Dartford councillor Ricky Jones had called for far-right activists throats to be cut at a huge anti-fascist demonstration in Walthamstow last year, reports Marco Marcelline
A suspended Labour councillor who faced trial for calling far-right activists’ throats to be cut at a Walthamstow protest last year has been cleared of encouraging violent behaviour.
Dartford councillor Ricky Jones, 58, was found not guilty of the charge, which he denied, at Snaresbrook Crown Court today (15th August).
Jones was quickly suspended by the Labour Party after social media footage emerged of him in August last year calling far-right demonstrators “disgusting Nazi fascists” and saying “we need to get rid of them all” while drawing his finger across his throat.
He made the comments at a mass rally against a planned far-right march outside Waltham Forest Immigration Bureau in Walthamstow on 7th August 2024.
Thousands of people had turned up to Hoe Street to show their opposition to far-right rioters who had attacked mosques, asylum seeker hotels, and residences across the country following the Southport murders.
Prosecutor Ben Holt reportedly told the court Jones used “inflammatory, rabble-rousing language in the throng of a crowd described as a tinderbox”.
He added that Jones speech happened “in a setting where violence could readily have been anticipated”.
However, Jones said his comment did not refer to far-right protesters potentially in the crowd that evening, but to those who had reportedly left National Front stickers on a train with razor blades hidden behind them.
Before he made the comment, jurors were shown video where he said to crowds: “You’ve got women and children using these trains during the summer holidays.
“They don’t give a **** about who they hurt.”
Ahead of the acquittal, Jones told the court that he made the comments “in the heat of the moment”, stating that he was “extremely sorry”.
According to BBC reports, his friend and former joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU) Kevin Courtney told jurors on Thursday (14th August) that the comments were “completely out of character” for Jones.
Jurors took around half an hour to deliver their not guilty verdict.
Two days after the rally, Walthamstow resident and anti-racist activist Ulrike Schmidt said someone tried to break into her home after she was targeted by right-wing social media accounts for applauding while Jones made the remarks.
Ulrike said that she did not register the remarks that Jones was charged for because she was “mentally preparing” to give her own speech afterwards.
Speaking to the Echo previously, Ulrike said online threats against her entered a different dimension when her Walthamstow address was obtained and shared by far-right accounts.
She said she woke up at 5.30am on Friday 9th August last year to a car window being smashed outside her home. The assailant was never arrested nor charged by police.
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