BNP student imported knuckle-dusters

This is Nottingham by Rebecca Sherdley | Saturday, 22 August 2009 | Click here for original article

A CITY music student with an interest in far-right political groups illegally imported knuckledusters and CS spray from a member of a white supremacist movement in America.

Michael Winfield planned to add the prohibited items to a collection kept under his bed.

Customs and Excise officers in Manchester intercepted a parcel from a prominent member of Tightrope to Winfield, a New College Nottingham student, who lives with his mum in Carlton.

Marked as "books and paperweights", the package contained three 14g CS spray key-rings and four knuckledusters, bought for as little as $15 each.

Eight neo-Nazi booklets were discovered, two Tightrope catalogues and a booklet called The True History of the Holocaust.

The seizure led police to search the family home on December 3, 2007. A similar CS spray was found in Winfield's bedroom, two more knuckledusters, an extendable baton, a BNP membership card and 49 BNP pamphlets.

His computer had images of neo-Nazis and weaponry and a photograph of 20-year-old Winfield in front of a flag, brandishing a weapon.

He ordered another package while on bail, again intercepted. It contained a telescopic baton, 13 stickers with racist slogans, and two T-shirts bearing the slogan "White Pride Worldwide."

At Nottingham Crown Court, Winfield, who had no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to importing prohibited items and possessing a prohibited weapon.

Recorder Richard Burns heard Winfield's explanation for the collection was simple curiosity, and that he was going to add them to his collection in his bedroom.

Prosecutor Michael Auty said: "There is no evidence that these items, however repugnant, were being imported for some specific purpose or some specific attack."

The judge imposed a 12-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, with 120 hours of community work and supervision by the probation service for 18 months.