Colin Jordan, leader of the British National Socialist Movement, and three other officers of the anti-Semitic neo-Nazi group, were ordered today to stand trial on charges of violation of the Public Order Act which bans the display of physical force for political purposes. The court order was issued by Chief Magistrate Sir Robert Blundell in Bow Street court after a two-day hearing.
No date was set for the trial. Jordan and his three aides were released on bail of 100 pounds ($280) each. The three aides are John Tyndall, the national secretary, Ian Kerr-Ritchie, “research officer,” and Dennis Pirie, assistant national secretary. They were charged specifically with seeking to build an organization known as “Spearhead,” for the purpose of using physical force for their political aims.
Final evidence at the hearing was given this morning by a detective who reported on the results of the search of Jordan’s home in Coventry. He said he found plastic blocks for swastikas and a variety of documents, one of them labeled “Proposals for cooperation with the United Arab Republic.”
The detective was cross-examined by Jordan who said only a small part of his seized property had been produced in court. The neo-Nazi said some of it might be relevant to the defense and Sir Robert told him he would be permitted to examine the seized materials if he wanted to see anything.
A War Office scientist, questioned about 12 pounds of sodium clorate said to have been found in Jordan’s London headquarters, testified that if the chemical was mixed with sugar it would produce explosives equal in blast power to more than 100 grenades.
FACE TWO YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT SENTENCE, IF FOUND GUILTY
Prosecutor Griffith Jones described Jordan as the leader of Spearhead, and named Tyndall as deputy leader and Kerr-Ritchie and Pirie as section leaders. The prosecutor said that in Jordan’s home was a copy of a letter from Tyndall to a Colonel Shasley of the United Arab Republic, setting out proposals for cooperation and seeking 15,000 pounds sterling ($42,000), some of which was to be spent on setting up a transmitting station.
The prosecutor told the court that on August 10, when the headquarters of the Nazi movement was raided by police, Jordan admitted under questioning that he was leader of Spearhead and also admitted responsibility for a number of articles shown him in various circulars. Mr. Jones estimated that so far, Spearhead had only about 25 members in London. Under the provisions of the Public Order Act, the accused neo-Nazis can be sentenced to up to two years’ imprisonment, if found guilty.
The Automobile Association of London announced today it had suspended Kerr-Ritchie from his association job “pending a decision to be made into his future with us.”
Meanwhile, John Bean, organizer of the British National party, another neo-Nazi group, said his organization’s Sunday meeting at Dalston would be held in spite of announced plans of the anti-Fascist Yellow Star movement to hold an all-day meeting there at the same time.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
