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Glouchestershire/Herefordshire website case

hitmouse

so defeated, thinks it's funny
This story's a few months old but I'd only just found out about it, and don't think it has a thread, does anyone know/think anything about this?


Not a lot of information to go off, I sort of wonder if the charges might be connected to a certain string-of-numbers blog that's now defunct?
 
This story's a few months old but I'd only just found out about it, and don't think it has a thread, does anyone know/think anything about this?


Not a lot of information to go off, I sort of wonder if the charges might be connected to a certain string-of-numbers blog that's now defunct?
what sort of numbers? 14, 88, 18, that sort of thing?
 
That is fucking shit. I clocked it had gone down a while back and I used to read it regularly in the early of the morning during a sleep in at work before I even really knew what Anarchism was.
 
You'd hope that there must be a few sheepish faces when the south-west's finest get asked how their big counter-terrorism operation is going and they explain that so far they've managed to convict one person on charges of having some acid and mushrooms?
 
Recent stuff:
UK: About the total surveillance order facing anarchist comrade Toby Shone EN/DE/ES/FR/IT/PL

Serious Crime Prevention Orders are often used as ‘stealth sentencing’ when cops don’t get their way the first time. The Order would last at least five years after his release from prison, and can be renewed after that time. Toby could face another five years in prison if he breaches it, which of course the cops are desperately hoping will be the case. The order is designed to be breached, as the conditions and restrictions are so insane and so many, it would be impossible not to breach them at some point. If his friends refuse to collaborate they could also face criminal persecution and a prison term of 12 months for obstruction.

The cops argue that this control order is needed because of Toby’s alternative lifestyle and beliefs. Criminalising a lifestyle to justify a SCPO is not only outrageous but a very dangerous precedent. Another dangerous precedent is having a SCPO used against activists. It is obvious that this Order has nothing to do with the drug charges that Toby has been convicted for, and for which he is doing more than enough time now. Instead, the Order has everything to do with the terrorism charges the cops couldn’t find any proof of. It has everything to do with him being involved in the anarchist movement.

As is obvious from the new policing legislation being hurried through by the authoritarian British regime, particularly under it’s Home Secretary Priti Patel, this Control Order does not only concern Toby. It is not even only about state repression of anarchist counter-information initiatives. It is about setting a precedent to stifle whatever form of protest with a draconian surveillance tool and forcing people to be an accomplice in their own repression and surveillance, and that of their social surroundings. The Order against Toby is similar in justification and content from the proposed, and recently defeated, Serious Disruption Prevention Order which was part of the new and controversial Policing Bill being pushed through. This Order would have required a person to register their associates and their movements with the police for no crime other than that they have been profiled and identified as an actual or potential dissident. Pushing the boundaries of repression concerning activists, anarchists and dissidents, the UK is sliding into a barely concealed dictatorship.


The hearing for the SCPO against Toby is at Bristol Crown Court on February 22nd 2022. Please show your solidarity with Toby at 9am at the Court. Show your solidarity with him and other anarchist prisoners wherever, whenever and however you can. We need your noise and good vibes against this continued political persecution of Toby Shone.

Also upcoming benefit gig:
 

Anarchist prisoner Toby Shone is being held in the Category B facility HM Prison Parc, a privately run prison in South Wales, despite being in reality a Category C or D prisoner who was eligible for Release on Temporary License (ROTL) on 21 January 2022, according to paperwork he received on 26th March 2022. ROTL is home leave from prison in preparation for release. Category B prisoners are not eligible for home leave.

Despite being found Not Guilty of political offences in court and with no evidence linking him to the website and publication 325.nostate.net, Toby is being held without legal process and without possibility of redress as a Category B, High Risk prisoner where he is not eligible for ROTL (home leave). A probation official told Toby previously that his categorisation is because of his anarchist beliefs, and the fact that he is considered by the authorities to act on those beliefs.

His beliefs are also the reason that police are still trying to fuck him by asking the court to agree to a Serious Crime Prevention Order against Toby, which will allow the police to monitor and control Toby and his associates for five years and imprison him again for an additional five years should he breach the Order, which is so intrusive and inhuman it would be impossible not to breach it. The hearing for the SCPO is on the morning of 6 May 2022 at Bristol Crown Court.

Toby was ghosted from HMP Bristol on Friday 18th March. While at Bristol, the prison withheld two parcels of legal papers sent by his legal team and which he has never received.

He has been permanently confined to his cell at HM Prison Parc since March 18th with no exercise, no time out of his cell except for one shower, minimal interaction (guards frequently just throw his food on the floor and shut the door), and refusal of healthcare that he requested due to an eye infection. Unlike most prisons where you can purchase your own fruit and vegetables to supplement the prison food, which is unfit for human health, HMP & YOI Parc deny prisoners this possibility by designating fresh food a “security risk”. They also force prisoners to choose between phone credit to stay in touch with loved ones and necessities from the prison shop. In most prisons, phone credit is additional to the weekly spend on extra food and toiletries, but at Parc phone credit has to be bought out of the weekly spend allowance.

