In 2014 my colleague wrote about the sickening way the misery of children raped and groomed by paedophile gangs was being exploited by the far-right. Rotherham in particular was a target. The article, well worth a read, is here.
The English Defence League (EDL) are back there again tomorrow, in the main, because they simply have nothing better to do. In 2014 the group camped outside council offices and the local police station as part of their protest about the activities of grooming gangs in the town and the inexplicable and inexcusable decision to cover-up the rape, imprisonment and torture of 1400 young women over a number of years.
That protest and “hate camp” turned into a drunken orgy, with EDL members romping in tents, urinating against council property, faking a hunger strike, openly taking drugs and even appealing on Facebook for other members and supporters to bring them more booze and a barbecue. It was a disturbing time which we captured here.
Crossland: Drunk at the EDL protest that became and orgy in Rotherham
One of those most responsible for the outrageous drunken shenanigans was the now second in command of the organisation, Ian Crossland. Crossland happily posed sitting in his “love tent” while an orgy of druken stupidity carried on.
Such a disgrace was Crossland’s behaviour, he was not long after promoted to be the EDL’s second in command. He is officially the EDL’s “spokesman” and is in reality an often drunk, always offensive fool.
The EDL return to Rotherham tomorrow mainly out of boredom and because it is not far from Crossland’s home- he can get pissed and get back to Sheffield relatively quickly and cheaply.
Nothing but another sick joke
Last week, as the Rotherham demonstration/march drew close, another colleague took a look at what was to be found on Crossland’s private social media. The man who claims to be protesting in Rotherham for the sake of rape victims, seems to find the whole issue of rape rather amusing when he thinks nobody can see. That article is here:
This morning an ex-friend of Crossland’s passed us another “joke” that Crossland made about rape and child abuse back in 2014. he seems to be quite persistent with gags about rape and child abuse.
I rang Crossland earlier this afternoon at his work, ‘Courtney Building Contractors’, and asked the EDL’s second in command why he is having a march about rape and child grooming, when he appears to have some propensity for finding such things humorous.
Was it only because the majority (but not entire) of the gang who raped and groomed young women in Rotherham were from a Muslim background? It’s a fair question and one that Crossland, a “spokesman” for the EDL should have been quite competent to deal with.
I asked him about one post in particular; the one below:
A joke: How Crossland refers to his humourless pleasures
His response was not particularly coherent. “It’s a joke” he said, “It’s just a joke I copied years and years ago,” he protested. (It was in 2014). I asked Crossland further whether he thought it right that someone who has a habit of making jokes about rape and child abuse was really the sort of person to lead any kind of campaign that should deal with such a delicate and distressing issue. He went silent. “It was a joke” he protested again.
He then asked if I could call him back later. I won’t bother. Just the sound of his muffled voice made me feel dirty enough.
