Lionheart - Paul Ray's Story

I have been reading with interest over the last few days the blog of Paul Ray, aka Lionheart. For those who are not familiar with Lionheart, he was one of the founders and key figures in the English Defence League (EDL), a movement which started just over a year ago, and has attracted a significant amount of media attention for it's high profile demonstrations against the Islamization of English towns.

Lionheart's story is one of incredible bravery as he spoke out about the shocking realities of life in "multicultural" Britain today. Drug dealing, specifically heroin from Afghanistan, by an highly organised allegedly Muslim criminal network operating in his home-town of Luton with links all over the UK. The grooming of white school girls and prostitution. Links to terrorism and Al Qaeda. According to Lionheart, all this was happening on his doorstep in Luton. Incidentally, Luton was also at the centre of the 7/7 Al Qaeda terrorist plot carried out on London which claimed the lives of 52 people and injured over 700.

Lionheart revealed from his own first hand observations and experiences how all this was going on in his own town. Despite making this information known to the police, no significant action was taken. Alleged Muslim's linked to Al Qaeda learned his identity and issued a death threat on him, and distributed posters calling for Muslims to kill him if they saw him. He took this threat very seriously, and so did the police who issued him with an Osman warning (an official warning from the police that his life was in danger). He decided to close down his business and move elsewhere for his own protection.

Lionheart began writing down everything he knew in his online blog to make people aware of what was happening and encouraging them to take action. The authorities did not take kindly to this and the police decided to arrest Lionheart under the "racial incitement" law. They claimed his blog was stirring up racial tension and would incite people to commit acts of violence.

Lionheart was in America when he learned that the police had issued a warrant for his arrest back home because of his blog. He got in contact with the police who requested that he surrender himself into custody on his return to Britain. He knew from speaking to his solicitor that causing incitement carries a prison sentence of up to 7 years. Faced with this, he began to give serious thought to requesting political asylum from the British government in America. Lionheart was concerned that as he been a police informer in the past and had helped put Muslim drug dealers behind bars, he might find himself remanded in custody or imprisoned with the very same people.

It's crazy that in our so-called "free society" which claims to champion human rights and freedom of speech, a person who writes an internet blog can be charged and sentenced to prison just for expressing their own thoughts. This really brings home the reality of the "thought police" and the politically correct straight-jacketed society we now find ourselves living in.

Lionheart did return to England and surrendered himself to police custody and was promptly arrested and interrogated in 2008. He was released on bail pending further investigation and was not charged. He faced an agonising long 18-months wait to see what further action the police would be taking against him. During this time he also had to comply with his bail conditions and report to the police regularly. All this with a death threat hanging over him from the alleged Muslim representatives of Al Qaeda operating in his own town.