Director of HM Parc, Janet Wallsgrove was awarded an OBE this year by the Queen for “services to the prison service”. HM Prison Parc is a leader in prison slavery and routinely locks young offenders and adults up beyond the legal limit. One prisoner on Toby's wing has been locked up for 24 hours a day for 18 days. This is torture, but no surprise that Parc is running this kind of regime – this prison is run by G4S, whose guards are famous for murdering Angolan man Jimmy Mubenga on a crowded passenger plane on 12 October 2010.

You can write to Toby at: Toby Shone A7645EP, HM Prison Parc, Heol Hobcyn John, Coity, Bridgend CF35 6AP

Donations can be made to:

The Bottled Wasp
Sort Code: 08-92-99
Acc No: 65601648
IBAN: GB35 CPBK 0892 9965 6016 48
BIC: CPBK GB22
Ref: ADREAM

Take action in solidarity with Toby!

Fuck the prison system!
 
Write-up from some insurrecto types, complete with a wonderfully daft graphic that looks like something out of the X-Files opening credits:
To the wild celebrations in the public gallery, the presiding judge rejected the application for anarchist comrade Toby Shone’s Serious Crime Prevention Order, declaring there were no grounds for it to be applied under the circumstances. Shouts of ‘Not one step back!’ were responded to with Toby shouting ‘The Revolution is inevitable!’

The result of the court means that comrade Toby will now be released at the latest in August of this year, without the extreme conditions of surveillance and control, that would have led to him not only being cut off from his comrades, but his family, friends and partner. It would have restricted his way of living, his ability to fuction as an anarchist, with many conditions that have been listed before, such as his use of electronic devices through to him having to declare who visits his residence. It would have lasted 5 years and could have been renewed. If it had been broken by Toby it would have led to serving 10 years in the hellholes of the UK prison system.

The SCPO was a direct attack on Toby as an anarchist, his alternative way of living and his connections to those he is close to. It was clearly linked to the anti-terrorist cops attempting to apply repressive measures on him after the terrorist charges in his previous original trial were dropped.

The move by the anti-terrorist cops sets a new repressive environment on this prison island, that now just like in other European countries such as we have seen with the many repressive operations against comrades in Italy and Greece, that anarchists are deemed as terrorists by the state, that anyone daring to fight back against their authority will be subject to such repression. Also it is clear that the British state wants to attack the connections, the affinities, the friendships, even love, of those they want to punish. This a similar vindictive tactic we have seen been used in other countries as well, such as the targetting of partners and family members of revolutionary organisation Conspiracy Cells of Fire members in Greece.

‘Operation Adream’, the repressive attack on Toby, on 325, is also an attack on the anarchist circles and alternative lifestyles as a whole. The years of imprisonment are piling up for those who dared to rebel again during the Kill The Bill protest last year, that was attacked by cops and led to a riot. Those who live ‘off-grid’, from Roma/Gypsies/Irish travellers through to van or carvan or boat dwellers, along with squatters are also feeling the full force of British state’s, the Tories, Boris Johnson’s and Priti Patel’s repressive shaping of racist right wing ‘Build Back Better’ UK.

There is indeed a ‘storm coming on the horizon’ as comrade Toby mentioned, it is time for all of us who feel it to move towards it, to revolt against the destruction of our lives, our very existence.

This is only the beginning, ‘Nothing Is Over, The Conflict Continues!’

Some anarchists in solidarity with anarchist comrade Toby Shone
 
Update on Toby's current situation:

Imprisoned anarchist Toby Shone is fighting a new battle as he counts down the weeks to his halfway release on December 28th 2022.

As the UK collapses into something resembling a tin-pot dictatorship and a Victorian poorhouse, Toby continues to be targeted by the Probation Service and their colleagues in the Counter-Terror National Security Division and MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements) for his ‘thought crimes ‘, ‘anarchism’ and ‘alternative lifestyle’.

In September, Toby was informed that Cardiff-based probation officer Paul Smith had booked a series of interviews for him (without communicating these to his lawyers as instructed) with forensic psychologist Dr Harriet Chapman from the Centre for Forensic and Criminological Psychology, University of Birmingham. Dr Chapman’s intention was to interrogate Toby under the Extremism Risk Guidelines formulation tool, ERG22+. This assessment which is “intended for use with people who have been convicted of any extremist or extremist-related offence” (which he hasn’t been) considers at least 22 factors by which an individual can be regarded as an extremist and thus be subject to de-radicalisation measures. We could find no public paper detailing these 22 factors or the format of the interview.

These largely experimental and deeply authoritarian de-radicalisation measures, which appear to be rolled out on a one-to-one basis, include the Healthy Identity Intervention, Desist and Disengagement Programme, Motivational and Engagement Intervention and Developing Dialogues. All of these are highly invasive, intensive programmes designed to investigate and dismantle a targeted individual’s personal narrative, childhood and influences, to attempt to undermine their critique of the existent, to isolate them from their relationships and affinities and to re-mould them into the perfect citizen under conditions of duress. Think re-education camps and political indoctrination. In effect they are seeking to “pathologise” the holding of anarchist beliefs: anarchism as a psychological illness. This tactic of “punitive psychiatry” has been used by other authoritarian states, most notably Soviet Russia, China and the USA.

