A suspended Labour councillor urged a crowd to cut the throats of National Front members during riots last summer, a court has heard.
Ricky Jones, councillor for Dartford, appeared in court today accused of encouraging violent disorder after taking part in a counter-protest in Hoe Street, Walthamstow, on August 7 last year.
Jones, 57, attended the demonstration as several anti-migrant rallies took place across the UK in the wake of the murders of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29.
The incident sparked local riots which quickly spread across other parts of the country after misinformation spread online that the attacker, Axel Rudakubana, was a Muslim asylum seeker who had recently arrived in Britain on a small boat.
The court heard that Jones was spotted amongst a crowd that had gathered in Hoe Street in the early hours of the morning, despite Labour having urged its councillors ‘not to take part in or attend…any demonstration or counter demonstration’.
He was later filmed shouting into a microphone: ‘They are disgusting Nazi fascists. We need to cut their throats and get rid of them’ whilst making a slashing gesture across his neck.
Jones was suspended after videos of the speech, which he claimed was in response to seeing stickers concealing razor blades planted by far-right group National Front, were widely circulated online.
He denies the charge and maintains that his words were said in the ‘heat of the moment’ and were not intended to be ‘taken literally’.
Wearing a smart brown suit and glasses, Jones appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court today to stand trial.
Prosecutor Benjamin Holt said: ‘Last summer three girls were killed at a dance-themed event in Southport, Merseyside.
‘A male, seventeen years of age at the time, has been arrested and charged in respect of their murders and additional counts of attempted murder.
‘You will recall the mass outpouring of grief and genuine concern that followed those killings.’
He told jurors: ‘A week or so later, from about 5 August 2024, the Metropolitan Police Service started to receive information about the prospects of future anti-immigration protests and counter protests in the capital.
‘Ricky Jones was, at the time, a Labour Councillor for Dartford.
‘As a result he received and authored various advice documents about the state of flux that the country was in at the time.
‘The material found on his telephone is, we say, important when you come to consider whether what Mr Jones thought was going to take place in Walthamstow, and whether he believed that his actions could encourage violence.’
Jurors were read a pronouncement part-authored by Jones on behalf of Labour that including the words: ‘There is no excuse for what we’ve seen. No possible justification.
‘This is mindless criminal thuggery, fuelled and perpetrated by the far right spreading their divisive, destructive ideas on the streets and on social media’.
Ahead of the planned far-right riot in Walthamstow, Jones sent a message on the ‘Dartford Labour Group’, Mr Holt said.
The message referred to ‘images of National Front stickers apparently concealing a razor blade.’
He warned the WhatsApp group: ‘Please be careful while travelling and please cascade the following pictures, have come from one of my reps who works for C2C and have been found on their trains’.
In the same group, on the 6 August, Jones again referred to the National Front as a ‘group afro Caribbean people used to have to be afraid of in the 60s, 70s.
‘I can’t believe that we are going back to those disgraceful times. It breaks my heart to see this.’
The prosecutor directed jurors to an ‘instructive’ email sent around by the Labour Local Government team in reference to far-right rallies taking place around the UK.
It said: ‘With heightened tensions in many areas of the country due to the threat of further violent disorder, we wanted to remind all Labour Party councillors to follow the clear advice issued by the police which is not to take part in, attend, or encourage others to attend any sort of demonstration or counter demonstration.’
‘In due course, you might consider why it was that this defendant decided to ignore this advice – for that is precisely what he did.’
He added: ‘As I mentioned, during the afternoon and into the early evening of 7 August, a crowd began to gather on Hoe Street.
‘We will see CCTV footage of Ricky Jones at the side of the road, the road is full of people.
‘There is a speaker in the middle of the road, using a microphone – the defendant makes his way over towards the speaker and the microphone.
‘It would appear to be a conscious decision on his part to head in that direction in order to take that stage. Once there, he waits his turn.
‘The previous speaker gives way to Mr Jones who goes on to make a speech. Before he takes the microphone, he provides a male with his mobile telephone.
‘This male films Mr Jones with his own telephone; presumably having been asked to do so by Mr Jones.
‘We have that speech as recorded on his mobile telephone and he has distributed that, or some of that, to his contacts.
‘However, someone else has filmed Mr Jones’ speech. Excerpts of it were circulated on social media, X, video and audio.
‘During the speech, Mr Jones says the following: “We have got children and women using those trains during the summer holidays. They are disgusting Nazi fascists. We need to cut all their throats and get rid of them all. I just want to say thank you all and I’ll leave it there.” ‘
Jurors were played footage of Jones’ speech. ‘As he talked of cutting throats, he drew his finger across his own throat’, Mr Holt said.
The court heard that during the same event Jones told the Politics Joe Website about razor blades hidden behind National Front stickers with the words ‘National Front Rights for Whites’.
‘They’re targeting women, they’re targeting children, they’re targeting babies,’ he is on record telling the website.
‘We’re talking about the summer holidays when those trains are packed with people going on their holidays, or going down to the coast, and they’ve got be faced by razor blades stuck between the seats. It’s disgraceful, absolutely disgraceful.’
Mr Holt continued: ‘At nine o’clock a message was received by Ricky Jones from a contact: “Ricky your on BBC News.”
‘Ricky Jones appears content and satisfied by his evening’s work and the speech that he has made: “I served” – no apparent regret was shown for that video.’
The jurors heard that the 57-year-old was arrested on 8 August and provided a prepared statement to police before giving a no comment interview.
He said in his statement that his comments were not intended to be ‘taken literally’.
Mr Holt continued: ‘He said he was sorry for having made the comments. They were made, he said, in the heat of the moment.
‘He was not invited to speak until the last minute and had not planned what he was going to say.
‘The prosecution’s case is that this defendant has gone to a demonstration, protest, against some fairly clear and strong guidance. It was, we say, not said in the heat of the moment.
‘In the circumstances in Hoe Street as they were, making this speech was capable of encouraging others to commit an offence.
‘It was capable of stoking the flames and encouraging others to violence.’
Jones, of Dartford, Kent, denies encouraging violent disorder.
The trial continues.