UKIP candidate John White forwarded racist email on Stephen Lawrence family | Daily Mail Online
UKIP candidate forwarded racist e-mail ranting against the family of murdered Stephen Lawrence
Ex-UKIP candidate John White sent racist diatribe to Tory MP Peter LuffHe stood for the UKIP party in mid-Worcestershire in 2010Was visited by police a fortnight ago after he had sent the e-mailBy
23:02 BST, 8 March 2014
12:35 BST, 10 March 2014
Questioned: Ex-UKIP candidate John White, who was called into the police after a diatribe comparing Stephen Lawrence to an ape
A Tory MP called in the police after his UKIP opponent sent him a grotesque diatribe comparing
the family of murdered Stephen Lawrence to apes. Tory MP Peter Luff has revealed that John White, who stood for UKIP in Mid-Worcestershire at the 2010 General Election, emailed Mr Luff to ask if it was ‘a joke’ that Baroness Lawrence had received a peerage.Mr White attached a tirade by a racist internet commentator, who wrote that the peerage made him ‘ashamed to be British’.Shockingly, the commentator – who called himself ‘Pete Lucas’ – goes on to say: ‘Mrs Lawrence should be elevated higher than the indigenous Brit, which she would normally be, due to the preference of her species for dwelling in high places’ – seemingly a reference to monkeys. ‘Pete’ goes on to describe the peerage as ‘treason’ and says this ‘latest ludicrous elevation of an ethnic-minority woman to baroness on the grounds of her being black with the distinction of having had a son murdered (sic) by white-men, is a crass injustice’. Sic is a Latin term used to highlight an apparent mistake – indicating that ‘Pete’ does not believe that Stephen’s death counted as murder. After Mr Luff told Mr White that he was ‘truly appalled’ by the email, an unapologetic Mr White replied that his nephew had been murdered ‘by some foreigner’ and claimed that the case remained ‘unsolved’ because the victim’s mother was ‘a white British citizen’.
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Mr Luff referred the email exchange to the police – who concluded that although the content was ‘deeply unpleasant’ it did not constitute a crime.Last night Mr White, 71, confirmed he had been visited by West Mercia police a fortnight ago over the email. He said: ‘I told them that I had forwarded the email and still agreed with it.
Murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence (left) and Doreen Lawrence (right) who were insulted in the racist e-mail by John White
'As far as I’m concerned we have freedom of speech in this country and I will say what I think. ‘I’m not frightened to speak and say what other people are too frightened to say. I’m not racist. I have black and Polish friends but I think it’s wrong that people play the race card just to prove a point.‘The police wanted to know who Pete Lucas was but I told them I had no idea and they said the case was closed as far as I was concerned.‘I don’t understand why the Stephen Lawrence case is still going on. It’s been 21 years and it’s time everyone moved on. That’s why I sent it. I still agree with it.’Mr White claimed he didn’t agree with the ‘monkey’ reference, but still did not regret sending the
email. He added that he had let his UKIP membership ‘lapse’ a couple of years ago.The row comes just days after a damning report revealed the full extent of corruption by officers investigating Stephen’s death, including a police cover-up and a ‘spying operation’ on the grieving family by an undercover unit.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage has battled to contain a string of revelations about the views held by some of his candidates
Stephen, 18, was stabbed to death by a group of up to six white youths in an unprovoked racist attack at a bus stop in Eltham, South-East London, on April 22, 1993.Baroness Lawrence fought back tears in the House of Lords last week as she reacted to the report by barrister Mark Ellison QC. Last night, a UKIP spokesman said that Mr White was no longer a member of the party. He added: ‘UKIP abhors racism and takes all allegations of racism extremely seriously. 'John White left UKIP in 2012 after becoming unhappy about the direction of the party.’ Mr White, who won more than 3,000 votes at the last Election, was a member of the Labour Party for 33 years, switching to UKIP when Gordon Brown became
Labour leader. Last night Mr Luff told The Mail on Sunday: ‘One only has to see the dignity with which Lady Lawrence has reacted to this week’s revelations to realise how much she deserved her place in the Lords. ‘This exposes UKIP for the narrow-minded bigots they really are.’UKIP leader Nigel Farage has battled to contain a string of revelations about the views held by some of his candidates. Last week he pledged to weed out ‘eccentric’ candidates who have ‘skeletons in their cupboards’, and said everyone who wanted to stand as an MP or an MEP would have to sign a charter to prove they are not extremists. As a result all new candidates now have to make a written declaration that they have ‘never engaged in, advocated or condoned racist, violent, criminal or anti- democratic activity’.
