A member of a banned neo-Nazi group was able to continue issuing death threats and racist abuse on Twitter after he had been jailed for targeting a Labour MP with anti-semitic tweets.
Garron Helm, a member of National Action, returned to social media weeks after being freed. He was able to use his old Twitter handle to call for “race war” in the UK.
One of his victims reported his threatening behaviour to Twitter and to the police yet Helm, 23, was able to wage a renewed campaign of hate for almost two years.
National Action achieved notoriety earlier this year for celebrating the murder of Jo Cox, the Labour MP. Last week it was proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
Helm, a former student from Liverpool, was jailed for four weeks in October 2014 after pleading guilty to sending a tweet with a Star of David superimposed on the head of Luciana Berger, the Labour MP, who is Jewish. It carried the hashtag “Hitler Was Right”.
Advertisement
It is understood that Twitter suspended his account at the time, but Helm managed to resurface online using the same handle in February 2015 when he was out of prison.
He described himself on his Twitter profile as a “purveyor of hate” pursuing “white jihad”. His subsequent posts were racist, homophobic and anti-semitic.
In March, Helm posted a photo of Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass killer, adding a message: “Don’t half-arse it lads, give ‘em all you got #MaximumEffort.” In July, he encouraged support for “race war”. However, many months earlier, in October 2015, Helm had appeared to send a death threat to Suzanne Fernandes, a youth worker from west London, following a dispute about refugees.
Helm told Fernandes: “Your days are numbered haha, enjoy it while you can ;)” He later added her to a tweet featuring the hashtag “Day of the Rope”.
“I felt my life was genuinely at risk,” said Fernandes. She reported the incident to Twitter, but it failed to take any action, she said.
Advertisement
She said she also reported the threat to Merseyside police but an officer had told her that “anyone in the world” could be behind the Twitter account and advised her instead to contact the Metropolitan police in London.
This weekend the Met said it was “working closely with Merseyside [police] to follow all potential lines of inquiry”.
Helm’s account was suspended this month after The Sunday Times highlighted his activities to Twitter.
This weekend he was back online, however, declaring himself a graduate of the “Class of Terror 2016”.
Twitter said: “Accounts that are reported to us and that violate the Twitter rules will be suspended.
Advertisement
“We have recently updated our approach to ensure we are more effective at dealing with hateful conduct and continue to work with law enforcement agencies to assist in criminal investigations.”
Helm declined to comment.