On 3 August, a static anti-migrant protest in Hull, East Yorkshire spiralled into sustained rioting. Thugs besieged the Royal Hotel in Ferensway, a site of temporary asylum accommodation, and battled with riot police. Later, a group went on an arson spree and launched a horrifyingly vicious attack upon three Romanian men in a vehicle. A mosque was also attacked and high street stores looted.
Far-right campaigners have targeted Hull for years, inflaming the anti-migrant tensions that fed into the disorder. Since 2021, the Royal Hotel has been a focus for well-known so-called “migrant hunters” and groups like Britain First. The fascist Patriotic Alternative (PA) also attached itself to a local anti-migrant campaign in early 2023, and the town has endured repeat visits from the former-PA activist Alek Yerbury (dubbed the “Hull Hitler”), who now heads the National Rebirth Party, and his lieutenant Scott Pitts.
The main organiser of the 3 August static protest was John Gilling (AKA John Francis), a former EDL activist who now heads Hull Patriotic Protestors, which has itself run anti-migrant protests outside the Royal Hotel.
Gilling, who has not been charged with any offence in relation to the riot, claims that his protest was “hijacked” and has disavowed the ensuing violence. However, we can reveal that he has previously been happy to collaborate with both Pitts and Yerbury, who has a history of promoting violence, and addressed one of Yerbury’s events in the town on 18 March 2023.
Gilling has publicly sought to distance himself from the far right and claimed he left the EDL long before it disbanded. However, he appeared on stage in front of a banner bearing the now-defunct group’s branding at an event in Hull this April.
In the wake of the riot, Hull local John Honey received four years and eight months for violent disorder, racially aggravated criminal damage, causing criminal damage to nine vehicles and three counts of burglary.
HOPE not hate can reveal that Honey, who has a history of planning violent racist offences, was also a supporter of Patriotic Alternative, attending an anti-migrant protest in Hull organised by the fascist group in January 2023. On 11 March 2023, Honey wrote on Telegram: “I’ve been to a few PA marches”, adding: “I go because I believe in the message they preach”. He wrote the following day: “I love PA”.
A week later we photographed Honey at the front of Yerbury’s protest in the town.
Also in attendance at Yerbury’s March protest was William Riley, the former leader of the Hull EDL. Riley was also involved in Britain First in the group’s early years. He has also been involved in recent anti-migrant campaigns in Rotherham and Hull.
Riley was sentenced to eighteen months for punching a police officer in the jaw and distributing eggs to throw during the riot.
On 4 August, a crowd of hundreds descended upon the Holiday Inn in Manvers, Rotherham, a temporary asylum accommodation site. Police were forced back under a hail of missiles as rioters vandalised and attempted to set the building ablaze while residents were trapped inside. The violence was so extreme that one participant is facing a possible life sentence for arson with intent to endanger life, violent disorder and possession of an offensive weapon.
This hotel has similarly been the focus of “migrant hunters” since 2021, including Britain First. In February 2023, the hotel was also subjected to a small but extreme anti-migrant protest that was attended by a litany of far-right activists, including PA’s Yorkshire branch, the aforementioned Warren Gilchrest and William Riley, and several others who would be convicted for violence at the same hotel 18 months later.
Among them is Lewis Lynch, now serving two years and eight months. As we can reveal, Lynch attended an EDL rally in Rotherham in 2012, and was photographed by HOPE not hate outside the Manvers Holiday Inn in February 2023.
We can also reveal that another present that day was Michael Woods, who also attended an EDL rally in Rotherham in 2013. He has similarly been convicted of violent disorder for the 4 August disturbances.
Meanwhile, ex-soldier Peter Beard was jailed for two and a half years for assaulting police. We can reveal that Beard attended a Britain First event in Rotherham in 2014.
We have also identified attendees from a protest organised by Tommy Robinson in Telford, as well as a “Free Tommy” protest in Leeds, and figures formerly involved with the EDL present at the hotel on 4 August.
On 3 August, fights broke out following a far-right gathering in Leeds city centre.
The protest was supported by a circle of former EDL activists, including Simon Scott, who also has a past in the North West Infidels and National Front. Since January 2023, Scott has been one of Yerbury’s closest associates, travelling the North for anti-migrant protests. He is currently serving 10 weeks for “grossly offensive” social media posts between 29 July and 9 August.
Others present include Scott Pitts — a key organiser of the anti-migrant camp outside RAF Scampton — and the ex-EDL activists Simon King, Don Gold and Hayley Ellis. Also present was the North East Infidels activist Bryan Myers, Sarah Scott and Lee Scheres (AKA Shane Mitchell), the “brain” behind Antifa Public Watch, a group that tries to harass anti-fascists and anti-racists in the UK.
Pitts has recently been in talks with John Gilling in Hull about forming a new Yorkshire-wide organisation. A post from Pitts in the run-up to the Leeds and Hull demonstrations suggested a degree of coordination in order to “stretch” the police response.
Another associate of this circle is Phil Hoban, a self-styled “paedophile hunter” who was jailed for racist abuse that day. Hoban addressed a small anti-migrant protest in Leeds in November last year.
