Image copyright PA Image caption Jayda Fransen (left) and Paul Golding (right) had denied religiously-aggravated harassment

The leader and deputy leader of far-right group Britain First have been found guilty of religiously aggravated harassment. The pair were jailed on Wednesday at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court for 18 weeks and 36 weeks respectively after standing trial for religiously-aggravated harassment which they carried out in Kent in May last year. The pair were arrested last May over the distribution of leaflets and posting of online videos during a rape trial at Canterbury Crown Court involving three Muslim men and a teenager, who were later convicted and jailed. Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, the brains behind the aggressively anti-immigrant Britain First party, were convicted on several counts of religiously aggravated harassment for filming and intimidating Muslim men involved in a rape trial in the English city of Canterbury. Delivering the judgment, Judge Justin Barron told Folkestone Magistrates' Court said the words and actions of Golding and Fransen "demonstrated hostility" towards Muslims and the Muslim faith. Both Fransen and Golding were convicted on a joint charge of religiously aggravated harassment after an incident last May at 555 Pizza takeaway in Ramsgate, when Fransen banged on the windows and doors of the shop and screamed "paedophile" and "foreigner". “I have no doubt it was their joint intention to use the facts of the case (in Canterbury) for their own political ends,” the judge said. “It was a campaign to draw attention to the race, religion and immigrant background of the defendants.”

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Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, leader and deputy of the British far-right organization Britain First, are convicted of hate crimes for posting things deemed offensive online. Golding is sentenced to 36 weeks in prison and Fransen to 18 weeks in prison for promoting Islamophobic activities and harassment.