BNP denies involvement in incident at equality council's HQ

| Thursday, 20 May 2004 Source: This is Exeter

Police say they are treating the plastering of stickers displaying the name of the far-right British National Party on the offices of Devon's Racial Equality Council as race harassment.

Staff at the offices in York Road, Exeter, were so distressed to discover the anti-asylum-seeker stickers on the door they contacted the police.

House-to-house inquiries have been carried out and the incident has now been designated as racially aggravated harassment.

But the BNP insisted yesterday that its members would not slap stickers on doors and would never intentionally upset anyone.

Spokesman Dr Phill Edwards said the stickers could have been placed there by people unconnected with the party and claimed that they might not even be official BNP stickers.

Kevin McKenzie, chief officer for the Devon Racial Equality Council, said the stickers were discovered last Thursday morning by external services manager Sonia Francis-Mills, who is black and was upset by the incident.

Mr McKenzie said it was undoubtedly an attack on the organisation, which is housed next to the city mosque.

"Some of the staff were upset," he said. "They don't want to feel they are being targeted in the workplace by the BNP. We moved into these offices two months ago and, although we are not in a secret location, I am surprised people have managed to find us so quickly. I expected something like this to happen. It goes with the territory."

Sonia, who had to wash the stickers off the door, said they carried messages including Vote BNP, Save the Pound, Britain is for the British and anti-asylum-seeker slogans and, while the messages were not offensive, she feared worse.

"I suffered racial abuse when I first moved to Devon. It can start off with just stickers but it can get much worse. I was in the office on my own that day and I did feel vulnerable.

"There is nothing you can do about people's views but I think they should use the appropriate forums to express them."

Police have carried out house-to-house enquiries in the area in the hope of catching those responsible.

Exeter police spokesman PC Roy Adams said: "Although everyone has freedom of speech, people must be careful not to cause offence."

But Dr Edwards said: "I can't be sure if these stickers are ours. We don't do fly-posting and we don't go round deliberately trying to upset people. The police are investigating this because they have to do what they are told, otherwise they will be accused of being racist. It's political correctness. We believe it is a waste of police time with all the other issues they have to deal with."