Court hears appeal for two men imprisoned for distributing Hoffman's "Holohoax" satire
In Britain, in Leeds Crown Court, on July 10, 2009, Simon Sheppard received a sentence of 4 years and 10 months and Stephen Whittle two years and four months. Mr. Sheppard's sentence comprised 12 months concurrent on three counts relating to distribution of Tales of the Holohoax, a satirical comic book by Michael Hoffman.
On July 14 the Court of Appeal gave leave to appeal against conviction on all the Internet counts, but refused leave to appeal with respect to the hard copy counts. The full appeal before three British judges commenced on November 26, 2009 at the Law Courts, Strand, London, and runs through Nov. 27.
An appeal will also be made to the European Court of Human Rights over the decision by the Leeds Appeal Court judge not to review the notorious decision in Reg. v. Birdwood when Judge Pownall's decision that "the truth is no defense" - was upheld.
Friends of freedom of the press can can write the imprisoned men as follows:
Simon Sheppard, A8042AA, Wing B3-25, HMP Leeds, 2 Gloucester Terrace, Stanningley Road, Leeds, LS12 2TJ, United Kingdom.
Stephen Whittle, A8041AA, Everthorpe Prison, Beck Road, Everthorpe, Brough, East Yorkshire, HU15 1RB, United Kingdom.
Michael Hoffman comments
Several years ago I decided to withdraw Tales of the Holohoax from circulation because it was being pirated without the inclusion of my explanatory essay on satire, which had been published at the end of the comic, and because the comic book itself had become a source of misunderstanding concerning the nature of my scholarship.
Mr. Sheppard did not abide by my request to halt his copying of Tales of the Holohoax. He even sent it to a British synagogue, which was very foolish. Nevertheless, I have considerable sympathy for the plight of these two free press activists, and great respect for Mr. Sheppard’s refusal to “repent.”
Meanwhile, Kurt Westergaard, the artist who drew the most inflammatory of the anti-Muslim cartoons in Denmark is today a wealthy, free man. According to the Huffington Post of April 8, 2009:
“Prints of the Danish cartoon depicting Islam's Prophet Mohammed as a suicide bomber in 2005...will now be sold by the Denmark Free Press Society for $250 each. One thousand copies are to be printed and sold, with each having a designated number and signature by the artist, Kurt Westergaard...The image won Westergaard international fame....he has never apologized or expressed regret for the drawings...(or) for being a ‘free artist’...he enjoys the backing of free speech and free press advocates around the globe in this regard. A notable example of one such advocate...is NATO Secretary General and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who defended the drawings in 2006”
Prison for those who distribute a satire of wildly exaggerated "Holocaust" fairy tales, and $250,000, international fame, and accolades from the media and the Secretary General of NATO to the author of anti-Mohammed satire.
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I would beware of Simon Sheppard. Simon Sheppard ran the fatherfeeney.org site which MauricePinay asked for him to remove his link from his website:
ReplyDeletehttp://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/11/to-owner-of-fatherfeeneyorg.html
Fatherfeeney.org's info. Notice Simon Sheppard's name:
Domain ID:D101596394-LROR
Domain Name:FATHERFEENEY.ORG
Created On:10-Oct-2003 20:07:29 UTC
Last Updated On:27-Oct-2009 11:19:32 UTC
Expiration Date:10-Oct-2012 20:07:29 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Omnis Network LLC (R101-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:OMNIS-1162824837
Registrant Name:Simon Sheppard
Registrant Street1:PO Box 1004
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Hull
Registrant State/Province:Yorkshire
Registrant Postal Code:HU3 2YT
Registrant Country:GB
Registrant Phone:+1.3103169600
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant *************@drypool.org
Admin ID:OMNIS-1162824837
Admin Name:Simon Sheppard
Admin Street1:PO Box 1004
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Hull
Admin State/Province:Yorkshire
Admin Postal Code:HU3 2YT
Admin Country:GB
Admin Phone:+1.3103169600
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin *************@drypool.org
Tech ID:OMNIS-1162824837
Tech Name:Simon Sheppard
Tech Street1:PO Box 1004
Tech Street2:
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Hull
Tech State/Province:Yorkshire
Tech Postal Code:HU3 2YT
Tech Country:GB
Tech Phone:+1.3103169600
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech *************@drypool.org
Name Server:NS.PHX1.NEARLYFREESPEECH.NET
Name Server:NS.PHX2.NEARLYFREESPEECH.NET
This is from DNSStuff:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois/?tool_id=66&token=&toolhandler_redirect=0&ip=http%3A%2F%2Ffatherfeeney.org%2F
Fatherfeeney.org's content has been considerably toned down, but when MauricePinay openly wrote about it 2 years ago, the site was a pretty shockingly outrageous with all sorts of Nazi crap. It was pretty bad and it is still pretty bad. It was under Simon Sheppard name at DNSStuff 2 years ago as well. Check out his links about "White Nationalism":
http://fatherfeeney.org/links.html
Strange stuff. Watch Out Hoffman. You can hear the accusation of you being a "white supremacist" for having mentioned this Shepard fellow without all the info on him probably.
One of the seven corporal works of mercy is to "ransom the captive." To visit a prisoner, even if it is just by mail, is generally considered to be included in the spirit of this work. One of the seven spiritual works of mercy is to "comfort the afflicted." This can certainly be attempted by communicating to a prisoner.
ReplyDeleteInformation on Leeds Prison where Simon Sheppard is can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeds_(HM_Prison) and information on Everthorpe Prison where Stephen Whittle is can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everthorpe_(HM_Prison).
JBP
P.S. I, myself, have a copy of Mr. Hoffman's "Tales of the Holohoax" and can vouch for the fact that it is exceptionally well done!
Also, I never said there was nothing wrong with his incarceration. I was pointing out that this Sheppard fellow may not be all he appears to be.
ReplyDelete