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The High Court upheld the conviction today of a BNP political activist who claimed he was legally entitled to put up posters in public of three convicted killers with the description "illegal immigrant murder scum".

Andrew Kendall, from Westcliff on Sea, Essex, said the description was accurate, and he was entitled to use the posters to promote his party's views on immigrant crime.

But two senior judges ruled Kendall was rightly found guilty of committing a racially aggravated offence under the 1986 Public Order Act because he should have known his activities might distress members of the public.

Kendall, 32, was appealing against his conviction by Southend magistrates, Essex, who imposed an 18-month conditional discharge.

The magistrates found the posters he put up in Southend High Street in February 2007 were threatening, abusive or insulting and likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

Kendall told the High Court in London he was doing no more than trying to promote his political party and their views in relation to immigration and law and order.

His counsel Michaila Williams said the three men in the posters were illegal immigrants who had been convicted, and Kendall had done no more than use the sort of words that might be used in a tabloid newspaper report.

There was a great deal of media interest in the case at the time as it involved the killing of a woman at a christening while holding a baby.

Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Keith rejected the appeal.

Mr Justice Keith agreed it was accurate to say the three men were illegal immigrants, although they had been convicted of manslaughter and not murder.

But the magistrates had been entitled to find that Kendall was aware the posters might have caused alarm and distress to members of the public.

The judge said he could not go along with the argument that the posters were not aimed at any particular ethnic or racial group.

He said: "It was unquestionably open to the magistrates to conclude that Kendall himself had been aware that the posters were conveying the message that black people were scum because they were the sort of people who came to this country illegally and either committed, or were capable of committing, crimes like murder."

The magistrates were also entitled to find it significant that Kendall had chosen to illustrate the prevalence of crimes committed by illegal immigrants "with a case involving black people, putting up pictures so that all could see they were black."

By John Aston

2:57pm Thursday 26th June 2008

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