BBC News reports that the leader of the BNP in Stoke on Trent and a former councillor, Michael Coleman, has been given a suspended jail sentence after he was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment for using racist language on his website.

From the BBC:

“A British National Party member and former Stoke-on-Trent councillor has received a suspended jail sentence for using racist language online.

“Michael Coleman… had denied two counts of racially aggravated harassment.

“Coleman was given eight months suspended for 12 months.

“He was also ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work.

Coleman’s comments were a response to the riots which occurred in the UK last summer. They included comments that Stoke-On-Trent was being ‘flooded with Muslims and blacks’, and that “London darkies have reacted with violence. The darkies have exposed their true nature in siding with criminality."

After the sentencing, he stated, "Allegedly I've broken the law but it won't stop me speaking out and I've no doubt I'll go to prison at some point in the future.

"I had no idea my comments would ever result in this, my freedom's been taken away."