A jail officer accused of working a far-right health membership and inspiring terrorism by neo-Nazi rap songs has informed a courtroom that he was simply offering a social outlet for lonely “nationalists”.
Ashley Sharp, 42, from Cudworth, Barnsley, was the founding father of the White Stag Athletic Club, allegedly established to coach others to be “soldiers” for the racist trigger.
Sharp, a jail officer at HMP Leeds in Armley, started as a moderator of a website known as Fascist Fitness the place he adopted a drill sergeant persona and members would publish weekly Friday updates displaying off their physique.
He began his “fitness club” in 2019 with six others primarily based round boxing, jiu-jitsu and working, he informed Sheffield Crown Court.
White Stag Athletic Club started in the summertime of 2020 and “went public” in October 2021, and Sharp informed the courtroom it was like a “nationalist boy scouts for grown-ups”.
He described the membership as “something beautiful, a brotherhood among a lot of men who have none – white working-class men”.
Sharp talked about “climbing over a mountain with 14 other guys who see the world same as you do, and you conquer these things”.
However, the courtroom heard that Sharp was sharing songs with lyrics that referred to a “national socialist death squad”, sending Jews to “the ovens” and sprinkling “Zyklon like condiment,” a reference to the chemical utilized in Nazi gasoline chambers.
A music known as Get ‘Em Out mentioned it was “bedtime” for homosexuals and referred to them as “degenerates” whereas one known as on listeners to “beat up” communists on YouTube and urged “young whites” to “pick up” the place Hitler left off, jurors have been informed
Sharp informed his trial at Sheffield Crown Court that the songs have been “comedic parody, it is a guy singing out of key, shouting 1488 [a far right slogan], Sieg heil, over The Proclaimers.
“It is shock humour. If somebody who isn’t a nationwide socialist hears it, they are going to be shocked, as you guys have been.
“No doubt you think these jokes are horrible, sometimes jokes are horrible – it’s like how far is he willing to go for a laugh, a big part of it is braggadocio.
“It is about how a nationwide socialist sense of humour works. I don’t suppose anyone of their proper thoughts goes to hearken to a rap music and conduct terrorism. The very thought is insulting to humanity.”
Denise Breen-Lawton, prosecuting, accused Sharp of issuing a “name to motion towards the Jews” and “glorifying” the murder of black people, Muslims and homosexuals.
“It isn’t alleged to glorify, it’s alleged to be surprising,” Sharp mentioned.
Sharp denies encouraging terrorism and possessing materials helpful for terrorism.
The trial continues.
Source: information.sky.com”