Pembrokeshire podcaster jailed for stirring up racial hatred

Following a trial at Swansea Civic Centre, James Allchurch, of Gelli, near Llawhaden, was convicted of ten out of 15 counts of distributing audio material to stir up racial hatred over a two-year period.

The offences related to podcasts uploaded between May 17, 2019, and March 18, 2021, to a public website he owned and controlled called Radio Aryan, which was later renamed Radio Albion.

The jury had heard that Allchurch, 51, was a self-proclaimed “avowed racist” and Adolf Hitler supporter.

James Allchurch has been jailed after being found guilty of stirring up racial hatred. (Image: Athena Picture Agency)

Throughout the trial, it was heard that Allchurch suggested creating “safe spaces” outside cities for “indigenous Britons”, and questioned that gas chambers were used by the Nazis during the holocaust.

He had also made comments on the podcast calling black people “repelling”, saying that mixed race couples were the result of a “fetish”, and calling mixed race children “half-caste bastards”, “jumbled up mystery meat”, and “mutts”.

Allchurch went by the alias Sven Longshanks, a reference to King Edward I, who was also known as Edward Longshanks and was responsible for expelling Jewish people from England in 1290.

James Allchurch owned and controlled a website called Radio Aryan, which was later renamed Radio Albion. (Image: South Wales Police)

The jury heard that, in a police interview, Allchurch told officers: “Any sensible person would reach the same conclusion as Adolf Hitler”.

“It was a campaign to stir up racial hatred,” said prosecutor Jonathan Rees.

Mr Rees described Radio Aryan as being run as a “propaganda mouthpiece” for Allchurch’s far-right racist and antisemitic views.

He told the court that Allchurch’s broadcasts would have some 4,000 listeners as they went out, not counting those listening to them when they were archived.

Allchurch was continuing to publish material stirring up racial hatred “for some time” after he was arrests, Mr Rees said.

“This is a relatively small proportion of the content on the website as a whole,” said Emily Baxter, in mitigation.

She said these represented Allchurch’s views at the time, but his views had since “evolved” and had become “more moderate” and “nuanced”.

“The website actively discourages violence,” she said. “Discouraging people from using abusive language and discouraged people from taking part in anything unlawful.”

She said that some of the offending comments were made by Allchurch’s co-hosts, but admitted that he still could have edited those out.

Allchurch had taken steps to “limit dissemination” of the podcasts, she said, saying there were warnings on the website and that he deleted some of the podcasts after his arrest, and “thousands of hours” of other podcasts on the site.

James Allchurch had been found guilty of 10 out of the 15 charges he faced at a trial at Swansea Civic Centre. (Image: Athena Picture Agency)

Judge Huw Rees said: “It was immediately apparent that the recordings were plainly insulting or abusive and that your sole intention was to stir up racial hatred, or at least racial hatred was likely to stirred up as a result.

“The content of these podcasts was vile.

“Listening to them, as the jury had to, was a disturbing experience.

“It beggars belief, or at least it should. that someone would speak these words at all, let alone feel the need to publish them for the consumption of others.

“You had an agenda of racial hatred and you propelled your propaganda with rhetoric and misrepresentation. You were bent on inciting racial hatred and you chose your words carefully to that end.

“Your offending amounts to a stain on our humanity for our fellow human being.

“In my view, you have not displayed any remorse or misgivings for the creation of these audio files or their subsequent dissemination.

“You are a man who holds deep seated views of a highly pejorative, racist and antisemitic nature.”

At Swansea Crown Court, Judge Rees sentenced Allchurch to two-and-a-half years in prison, running concurrently for each of the ten offences.