A (hopefully) final word about Joshua Bonehill and the Daily Bale

I’ve been involved in this story about Joshua Bonehill since August when he attacked the Globe pub in Leicester, and this resulted in him being found guilty of malicious communication last month.Yesterday he was sentenced.

 

Maynard Griffin, chairman of the bench, ordered Bonehill-Paine to complete 180 hours unpaid work, a two-year community order and costs of £145.

That’s right, Bonehill has to pay for his attack on the Globe this way, though the court did say:

Upon sentencing he told the defendant: “It will not hurt to say that another repetition of this type of behaviour could leave another court with little option but to deal with you differently

 

Considering Bonehill’s online behaviour this is probably going to be sooner rather than later, however the reason why Bonehill isn’t currently sitting in prison (as many including myself feel he should be) is this.

Accompanied by his mother to court, magistrates were told how widespread “provocation” over a long period of time from a number of individuals had led to Mr Bonehill-Paine’s actions.

Michaela Rose, defending, said the defendant accepted the information behind the article was wrong and he had made a “huge error” in sharing the information without checking its truthfulness or validity.

She claimed in the lead-up to the inaccurate article, Mr Bonehill-Paine had been subjected to “disturbing” messages from individuals who had taken a dislike to him – and the defendant believed the Globe pub landlord was part of this internet attack on him.

Miss Rose said: “Mr Bonehill-Paine was completely at fault for what he did and accepts it was inappropriate.

“He responded to some quite extreme provocation by a number of individuals now known to the police. It’s fair to say he was put under a lot of pressure and was encouraged to engage in these ‘tit for tat’ exchanges.

“The hatred shown towards him became quite extreme to the point his address was publicised in a public forum, forcing him to make police complaints and having things put through his letterbox.

“Mr Bonehill-Paine felt the only outlet to express himself and respond to the allegations about him was on social media.”

Magistrates were told that a Facebook page was set up against the defendant entitled “Bail Out – Send This Sick Psycho to Jail” where he was threatened, goaded and jokes were made about what may happen to him in jail.

 

So there you go. Someone who abused, libeled and attacked people, businesses, not to mention used the murder of Lee Rigby to make himself a local celebrity while seemingly scamming charities has got his wrists mildly slapped because some in the anti-fascist movement played the same tactics against him. Well done guys, I hope you’re all proud. You’ve given him the excuse to get away with it as prison might just have shown him he can’t get away with what he’s done, but now he can voice vaguely false platitudes while yet again pushing his usual bullshit.

“It has been a victory for me personally in the sense that those who have so wrongly agitated me over these past few months have not gotten what they want, that being my imprisonment.

“I will take lessons away from this whole thing and now work to better myself and move forward.

“During my time while standing in the dock, I had a Union Jack Flag in my pocket, a Union Jack tie on my chest and a flame in my heart that burns for patriotism and a love for this country.

“I am sure that through divine belief and my confidence in this trial, I was not imprisoned for that reason.”

 

I stopped blogging about Bonehill because I realised I was giving him exactly what he wanted which was to feed whatever psychosis he’s suffering from. He’s used the attacks on him on social media as a defence which is frankly, fucked, but it’s clear looking at some of the responses towards Bonehill that they’re almost as bad as some of the shite Bonehill has come up with.

I hope this makes Bonehill think about all the dozens of people he’s hurt. The lives he’s upset and the damage he’s done. I hope his words are genuine and I hope he takes this opportunity to try to repair his life so this doesn’t hang around his neck to heavily for the rest of his life. I’d like to be that optimistic but I don’t see it happening. If he’d any sense he’d stop using Lee Rigby’s murder as a propaganda tool for right wing fascism and racism (something Rigby’s mother strongly objects to people doing) not to mention using the Daily Bale as some sort of mouthpiece for his frothing insanity. If not then he may carry on campaigning for UKIP, but seeing as the EDL have told him where to go I’d imagine he’ll carve himself the niche he seems to want by creating some movement designed to annoy anti-fascist campaigners which will carry on feeding this lad’s insanity.

So I’m going to stop talking about him. People are fee to use any of the blogs I’ve written about Bonehill or the Daily Bale to discuss this but unless there’s anything worth talking about I’m hoping Bonehill does fall off the internet, sorts himself out and gets his life together. I’m hoping protesters move from him and focus on the genuine threats like UKIP and the various fascist/racists infesting the internet.

I hope it’s all over and people move on. I’m hoping I never feel the need to talk about this again.