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EDITOR'S SIX OF THE BESTFamily of AC/DC Phil Rudd break silence after controversial arrest
| Daily Mail Online
EXCLUSIVE: 'My dad is a good guy, he wouldn't harm anyone': Family of AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd break their silence as he faces drugs and threats to kill charges
AD/CD drummer Phil Rudd's family have broken their silence since his arrestRudd's son Thomas said his father was a 'good guy' and wouldn't harm anyoneThe drummer was arrested in New Zealand last week charged with threatening to kill a manNeighbours described him as a 'nice guy' but 'pretty private' By
13:17 BST, 9 November 2014
21:20 BST, 10 November 2014
The family of AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd have broken their silence for the first time since his controversial arrest in New Zealand last week.His son, Thomas Rudd, defended his father on Sunday night - four days after the legendary rocker appeared in court on charges, which also included possession of amphetamines and cannabis.'All I will say is that my dad is a good guy. He's not perfect but wouldn't harm anyone,' he told Daily Mail Australia from Europe.Scroll down for video
In photos posted to social media AC/DC drummer can be seen posing with his three daughters Milla, Lucia and TuesdayOn Thursday, Rudd appeared in court with no shoes on, just hours after New Zealand police searched his house in Tauranga - 200km south-east of Auckland - on the North Island.Rudd was charged with procuring a man to murder two other men between September 25 and 26 and with threatening to kill on September 26. He was also charged with possession of amphetamines and cannabis.
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The procure to murder charges were withdrawn the next day. Crown Solicitor Greg Hollister-Jones ruled there was insufficient evidence to justify those charges. He still faces the threat to kill charge. Since then details have emerged of the reclusive musician's lavish lifestyle, which include claims of group sex from prostitutes and luxury cars, but photos on his daughter's social media page paint a very different picture of Rudd as a family man.
The famous rocker, seen here with daughter Milla, has been charged with threatening to kill
In this photo from 2012 Rudd is surrounded by his five children and a woman believed to be his ex-wife
He has been ordered to stay in his house as part of his bail conditions, and security are currently posted outsideImages posted on Facebook show Rudd to be a loving father who is close to and enjoys the company of his children.In one photo from 2012, Phil Rudd is seen surrounded by five of his offspring at a birthday party as well as a woman believed to be his ex-wife.'Beautiful family, your wife and kids are the sweetest people, glad to know you all,' one friend commented on the post.A more recent photograph from March shows Phil Rudd with a pair of sunglasses on smiling into the camera with his three daughters.While others, ranging from 2012 to earlier this year, show him posing with his arms around his children.
Social media shows Rudd in many photos posing with his arms around his children, like this one with Steven, Milla and Thomas
Neighbours say Rudd, pictured here with Milla and another family member, is quite a private man
On Sunday, all remained quiet at the musician's home with promotional posters of his upcoming album plastered on his windows to stop prying eyes and cameras seeing insideThese happy snaps go hand-in-hand with the accounts of those who live next door to his waterfront home.Neighbour Prue Calwell said she had been over to Rudd's place a couple of times for a cup of coffee.'He's a good neighbour... he's a pretty nice guy,' she told Daily Mail Australia as security guards remained outside Rudd's home on Sunday.'He's very chatty and friendly.'But he's pretty private. We don't see or hear anything [from his house].'Ms Calwell said she and her family only had a noise problem once when her son was woken up by drumming coming from the band member's house.On Sunday, all remained quiet at the musician's home with promotional posters of his upcoming album plastered on his windows to stop prying eyes and cameras seeing inside.He was granted bail under the condition he would remain at his Harbour Drive home in Tauranga until his next appearance on November 27 at the local district court.
Phil Rudd's boat Barchetta, berthed near his restaurant, where he allegedly took prostitutes
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EDITOR'S SIX OF THE BESTHow a routine jab sent me so mad I sobbed (and saluted) through the Royal Wedding - then became convinced I was the Messiah... | Daily Mail Online
How a routine jab sent me so mad I sobbed (and saluted) through the Royal Wedding - then became convinced I was the Messiah...
00:53 BST, 1 January 2012
Before wielding the syringe, the middle-aged nurse in the scruffy Greek prefectural office warned me to expect symptoms similar to mild influenza.But nothing could have prepared me for the catastrophic adverse reaction that I endured and which has left me a ruined, broken man. Stamaril, the yellow fever vaccine made by Sanofi Pasteur, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives. But the jab fried my brain and transported me to within a whisper of death and paralysis.
