Crime

BNP leader Nick Griffin in the clear over anti-gay tweets

Nov 30 2012
Written by Scott Roberts

BNP leader Nick Griffin will not face any further action after he was investigated by police for tweeting the address of gay couple.

Mr Griffin, who is also an MEP for the North West, encouraged his supporters to demonstrate outside the Cambridgeshire home of Michael Black and John Morgan in October, after the pair were both awarded £1,800 each at Reading County Court.

Mr Black and Mr Morgan had successfully sued the Christian owner of a bed and breakfast in Berkshire, who refused to allow them to share a double room.

In response, Mr Griffin, who has previously described gay people as “creepy” and has admitted that he would like to ban civil partnerships, wrote on his twitter account @nickgriffinmep

“If anyone can give us address of the 2 bullying ‘gay’ activists who’ve won case v Christian B&B owners, we’ll hold demo… or rights of all home owners, gays included, to rent or not rent rooms to whomsoever they wish.”

He then published another tweet, which he claimed was the couple’s address, followed by the remarks:

“A British Justice team will come up to Huntington & give you a bit of drama by way of reminding you that an English couple’s home is their castle. Say No to heterophobia!”

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell called for the BNP leader to be prosecuted and Labour MEPs urged the European Parliament to investigate his conduct.

However, Mr Black and Mr Morgan were determined to brush the episode aside and described Mr Griffins’ threats as amounting to “hot air”.

On Friday, a spokesperson for Cambridgeshire police said: “Following a police investigation and advice from the Crown Prosecution Service no criminal offences were identified.”

Mr Black told the BBC: “In the end we decided not to make a formal complaint.

“The tweet was only up for a short time, it did not give a specific time… and nobody came.”