A BNP activist, who used a photograph of the body of a Herefordshire girl in an anti-Muslim propaganda leaflet, has been cleared of trying to incite religious hatred.
The activist used an image of Rachel Whitear on leaflets blaming Muslims for the heroin trade in 2008.
Anthony Bamber, 54, told a jury his intention was to create a debate about the “crime against humanity” that was the flow of the drug on to Britain’s streets.
Rachel Whitear’s mother Pauline Holcroft, of Ledbury, told the Journal that she was “disappointed” at the verdict.
The photographs of Rachel’s body were used by her family and the police to shock schoolchildren into thinking twice about experimenting with drugs.
“The pictures were released for a very specific educational purpose,” she said.
“For it to be used in such an awful way is upsetting. I don’t think people should be allowed to put that sort of thing into print and use the image without consent.”
The leaflets, which featured a picture of Rachel’s body taken after her death from a heroin overdose in May 2000, were written and distributed by Mr Bamber.
He was responsible for heading a campaign which sent up to 30,000 of the leaflets by hand or post to targeted areas and individuals throughout the north of England over a 12-month period.
Entitled The Heroin Trade, the leaflet claimed: “Before the Islamic invasion, it was impossible to find heroin in our land. Muslims are almost exclusively responsible for its production, transportation and sale.
“It is a crime against humanity because it has caused far more suffering than slavery ever did. It has led to millions of premature deaths.”
The literature identified tax payers as victims due to the cost of policing and rehabilitation for which Muslims must compensate, it added.
Muslims should be held to account with condemnation heaped upon them so that it would lead to the abolition of the trade, it concluded.
Bamber, of Greenbank Street, Preston, Lancashire, has denied seven counts of distributing threatening written material intended to stir up religious hatred between March and November 2008. He was cleared by a jury at Preston Crown Court of all seven counts.
Representing himself, Bamber said there had been “no unpleasant incidents or social unrest” following the sending of the leaflets.
Giving evidence last week, he explained they were targeted at educated professionals such as teachers, doctors, lawyers and clerics who were unlikely to take physical retribution against Muslims upon reading the literature.
His aim was to create curiosity and interest which would then lead to a debate, he said.
“If I wanted to stir up religious hatred I would have aimed at a different group,” said the former part-time lecturer of politics and economics at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston. He said: “It was a desire to protest at what I say is a monstrous abomination. I believe I have the right to protest about the heroin trade.”