A “neo-Nazi” former prison officer has been jailed for 13 years for possessing a white supremacist terrorist handbook with details of how to kill people.
Self-confessed National Socialist Ashley Podsiad-Sharp, 42, was described by prosecutors as a “racist, homophobic, neo-Nazi terrorist”.
The lorry driver, who worked as an officer at Leeds Prison until his arrest, was found guilty in May of possession of a document likely to be useful to a terrorist.
However, jurors at Sheffield Crown Court cleared Podsiad-Sharp, from the Barnsley area, of disseminating a terrorist publication.
The court heard the document, called the White Resistance Manual, was found in an encrypted “virtual safe” on his computer by counter-terror police.
The 200-page document said “democracy will be cast aside and votes will now be cast with bullets and bombs” before setting out “various mechanisms for armed struggle”.
During the trial, Denise Breen-Lawton, prosecuting, told jurors it was “clearly a terrorist manual” with information on how to kill people, use various weapons, build bombs and evade the police.
She explained to the court how the manual opens with a white supremacist mantra, calling for armed resistance to the “threat to the white race” from Jews and non-white people.
When she opened the case earlier this year, Ms Breen-Lawton said: “The defendant is a racist, homophobic, neo-Nazi terrorist. That is the prosecution case.
“He glorifies and idolises Adolf Hitler and everything that the Nazi movement stood for and is still standing for.”
A document called the ‘White Resistance Manual’ was found on Ashley Podsiad-Sharp’s computer— (Counter Terrorism Policing North East/PA Wire)
The prosecution further alleged he used a Telegram channel for the White Stag Athletic Club, a fitness club he founded where he called himself ‘Sarge’, to share terrorist material.
But jurors cleared him in relation to rap songs with racist and extreme right-wing lyrics he posted on the group’s Telegram channel, after Podsiad-Sharp told jurors the songs were “comedic parody.”
The jury heard how potential members of the White Stag Athletics Club were vetted with a questionnaire which included inquiries like “what do you believe happened in the Holocaust” and “what do you envisage victory to look like?”.
Podsiad-Sharp told the court he had set up the club as he had experience in fitness training from dealing with prisoners and that there was “never any underlying terrorist aim”.
Giving evidence, he told the jury he was “a Christian and a National Socialist”, described himself as a “racial realist” and said “multiculturalism is not good”.
Asked about the Holocaust, the defendant said he was a “revisionist and did not accept the orthodox position” and said that “there was very little evidence to support the Holocaust”.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC described the club as “a cauldron of self-absorbed neo-Nazism masquerading as a low-grade, all-male sports club”, which also asked members if they were homosexual, mixed race, or had Jewish or Muslim heritage as part of its vetting procedures.
He told Podsiad-Sharp: “I have no doubt whatsoever you harboured terrorist intentions and your motivation was terrorism.”
Judge Richardson added he would send his sentencing remarks to the Secretary of State for Justice, telling the defendant: “I have absolutely no doubt that a man with the perverted and extremely dangerous views you hold should never be employed in the responsible position you held as a prison officer.”
He added: “Although the crime was not committed in prison, I regard the fact you were a prison officer to be a very serious matter.
“You had contact with young white men who were vulnerable and disadvantaged and may have been ripe for selection by you had the situation presented itself.”
In mitigation, Peter Eguae said there was no evidence the manual had been accessed by Podsiad-Sharp ”for a significant period of time”.
Podsiad-Sharp was sentenced to 13 years in prison, with a custodial term of eight years and an extension period of five years.
