Clockwise from top left – Lee Joshua, Jake Hill, James Harrington and Adam Beebee

A disabled English Defence League supporter who posted a picture of himself burning a copy of the Koran on Facebook has been jailed after he battled with police while still on crutches.

Right winger Lee Joshua got involved in clashes with police while on a protest rally where officers were pelted with paving slabs and bottles. Joshua, 43, of Netherton, West Midlands, claimed to have “enjoyed every minute” of violent scenes which left 30 police officers injured. He was sentenced to 16 months at Birmingham Crown Court today.

The court heard that a Muslim prayer cap and a Pakistani flag were set on fire in the street during the disorder in July 2013. Around 200 EDL supporters were involved in the violence in the Broad Street and Centenary Square areas of Birmingham, which lasted for around two hours.

Joshua, said to have been at the fore-front of attempts to break through police lines, was sentenced alongside fellow EDL supporters Jake Hill, James Harrington and Adam Beebee.

Passing sentence on the men, who all admitted violent disorder, Judge Richard Bond said much of the conduct seen at the EDL rally had been “plainly racist and/or anti-Muslim”. The judge told them:

“There were seven separate sites where violence was either used of threatened. Even officers trained for public disorder and who have experience of such situations told both juries (in earlier trials) how scared they were of what was taking place. They had not seen aggression like this before despite their experience.”

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A group calling themselves The Patriots are planning to hold a march in Bristol early in the New Year in the wake of a case which saw a group of Somali men jailed for sexually abusing young women in the city.

As reported in the Bristol Post 13 men were jailed for a variety of offences committed against young women in Bristol and a further nine case of sexual exploitation involving young women are being investigated.

Mickey Bayliss [pictured], who helped organise an English Defence League march through the city centre last year is one of the people behind the next year’s planned event.

Mr Bayliss said: “I would like to make it clear that I am no longer a member of the English Defence League. But we want to hold this march through the city in the New Year.

“The feeling is that not enough is being done to stop cases like this happening. There was a gang of men who were systematically abusing young women and people should be made aware of the issues surrounding these kind of cases.

“We have seen similar cases in different parts of the country and we believe that more should be done to stop these people abusing young women.”

A time and date for the planed march has still not been decided but it is expected to take place some time in January.

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The English Defence League is planning to return to Dudley in protest at the controversial decision to grant planning permission for a new mosque. The far-right protest group intends to hold a demonstration in the town on February 7 according to one of its Facebook pages.

Dudley Muslim Association is locked in a long battle with Dudley Council over a proposal for a mosque on land off Hall Street. Earlier this month, the association won planning permission for the mosque. But it faces at least two court hearings and legal wrangles lasting at least two years before it can be built. In an attempt to avoid the escalating court costs and resolve community disharmony, Muslim leaders say they will consider alternative sites.

On a Facebook page purporting to belong to the EDL’s Dudley branch two pictures were added, one giving the date of a ‘Dudley Demo’ on the backdrop of a St George’s flag, with ‘no surrender’ written underneath. Another picture has ‘Dudley we are coming’ written on it.

The EDL came to Dudley to demonstrate against the planned mosque in 2010. Violence broke out and parts of the town were brought to a standstill after around 600 followers of the group descended.

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A soldier said to be obsessed with far-right politics has been jailed for two years for making a nail bomb at his family’s home in Greater Manchester.

Ryan McGee, 20, was serving with 5th Battalion The Rifles when held in December 2013 at a UK base in Germany. Police found the bomb after raiding the Eccles property on another matter.

McGee had admitted making the device and having information – a book with bomb-making tips – likely to be useful to a terrorist, at the Old Bailey.

The bomb contained 181 metal screws and shards of glass. The book he pleaded guilty to possessing called the Anarchist Cookbook was published in the 1970s and also had instructions for the home-manufacturing of drugs.

The court heard when an officer found the device in a bedroom of the family’s three-bedroom house, bomb disposal experts were called in and Greater Manchester Police’s counter-terrorism unit launched an investigation.

Prosecutor Roger Smart said imitation firearms and ammunition were found along with components for similar devices, suggesting a “preoccupation that goes far beyond any amateur enthusiast’s collection”.

“He surfed the internet, he bought supplies, and he watched videos and read books about how to make explosive devices,” Mr Smart had earlier told the court.

But Mr Smart also said it was accepted that rifleman McGee was not a terrorist or intended to help a terrorist group.

He told the court McGee had links to far right groups in Europe on his computer and watched a video of two men being executed under a swastika flag. McGee also had a “keen interest in the English Defence League” and had attended one of their marches but was not a member of the group, said the lawyer.

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