At 8 am on Thursday June 5 revisionist publisher Simon Sheppard, of North Yorkshire, was woken up by a group of police threatening to break down the door of his house unless he opened it immediately, even refusing his request to be allowed to put on some clothes first. Once inside, they arrested him on "suspicion of distributing racially inflammatory material, under section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986", allowed him to dress, handcuffed him and took him away. Soon afterwards a search team arrived on the premises to prowl through his materials, confiscating two computers and some books (he does not know which).
Sheppard’s friend Paul Ballard explains
" … it seems that some sourpuss at the Post Office opened an outgoing package, saw something about Anne Frank, deemed it 'anti Semitic' and reported it to the police. This was enough for the special 'anti racist' task forces to spring into action. »
Suspect Sheppard was detained until 1 pm, then bailed for three months, during which time he may or may not be charged with having committed an as yet unspecified act.
His activity as a revisionist publisher is well known to the authorities: in 2008 he was tried and convicted for distribution of "racist" tracts and imprisoned for three years. But he is unbowed, having no intention of giving up his life's work merely because the arbitrary ruling power disapproves of it.
Today the offence of "distributing racially inflammatory material" carries a sentence of up to seven years. So much for freedom of expression in merry old England.
Simon Sheppard's catalogue – The Heretical Press – is at http://www.heretical.com/pubs/index.html