Anguish: BBC Correspondent Malcolm Brabant with his wife Trine and their son Lukas outside their new home in Copenhagen
It has taken my little family and me to the gates of hell. Since April, I have spent more than three months in the intensive care units of psychiatric hospitals in three countries, and there is a possibility that I will never fully recover.(Malcolm has had three psychotic episodes. In between, he is lucid, aware that he has endured a period of serious mental illness. He can remember most of what has happened to him during the psychotic episodes. He also keeps a diary and has been filmed frequently. This account was written last week, during a lucid period.) 'I needed the inoculation as protection
against mosquitoes that carry the yellow fever virus and kill an
estimated 200,000 people each year in sub-Saharan Africa and South
I needed the inoculation as protection against mosquitoes that carry the yellow fever virus and kill an estimated 200,000 people each year in sub-Saharan Africa and South America. I was due to fly to Ivory Coast to shoot a series of films about victims of the country’s civil conflict for Unicef, the United Nations children’s fund. It was supposed to be my second assignment for Unicef TV, an organisation that requires sensitive videography and story-telling.I have been a freelance BBC foreign correspondent for 22 years and had been in Athens for the previous eight years, with none of the benefits enjoyed by journalists on the staff.
Well respected: Malcolm Brabant was the BBC's
Athens correspondent - but was unable to report on rioting in the Greek
capital due to his illnessWork and money was scarce at the start of the year because of the BBC’s focus on the Arab uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa. Interest in the Greek financial crisis had waned. So I leapt at Unicef’s offer to fly to West Africa.But the immunisation made me too sick to travel. Within 24 hours of the jab, I was confined to bed with a temperature of 103.6F (39.8C). We knew instantly this was a reaction to the inoculation, since no one else was sick and nothing had happened to me apart from the vaccination. I was shivering and rocking the bed so violently that it slammed against the bedside table.
My wife, the Danish author Trine
Villemann, couldn’t believe the severity of the fever and changed
thermometers. The second thermometer confirmed the first reading. I was
gripping on to the duvet for dear life because I was simultaneously
freezing and drenched in a cold sweat. Trine
applied over-the-counter medicines such as Ibuprofen to try to suppress
the fever but my temperature hovered resolutely at 104F (40C) and on
occasions spiked as high as 104.5F (40.3C).The body’s normal temperature is 98.6F (37C).
Petition: Mr Brabant's wife, Trine Villemann is now trying to obtain the findings of an investigationI had a battery of examinations in hospital and was admitted when my liver test produced an abnormal result.The fever was depriving me of sleep and the insomnia left me emotionally exhausted. I suffered my first hallucination 11 days into what was now a severe illness that was baffling Greece’s top infectious diseases experts. I was convinced my Kindle e-book reader flew across the hospital room from the bed to a chair. Despite being a veteran, cynical journalist, I started to believe that I had supernatural powers. Thirteen days after the shot, doctors began giving me steroids to try to dampen the fever. At long last, they succeeded. But my mental downward spiral steepened the next day, Friday, April 29, the day Prince William married Kate Middleton.
I was watching the ceremony on television with Trine, who has written two books about the Danish royal family. This was supposed to be a treat for her because of her professional interest.But I spoiled the occasion. Every time I saw someone in uniform, I jumped up and saluted. I was in floods of tears and in hyper-patriotic mood at witnessing a British ceremony at its finest, weeping over the flowers and the music.Trine never got to see the Royal couple say ‘I will’. She switched off the television because she thought I was too distressed. She ordered me to have a rest and left my room. When she returned an hour later, I was still sobbing.Later that day, I became convinced that I was the Messiah. The trigger was a midnight email from Bob Traa, the head of the International Monetary Fund team in Athens, who was agreeing to a highly prized off-the-record meeting about the Greek economic crisis. I was delirious. I never thought he’d see me.I sent back a crazed reply saying: ‘I’m getting very tired now. I need to sleep because we have a lot of work to do. One thing I will say is that Greece has really been kind to me and it has cured my son.‘It is God’s country. Its people are fantastic. Sorry, the bed is shaking.God bless. Malcolm.’ 'The bed was pitching so violently, I thought it was a sign from Heaven that the second coming had begun.'
Indeed, the bed was pitching so violently, I thought it was a sign from Heaven that the second coming had begun. A few days later, Trine transferred me to the Sinouri Clinic, a poor Athenian imitation of Britain’s Priory. ‘You had called me and told me you were Jesus,’ she says. I was sitting on the windowsill of my room on the 15th floor of the hospital, looking towards the dome of an Orthodox church.
