Joshua Bonehill-Paine

Joshua Mark John Bonehill-Paine,[1] also known as Joshua Bonehill is an internet troll and sockpuppeteer from Yeovil, Somerset, England, and owner of Daily Bale,[2] a website that has published libel, fake news and racist hoaxes leading to Bonehill facing criminal charges under the Malicious Communications Act 1988 (which includes electronic communications).[3] For his trolling and publicity stunts that resolve around racism, Bonehill has become rather infamous. He regularly now appears in national newspapers such as the Daily Mail.

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It is unclear if Bonehill is a genuine anti-Semite or white supremacist, since he has posted himself that his online racism is a spoof and "comical act". Some actual white supremacists and neo-Nazis have turned against him.[4] National Action however once accepted him as a member of their far-right "white gang".[5] It ultimately doesn't matter, because as Kurt Vonnegut said: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."

Criminal charges and investigations

Bonehill has been harassing people online for several years, this includes calling innocent people paedophiles and drug dealers, resulting in Bonehill pleading guilty to seven charges of malicious communication:

"He was also charged with sending numerous messages online to Margaret Chapman identifying her as being responsible for abusing children which was false between February 21 and 23. He was further alleged to have sent to the same victim an online “wanted” poster identifying her as a paedophile which was false and designed to cause distress to the recipient.

A further allegation that he pursued a course of conduct amounting to the harassment of Sara Roocroft between February 25 and March 13 in that he posted articles online claiming that she had made derogatory comments about the death of Lee Rigby and posted numerous articles online claiming that she was responsible for abusing children was charged.

He was also accused on March 5 of sending to Joseph Carlisle online messages claiming him to be Jewish, homosexual and a convicted paedophile which was false and designed to cause distress to the recipient."[6]

The trial was postponed until early 2015, when Bonehill was found guilty of malicious communication, and handed a three month prison sentence, suspended for 18-months.[7]

In April 2014, Bonehill was sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work for a hoax he started the year earlier which resulted in owners of a Leicester pub receiving death threats.[8]

In October 2014, Bonehill was investigated by police over anti-Semitic comments he had posted about Labour MP Luciana Berger.[9]

In February 2015, Bonehill was arrested over allegations of inciting racial hatred over the internet, and released on bail. He has been temporarily banned from entering London.[10]

In December 2015 Bonehill was sentenced to three years and four months imprisonment for promoting a far right "anti Jewification" march in Golders Green, London, an area with a substantial Jewish population. In December 2016 he was found guilty of an on-line hate campaign against Labour MP Luciana Berger.[11]

Sockpuppetry

Bonehill has been blocked from Wikipedia on numerous sock accounts (see: Jooner29) after trying to edit his own article to boost his ego. He also appears to have been trying to remove the word 'troll' from his page intro. Despite being prosecuted for posting libel, starting a hoax that endangered the lives of people, as well as harassing people across the Internet, Bonehill insists he is not a troll and people who call him this are Jews (although see below, Joshua has admitted to being a troll and a spoof of a racist).[12] He has also had several accounts suspended on twitter for abusing people.[13]

It is also known that Bonehill owns lots of Facebook accounts and pages, many where he impersonates other people. He has also set up fake twitter pages of the United Kingdom Independence Party.[14] "Followers" on his personal website and the Daily Bale are also more alt accounts he creates to exaggerate his support; for example, the Daily Bale claims to have over 20,000 followers.

Scams and publicity stunts

T-shirt money scam

Bonehill tried to cash in on the murder of Lee Rigby, by charging £20 for remembrance t-shirts. He originally declared that the cash raised as profit would go to charity. Instead he took £1000 for himself and an "accomplice" (most likely someone he invented, so himself again), £100 in administration costs, and donated only £5 to a charity. When questioned about this by someone, he posted on twitter:

"It was morally wrong but not criminal. Police are investigating it but I've been advised there will be no charges".[15]

National British Resistance

Bonehill claimed to have founded a far-right political party called the National British Resistance (NBR) taking money from David Childs, a former member of the British National Party from London, who thought the money was going towards registration with the electoral commission and other party costs. In September, 2014 however it was revealed that Bonehill had taken the cash for himself, never having used the money to set up the party. Childs was then 'expelled' from the NBR by Bonehill after questioning where his cash went, and has never received his sum of money back from Bonehill.[16]

As of January 2015, Bonehill and Childs continue to clash on twitter, each calling each other "fake nationalists" and paedophiles.[17] Bonehill has also posted attacks against Childs on his website.

Like Bonehill, Childs has been investigated by the police for sending racist tweets.[18]

Liberate Stamford Hill

Bonehill most recently was behind an anti-Semitic publicity stunt called "Liberate Stamford Hill". In January 2015 he called for a public demonstration against the "Jewification" of Stamford Hill in north London. However Scotland Yard never authorised Bonehill's request to stage a march.[19] Furthermore, he most likely would never have attended himself.[20]

Racist spoof?

Bonehill has occasionally posted his racism and online "Joshua Bonehill" persona as a far-right nationalist is a parody or spoof. Further, that his online postings do not represent his real views, i.e. they are an "act", or trolling. In one essay entitled The Rise and fall of leader Bonehill, a fictional character and persona I penned from the mind of Joshua Bonehill he wrote:

"It was after listening to David Bowie's iconic album, "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust" on repeat for the best part of a day,I realised that I too could potentially create a "Persona" and play a character but instead of basing my character in the musical world, I'd place him in the political world - Leader Bonehill, the Founder was born.

