A UNIVERSITY of York graduate jailed for inciting racial hatred has had his prison sentence reduced after appealing against the original judgment.
Stephen Whittle, and an accomplice from the town of Selby, were first jailed after police were alerted to a pamphlet Whittle was connected to, entitled ‘Tales of the Holohoax’ that was pushed through the door of a synagogue in Blackpool in 2004.
The material included images of murdered Jews alongside cartoons and articles ridiculing ethnic groups.
When sentencing Whittle, Judge Rodney Grant commented that he’d rarely seen material so “abusive and insulting.”
The pair were also the first to be convicted of inciting racial hatred through a foreign website, after skipping bail and fleeing to California in 2008. American authorities detained the men and they remained in a US prison for ten months.
Technically, their actions were not considered illegal under US law, though they were detained after seeking asylum. They returned to England last June and were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court.
Sheppard was convicted of five counts of publishing racially inflammatory material, and sentenced to two years and four months in prison.
Court of Appeal judges said that “this was truly pernicious material”, but that the sentences handed down had been excessive. Subsequently the sentence has been reduced.