‘I am going to fly with the angels,’ I said. Apparently, it is quite common for the insane to be convinced that they are Jesus Christ. My experience in Athens in April and May was similar to that of Jim Carrey when he played an ordinary American who suddenly developed divine powers and became Bruce Almighty in the movie of the same name. There were times when I was confused about whether I was Christianity’s Joseph figure or the Messiah himself. It was excruciating trying to persuade Trine that our son Lukas was in line to save the world like me.‘Do you know who I am?’ I used to beg. ‘Yes, I know who you are,’ she would reply. But her eyes told me she didn’t believe me.I thought I had been chosen because of my understanding of the media and new technology. I decided to test my powers and flushed my Kindle in the lavatory, then picked it up and turned it on. The display flickered briefly and then it expired permanently. I thought perhaps this was just teething trouble and was certain that other miracles would ensue.For a week, I disappeared into a mental black hole and had no inkling of just how mad I had become. Then, gradually, I returned to consciousness and became self-aware.
Bad reaction: The Stamaril vaccine that Malcolm took
But during the psychotic episode, I became convinced that the British Government knew that I was the Messiah and had put cameras in the bathroom of my room in the psychiatric ward. I spent hours in the bathroom denouncing various Greek politicians for being corrupt. I was sure that a video-feed from the bathroom was being played to 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace and the White House. During one session, I was certain that the Queen Mother had returned from the dead and was roaring with laughter at my antics. I interpreted ‘messages’ that meant the British Royal Family was going to step aside so that Lukas could become King and could have the protection the next Messiah would require. I was getting messages from the dead people that, during the sane period of my life, I have always regarded as my guardian angels. They included my son James, who would have been 33 years old this year and who died in his pram of cot death when he was just four months old. I would get an electronic buzz when the guardian angels wished to speak. The spirits ‘on the other side’ included Danny McGrory, one of my best friends in journalism, who die Kurt Schork, a Reuters correspondent who was killed in Sierra Leone
Terry Lloyd, the ITN reporter killed in Iraq, who had given me my fir and Bill Frost, a brilliant Radio 4 correspondent who died prematurely young. They set me a series of tests, and were cackling with laughter as they commanded me to drink my own urine from the porcelain bowl and to clean my teeth with a toilet brush. I complied with their demands. Urine doesn’t taste as bad as you might think, but I refused to go along with my guardian angels’ most outrageous demand – to eat my own excrement. ‘There are
limits, chaps,’ I said.
Emotional moment: The Royal wedding in April put Malcolm in a 'hyper-patriotic mood'
It was excruciatingly frustrating trying and failing to convince anyone that I was the next Messiah. I tried to recreate the stigmata by squashing fresh strawberries, brought to me by my wife, and painting ‘blood marks’ on the wall of the bathroom. I commanded her to dress me up in a nappy made from a sheet so I could lie in bed like a divine infant. I also insisted she polish my halo.The owner of the Sinouri Clinic, a psychiatrist called Pantelis Lazaridis, declared that I had suffered what he called ‘an acute organic psychotic event’.Throughout my illness, Trine was conducting an investigation into the cause. We both knew the trigger was the yellow fever inoculation. A specialist at the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases said he suspected the jab was contaminated. Professor Eleni Giamarellou, Greece’s leading specialist in infectious diseases who treated me at Athens’ Ygeia hospital, believes I was hypersensitive to the drug and suffered an allergic reaction to it.'Despite the devastating impact on me, the
Greek health authorities have displayed no interest in investigating
whether other syringes were contaminated'
Despite the devastating impact on me, the Greek health authorities have displayed no interest in investigating whether other syringes were contaminated. Sanofi Pasteur denies there is any link between my illness and its vaccine. The company is also asking for more data and claims we have prevented its investigators from having access to my medical records. That is simply not true. My wife sent the company an email giving them permission to talk to Professor Giamarellou and Dr Laziridis. With the help of anti-psychotic drugs, prescribed by Dr Laziridis, I returned to sanity in time to be able to vigorously cover the Greek economic crisis for the BBC in June. But there was no escape from the devastating impact of Sanofi Pasteur’s vaccine.In July, I found myself sectioned in a secure psychiatric ward in Ipswich, the town where I grew up.I had returned to Britain because I lost faith in the efficacy of Greek psychiatric care. The specialists in Ipswich decided I needed to be protected from myself after I suffered a major relapse and displayed more bizarre behaviour. I escaped from a psychiatric crisis team. Wearing excessively tight Lycra shorts and jacket, I took my bike on the train to London, with the aim of acting as a peacemaker in the BBC journalists’ strike. I demanded to see the director-general and the strike leader.As I was being gently shepherded out of Television Centre to a BBC car to take me back to Ipswich, I spotted Frank Gardner, the BBC’s security correspondent, who is partially paralysed after being shot in Saudi Arabia in 2004. I told him about my Messianic convictions and rubbed his back in the hope of accomplishing a miracle cure. Frank was really graciously indulgent and said: ‘I’ll take whatever I can get.’ My performance in front of senior BBC managers and other colleagues demonstrated that I was certifiable and reinforced the stigma attached to mental illness. But it isn’t just me who has suffered. Trine and son Lukas have also been tormented by my psychotic episodes. Lukas has witnessed things no 12-year-old should see, such as my episode in July when I thought I was being targeted by the Greek government. Trine had to quickly get him out of our house in Athens as I ranted and raved, wearing a helmet and a bulletproof jacket over the top of a stab vest.‘How are we going to survive if Dad dies?’ he has asked his mother on more than one occasion. We have been forced to move from Greece to Denmark because of my illness. The health care here is free. We have also come here in the hope that Trine can find a job to support us. So far, she has been unsuccessful because she has spent all her time caring for my needs. Lukas has been wrenched from a happy international school in Athens and forced to abandon his pack of lifelong friends. He has been separated from his beloved labrador Dash, as dogs aren’t allowed in the block where we rent a small, shabby apartment. Dash has been farmed out to Lukas’s wonderful grandmother, who lives 20 miles outside Copenhagen, and our son is lucky if he is able to see his pet once a week.‘I hate Denmark,’ is Lukas’s occasional refrain. ‘I want to go back to Greece.’Such an option is not possible. It breaks my heart to see my charming, upbeat son looking pale, with rings around his eyes. He’s become withdrawn and defiant. I just hope that he is not permanently damaged. Yet, despite being forced to give up so much, he doesn’t blame me for what has happened. His first question to his mother as soon as he sees her is always: ‘Is Dad OK?’My beautiful wife Trine, the love of my life, whom I met in Sarajevo 16 years ago, is ageing before my very eyes as she acts as the glue binding our family together – trying to present a facade of normality for Lukas while being my nursemaid.‘I want my life back,’ she wept the other day as she once again drove me to the psychiatric facility in Copenhagen that has been treating me
since the beginning of November when I suffered my third psychotic episode after having Sanofi Pasteur’s vaccine. This time, I became obsessed that I was the Devil. Again I vanished into a black hole where I lost all conscious thought. It lasted a week or so and poor Lukas witnessed that horrific slippage.‘I want my partner back, I want my best friend back,’ my wife cried.I was discharged from the Copenhagen psychiatric facility in the week before Christmas because my supervising doctor thought I was the sanest person on the ward. Trine struggled to contain her anger as she unsuccessfully argued that my release was premature. Three days later, I was readmitted so the doctors could adjust my medication. I wrote this article while I was at home and in the real world.So I am once again trying to take baby steps back towards normality and hoping I can cope. I am also fighting pulmonary embolisms and deep-vein thrombosis, which have suddenly appeared in the atrophying hospital conditions. The first psychotic episode in Athens almost killed me and now lethal physical reinforcements have surfaced.Death, my death, has become a subject we feel we no longer have the luxury of ignoring. The other day, Trine and I took a walk in a park next to our new Copenhagen home, which turned out to be a cemetery. ‘If I die,’ I said, ‘I’d like to be cremated.’ She interrupted me. ‘I have been forced to think about this,’ she said, ‘and I will demand a post-mortem to try to find out what happened to you because we are not getting answers from Sanofi Pasteur.’‘Then you can burn me,’ I said. ‘And scatter my ashes in Sarajevo or Santorini [the exquisite Greek island where Trine and I married for better or worse].‘Your choice,’ I added.But I have so much to live for. Anyone who knows me will testify that I am a fighter with a naturally cheerful, optimistic, stubborn disposition. I will do my damnedest to return from the gates of Hades and escape this Kafkaesque existence brought on by one little prick with a syringe containing Sanofi Pasteur’s yellow fever vaccine.If you think that sounds like the ramblings of a madman, you are officially wrong. ‘What has happened to you is a terrible tragedy,’ said my supervising Danish doctor.‘But you have a good chance of a full recovery because of the strength of your character.’In a statement, Sanofi Pasteur said: ‘Carefully examining all the medical information disclosed to us up to July 2011, we have been unable to establish evidence for a causal relationship between the administration of the yellow fever vaccine Stamaril and the reported medical conditions.’ The company said that the vaccine dose came from a batch that had passed quality controls. It said requests to the family for further information since July had gone unanswered but that it remained available to co-operate with doctors and the family if required.
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