Prison guard guilty of possessing white supremacist terror manual

Ashley Podsiad-Sharp was a prison officer at HMP Leeds

A prison guard who founded a fitness club for neo-Nazis has been found guilty of possessing a white supremacist "terrorist manual".

Ashley Podsiad-Sharp, 42, was convicted of possession of a document likely to be useful in preparing an act of terrorism on Thursday.

Podsiad-Sharp was an officer at HMP Leeds before his arrest last May.

A Sheffield Crown Court jury has yet to reach a verdict on a second charge of disseminating terrorist material.

The defendant, from the Barnsley area, told his trial he was a "national socialist" who had founded White Stag Athletic Club to provide a "community" for lonely men who shared his far-right views.

He had denied possession of a document called the White Resistance Manual, which contained advice on how to kill people using various weapons, insisting he had no idea how it came to be on his laptop in an encrypted "virtual safe".

But he was remanded into custody after jurors unanimously convicted him after 10 hours and 40 minutes of deliberations.

Judge Jeremy Richardson KC said he would accept a majority verdict for the second charge of disseminating terrorist material after the jury told him they could not reach a unanimous decision.

The charge relates to racist spoof rap songs, some of which glorified the Holocaust, which Podsiad-Sharp posted on White Stag Athletic Club's Telegram channel.