Naturally, Toby refused to co-operate, at which point he received a letter from his probation officer Mr Smith threatening that “Whilst you have every right not to engage with this piece of work, the assessment will be undertaken whether or not you take an active role in it. For your own sake though, I would suggest that it would be preferable for it to include your voice rather than being a paper-based assessment.”

Despite being found Not Guilty of any terrorist offence in October 2021 and the subsequent rejection by a High Court judge of the prosecution’s application for a Serious Organised Crime Prevention Order against Toby on the grounds of “No Necessity”, the cops have found willing partners in the probation service. Although at this stage, there appears to be no legal basis for their demands, the cops and probation are continuing to bring the same accusations and evidence to bear that failed to even make it to a trial in October 2021, but this time to a different judge.

The licensing restrictions under consideration by Probation, Counter-Terror and MAPPA are even more extreme and extensive than those applied for under the Serious Organised Crime Prevention Order that Toby defeated in May 2022. He has been re-categorised by Paul Smith, whom he has met a total of 15 minutes, as High Risk in a new OASIS report (his previous probation officer stated that Toby was Low Risk) and has been placed on MAPPA 4, Level 3 – the highest risk category under this joint agency. All without a trial or a conviction.

It is clear that the UK police state is trying to set the groundwork for LASIT (Left, Anarchist and Single Issue Terrorism). Toby is a test case.

Draft conditions include:

  • No contact with extremists or anyone arrested for extremism;
  • No discussions (sharing opinions will be regarded as ‘grooming’ ‘radicalisation’ and ‘preaching’);
  • No attending any meeting or gathering except for the purpose of worship;
  • Only one phone, which must be handed over to the police whenever they ask for it – nothing must ever be deleted from this phone; and,
  • Toby must live in an Approved Hostel for one year.
The first two conditions (contact and discussions) cannot hold water without defining who and what is an extremist and begs the question whether they will be subjecting all of Toby’s associates to ERG22+ too in order to come up with a workable plan. Equally it will interesting and enlightening to find out exactly what topics of conversation and what opinions are now forbidden in modern-day Britain: in recent weeks, we have already seen that silently and peacefully holding an anti-monarchy placard is an arrestable offence.

Furthermore, a year in an Approved Hostel is unprecedented and unnecessary. AP’s are for those who will find it difficult to ‘integrate back into society’: people without social support, sex offenders, addicts and violent offenders.

There are more political prisoners in UK now than in living memory. Toby Shone’s case – more than any other – is of paramount importance as this is an almost extra-legal attempt to criminalise and destroy not only a perceived opponent, but also the entirety of anarchist and libertarian ideals and ideas at a time when crushing and barefaced attacks on the poor give those ideas more leverage and potentiality than ever before.

It is time to dismantle any lines people may still be drawing between each other in the hopes of appearing to be more legitimate to the State. Particularly, in these times, when civilisation as we knew it is in collapse and the infrastructures of the fourth and fifth industrial revolutions are being established, any one of us who has an ounce of free thinking in them is a threat and a target. This attack on Toby Shone is not isolated. All over the world, anarchists and activists are being rounded up and thrown in jail. We are responsible for keeping these ideas alive and we need to pay attention, stand together, support those trapped in the judicial system and attack where we can.


UPDATE:

Toby is currently in segregation as a punishment for a demonstration that took palce at HMP Parc last Thursday (20th) and all indications are that he could well be held in segregation until his release due date in December. More information will follow when we get it.
 
Recent update:
Anarchist Toby Shone Recalled to Prison on 19 September 2023

Toby Shone is an anarchist who was imprisoned in Wandsworth, Bristol and G4S Prison Parc for nearly two years accused of being the administrator
of counter-information project 325.nostate.net. After the political prosecution failed and the cops had to drop the case 5 days before trial in October 2021, Toby received a sentence of 3 years 9 months for possession of psychedelic medicines. He was released on 28 December 2022 under heavy restrictions (license conditions), oversight by a multi-agency team (MAPPA) including the National Security Division (counter-terror) and was forced to live in a filthy bail hostel in Gloucester for 9 months. He had just moved back into a flat in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire 9 days ago.

On the morning of 19 September 2023, he was driving to an appointment with his probation officer when he was pulled over and arrested by an armed police unit in-between the Forest of Dean and Gloucester. He was taken to HMP Bristol. He is awaiting more detailed information, but his legal team say that the allegations are that he breached two of his license conditions: being in possession of an [unauthorised] phone and attending a meeting in Bristol in August.

Toby is in great spirits as ever and requests letters and books. Please write to him at:

Toby Shone A7645EP
HMP Bristol
19 Cambridge Road
Bishopston
Bristol BS7 8PS
 
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