A podcaster who talked and wrote about "ethnic purity", an "invasion" of immigrants and a "race war" has denied he was trying to incite racial violence with his words.
James Allchurch from Pembrokeshire is charged with 15 counts of distributing audio material to stir up racial hatred via his Radio Ayran podcast and website. The 51-year-old denies the charges, and is on trial at Swansea Crown Court.
On Monday the defendant told the jury he was "absolutely not" trying to incite racial violence, but was trying to raise awareness of the issues and he said his use of words was literary and allegorical.
Read next: Get the latest court cases sent to your email inbox with our Crime & Punishment newsletter
Allchurch's barrister, Emily Baxter, took the defendant through a number of podcasts and articles on his website, including one on the subject of Enoch's Powell's so-called "Rivers of Blood" speech in 1968. The court heard how the defendant had referred to a BBC programme on the speech which he said had resulted in "complaints from negros and Jews in the establishment" which "just proves Enoch Powell was right".
The defendant said: "Enoch Powell predicted that there would be an increase in violence through the government's immigration policy and he also said, in different words, that there would be minorities in parliament, in authority, which is correct."
The barrister asked the defendant what he had meant by the term "race war" in the same article, and Allchurch replied: "Conflict, friction in society between different groups". Asked if the words were designed to encourage people to take up arms and attack each other, he said: "No. It's just a literary device like 'war of words' or 'culture wars'... it is intended to get people concerned about the rise in violent crime."
Barrister: "Is it intended to encourage violence?"
Defendant: "Absolutely not. When you have more than one ethnicity within one territory, friction inevitably arises. The more different the ethnicities the more potential for friction or conflict there is. If you look at 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland, that is two ethnicities very close together."
Asked by his barrister if he thought there was any "racial hatred" when he had said "these other races are not equal to us - we are superior to them in most measurable ways" the defendant said: "Certainly not. I am referring to my own extended family. You always think your family is the best family". Asked to clarify what he meant by "extended family", he said "People of European extraction. White people." The defendant added he was opposed to multi-culturalism which "turns everyone into simply a consumer" and he said people of mixed race had "thanked" him for trying to dissuade people from "taking another child's heritage away". When asked whether his references to "ethnic cleansing" and "ethnic purity" were a call to racial violence, Allchurch again said "certainly not".
His barrister then asked the defendant about a podcast he had done on grooming gangs and the sexual abuse of girls, particularly in Rotherham, where he had claimed the whole Pakistani community in the town knew what was happening but hadcovered it up. Allchurch said listeners to his show would not have taken those words literally, and would have known he was exaggerating.
Allchurch also denied he was trying to be offensive when he used the phrase "jungle bunny" and said that was just him "trying to be humorous". He also denied wanting a return to slavery though he accepted writing "we were really good to these people" and he told the jury that "white people blame themselves for slavery... we help to pull down statues of ourselves" while ignoring the primary source documents on slavery which would give the full picture.
It is the prosecution case that Radio Aryan - which was later renamed Radio Albion - was "highly racist, anti-Semitic and white supremacist". in nature.
Allchurch, of Gelli, Pembrokeshire, denies the charges against him, and the trial continues.
READ NEXT:
Watch video as men armed with knives, bats, shovels, and axes fight at cemetery
Drug dealer fled Wales and spent five years on the run in Pakistan
Police officer had to jump to safety as a driver sped through the scene of a serious car crash
You can sign up to our regular Crime and Punishment newsletter here while this interactive tool allows you to check the latest crime statistics for your area:
