THE TRIAL of a Pembrokeshire man accused of making racist podcasts has been delayed by almost 10 months by the barristers’ strike.

James Allchurch, 50, of Gelli, denies 15 charges of distributing a recording to stir up racial hatred.
The hearing commenced on Wednesday but on the third day of the trial, Judge Huw Rees announced that due to ongoing industrial action, which increases to three days next week, the case would have had to have been split up.

This would have resulted in two days being set aside on July 7 and 8 and then, following a two-week break, the hearing would have resumed on July 25, 26, 27 and 28.
However, a note was passed to the court informing them that five jury members would be unavailable due to pre-booked holidays.

Allchurch, who used the name Sven Longshank on his podcast, denies 15 counts of distributing audio material to stir up racial hatred over a two-year period.

Until then, Allchurch of Gelli, Narberth, was granted unconditional bail.

The 50-year-old denies all counts. Earlier this week, the court heard how Allchurch presented the shows under the name Sven Longshanks – something that Mr Wright told the jury had historic connotations. He said: “The prosecution suggests the recordings were plainly insulting and abusive and intended to stir up racial hatred or at the very least likely to stir up racial hatred. As the name suggests the content was racist and white supremacist in nature. This defendant was the proprietor and responsible for the content on those webpages.
“He presented the podcasts using the name Sven Longshanks – a reference to King Edward I who was known for an edict of expulsion in 1290 by which all Jews were expelled from England. It is no coincidence this defendant chose to adopt the name while he posted racist podcasts. His co-host was Alex Davies, a white nationalist and one of the founding members of National Action, a racist neo-Nazi group which has carried out a number of provocative street demonstrations in the UK.”
The jury was read extracts from the podcasts by Mr Wright. In one episode he quoted Allchurch referring to black people and saying: “They are not equal to us” before later adding: “You cannot change the way people are. You cannot change the way things are created. The negro was created to be a negro. He was not created to be a white man. He wasn’t created to function as a normal white man. In white society he would fail.”

In another podcast the court heard Allchurch said: “How can anyone think a person migrating from a third-world country is coming to give us something? They are coming here to take whatever they can. That’s what they’re doing. It’s madness. ‘I want to go to Great Britain because they have high benefits – all I have got here is a s made out of cow dung. I go there I’ll be given a house made out of bricks and mortar.'”

A music extract described as “one of Mr Allchurch’s favourite tracks” was played to the court from another podcast which included lyrics such as: “Aryan pride” and “Life was better 50 years ago when Adolf Hitler dropped the Jews a new robe”. In another podcast, discussing providing aid to developing countries, he stated: “We do need to reduce the amount of negros that Africa is producing. They have got a billion over there at the moment and they believe there will be two billion within 30 years. And you can just imagine in another 30 years it will be four billion. Then they are just going to swamp the entire planet with a creature that is unable to find its own food and water and requires constant looking after.” He added that foreign aid needed to be dependent on a programme of sterilisation, stating: “If we left them to their own devices we could let nature take care of them. Epidemics such as ebola or monkeypox would effectively cull large swathes of their population.”

The court heard that following his arrest by police a laptop was recovered from Allchurch’s home which upon examination found the podcasts on the laptop. Notebooks containing usernames and passwords were also seized. During police interviews Allchurch admitted he was ‘Sven Longshanks’ and that he had adopted the name to protect his identity. He told officers he set up Radio Aryan as a project but also a hobby. He denied it was to stir up hatred and said he discouraged extremism and violence. He told officers he did not believe Jewish people had been subjected to execution in gas chambers. The trial continues and is expected to last for two weeks.