An internet troll has been found guilty of harassing a Labour politician with a collection of antisemitic posts following the incarceration of a fellow far-right extremist in 2014. Joshua Bonehill-Paine was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment after writing five hate fuelled blogs about Labour MP Luciana Berger, after Garren Helm received a four-week prison term in October 2014 for admitting to tweeting a picture of Berger with a Star of David on her head with the caption "Hitler was right."
Racist material
During the following four months after Helm's arrest, fellow far-right extremist Bonehill-Paine posted several articles referring to Berger as a "dominatrix" and "an evil money-grabber" who had a problem with men.
In one of the articles he also spoke about he believed that the number of Jewish Labour MP's was an issue. Bonehill-Paine's posts also included offensive pictures of Berger, including one image with her face superimposed onto the body of a rat. During the period when Bonehill-Paine made the posts about Berger he was on bail, as he awaited sentencing for claiming via Twitter that several people were paedophiles.
Internet used for racist agenda
This is not the first time Berger has been targeted by internet trolls because of her religion. After trying to get certain antisemitic words blocked from Twitter in 2014, American white supremacist site Daily Stormer started a campaign against Berger called 'Operation Filthy Jew Bitch' in which they encouraged supporters to target the Wavertree MP with racist abuse, Berger received over 2,500 tweets as a result of the campaign, something Bonehill-Paine referred to as "fantastically successful".
Berger gives evidence on racist attack
Whilst giving evidence against Bonehill-Paine, the Labour MP said that the posts she received were sickening and made her feel "under attack". She told the jury that the posts had made her fear for her safety and that the police were in "constant contact" with her at her home and at her office.
Bonehill-Paines legal representation labelled the posts as "satire" and argued that they fell under the rights of freedom of speech. Bonehill-Paine refused to receive questions in the witness box. The jury was also informed that Bonehill-Paine is already serving a jail term for posting other antisemitic material after being found of inciting racial hatred last December after producing flyers advertising a neo-Nazi rally in an area of London with a large Jewish population, the flyers featured an image of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp and said that the event would be "a gas".
Bonehill-Paine faces up to two years in prison when he is sentenced later on in the week. The 24-year old's conviction comes just days after neo-Nazi Thomas Mair received a life sentence over the murder of another Labour MP Jo Cox.
Berger took to Twitter following the verdict to thank people for their "kind and supportive messages".
Thank you for all the very kind & supportive messages. For those asking here's the statement I made outside court earlier (via @HuffPostUK) pic.twitter.com/Uw1ImWjE3v
— Luciana Berger (@lucianaberger) December 7, 2016