A Wednesbury man has admitted making hate posts on X in which he called for migrants arriving in the UK on small boats to be shot. Joseph Peter Ash, 39, pleaded guilty to four counts of publishing threatening or abusive written material on the social media platform, intending to stir up racial hatred.
The charges relate to multiple posts made in 2024, including the sharing of a National Action video on September 18 of that year. Ash, from Wednesbury, West Midlands, entered his guilty pleas at a hearing on Friday before Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb at the Old Bailey.
Prosecutor Kristel Pous told the court that Ash’s posts supported extreme right-wing ideology. Some were antisemitic and promoted anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, while others targeted migrants and non-whites. In his posts, Ash referred to migrants and non-whites as “invaders and human trash” whose purposes were to “rape, kill and get free handouts”. He also wrote about setting fire to migrant hotels and stated that “migrants who come to the UK in small boats should be shot”.
Ash denied a fifth charge of dissemination of a terrorist publication on “no less than nine occasions” between August 25 and September 6, 2024. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb ruled that the case would be transferred to Birmingham Crown Court. The senior judge set a plea hearing for July 24 and a trial from November 15 next year. The defendant was granted continued bail.