Firstly I created my fictional and satire news website www.DailyBaleNews.com and set about generating headlines which quickly went viral throughout 2013. I was responsible for creating myths such as the campaign to ban black pudding and various other oddities that were quickly picked up upon right-wing groups such as the EDL and Britain First to which went viral.

Very quickly I found myself at the head of a large news network and found that I had the power to make many hundreds of thousands of people believe utterly insane and crazy things under the guise of Daily Bale News. To this day, people still share Daily Bale articles and I believe it will withstand the test of time.

[...]

After the Daily Bale I took upon elevating my persona the Leader and Founder to another level which became the "National British Resistance". The NBR was a Far-Right Nationalist movement led by the fierce and no-nonsense dictator, Leader Bonehill.

Through the NBR I made many outlandish claims for instance one of them was that I could "heal" the Left-Wing through a rebirth process and I also claimed to be a "Right-Wing messiah". I stood in astonishment as people were eating this bait and taking me VERY seriously to the point where I became the obsession of many social media users.

It wasn't until the press and media caught onto my activity and started reporting on me as a real person that the ego started to be transferred into the real world. I was invited to speak at meetings and felt almost forced to display this persona in public and this I couldn't keep on doing because it fundamentally went against everything I believe in as a person.

Yes - I make no bones about it, for the past 16 months I have been trolling relentlessly at the expense of both the Left and the Right - it has been through this trolling that I am now appearing back in court over Daily Bale articles but this was a price i was prepared to pay and knew that my actions would of course have very real world consequences.

Leader Bonehill came alive and consumed me at times, the ego almost controlled me and took upon a very powerful and possessive role in my normal everyday life. I found myself almost believing that I was a "Right-Wing messiah" and had been sent from another planet to free the people and bring about a new great nationalist age - though this of course in reality was absolute bollocks and would never happen.

[...]

Everything I have said and done, right from posing for photographs or the videos I have made are the result of this "Persona". These do not represent my real views and can instead be seen as a comical 'act'".[21]

Bonehill's declarations that he is a misunderstood "performance artist" who got carried away has failed to convince judges and juries of his harmless intent.

National Action

Bonehill was associated with, or a member of the neo-Nazi group National Action. However in February 2015, he posted he had left them.

Bonehill's link to the group was not surprising since it has high-profile twitter trolls in it such as Garron Helm who was jailed for harassing a female online with anti-Semitic abuse.

Arrest over harassing a woman

Bonehill was arrested for harassment in May, 2015. He was charged with sending a woman explicit sexual messages and wanting her to be his "Eva", leaving her a swastika gift.[22]

gollark: !help
gollark: 914 bees approach.
gollark: 891 is one of many numbers which exist.
gollark: Lots of mythologies' gods make mistakes and aren't perfect.
gollark: There doesn't seem to actually be evidence of it, soooo...

See also

References
  1. Easland, RP (13 September 2014). "Yeovil man Joshua Bonehill-Paine appears in court over false claims". Western Gazette. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  2. Which security expert Graham Cluley branded as "frankly moronic", according to the BBC
  3. Yeovil Internet Troll Joshua Bonehill-Payne due in court tomorrow. Western Gazette. 20th November 2014.
  4. http://edlnews.co.uk/2015/02/13/american-white-supremacists-turn-on-joshua-bonehill
  5. https://archive.today/pYtOX
  6. Internet troll Joshua Bonehill-Paine used website to spread 'web of lies' about other social media users. Western Gazette. 30th October 2014.
  7. Prolific internet troll who branded victims paedophiles spared jail. Daily Telegraph. 10th February 2015.
  8. 'Moronic' Joshua Bonehill-Paine admits Leicester pub hoax. BBC News Online. 15th March 2014.
  9. Neo-Nazi gave out internet abuse tips in campaign against Luciana Berger. The Jewish Chronicle. 30th October 2014.
  10. http://www.hackneyhive.co.uk/index/2015/02/joshua-bonehill-arrested-banned-london
  11. Tristan Kirk, "Neo-Nazi Joshua Bonehill-Paine guilty of vile anti-Semitic campaign against MP Luciana Berger", London Evening Standard, 7th December 2016
  12. Why its wrong to brand me a troll. See also an archive.
  13. Joshua Bonehill loses to Twitter. See also: this regarding his twitter followers, which are bots.
  14. Fake UKIP Twitter accounts posting offensive and abusive material
  15. Joshua Bonehill-Paines Lee Rigby T-shirt Scam
  16. Bonehill Disbands the NBR
  17. Screenshot 1, Screenshot 2, Screenshot 3
  18. Ex-BNP candidates mum denies he sent racist tweets
  19. Police alerted to planned march against ‘Jewification’ of north London borough
  20. Moronic Troll Joshua Bonehill and why he probably won’t go to Stamford Hill
  21. See this archive since Joshua has since removed it.
  22. "Joshua Bonehill-Paine 'left woman with swastika and asked her to be his Eva Braun'". The Western Gazette. 27 May 2015.
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