Hitler fanatic who stirred up online hate sentenced

Harris Girling pleaded guilty to eight counts of stirring up hatred online

A man who posted support online for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis has been handed a suspended sentence.

Harris Girling, 57, posted more than 4,000 times, with the overall theme espousing Nazi ideology and hatred of Jews between August 2021 and his arrest in February 2023, Joe Allman, prosecuting, told Preston Crown Court.

Girling, of Fulham Street in Nelson, Lancashire, admitted eight counts of stirring up hatred online, mostly of racial hatred but also based on sexual orientation.

His online posts included hatred against Muslims, black people, Jews and homosexuals.

When police seized his devices they included images of Hitler.

Girling, described as intelligent, well read and "politically aware", with no previous convictions, used the US-based social media platform Gab, using a public profile so anyone could see his hateful messages.

Mr Allman told the court Girling's posts received very few responses and this could not be regarded as widespread dissemination of hate speech.

'Predilection'

Brendan O'Leary, mitigating, said the father-of-one, whose wife lives in Romania, had worked as a psychiatric nurse and had in the past been a supporter of left-wing, progressive politics.

Mr O'Leary continued: "What appears to have happened is in 2020 and thereafter, in deteriorating health, significant medication, his predilection towards isolation compounded by lockdown, ill health led him down a path that's quite frankly hard to explain.

"He appears to be someone in the midst of very difficult personal circumstances.

"He's sought an avenue to express his frustration, wholly inappropriately."

Probation officers deemed Girling to be a low risk of re-offending, the court heard.

Passing sentence, Judge Robert Altham, Recorder of Preston, gave Girling 24 months in prison for each count, but suspended for 20 months, with 35 rehabilitation days and a 26-week curfew.

He said: "The decision to suspend has been a very finely balanced one.

"By expressing these views you encourage others they may do the same and even act out some of the violent hateful acts you espoused."

Girling was also given a criminal behaviour order, restricting his internet usage.