Simon Sheppard (far-right activist)

Simon Sheppard is a far-right activist from Hull, England and an ex-member of the British National Party (BNP). He is currently in Santa Ana Prison, California, after absconding from bail in England, flying to the USA and seeking political asylum.

Sheppard left his career as an engineer in the music recording industry to study at University. After obtaining a degree in Mathematics, and having by this stage written several articles about computing for The Guardian newspaper, he founded and ran the Issue computer company. He is now a writer and independent publisher.

He runs a website, [http://www.heretical.com heretical.com] , devoted to publicising theories of "procedural analysis" and his interests. Despite lacking appropriate qualifications or membership of the British Psychological Society, Sheppard presents himself as a psychologist and claims to have applied game theory and evolutionary psychology to the analysis of competition between the sexes and between different races.

On June 8 1999, Sheppard and David Hannam were arrested in Hull for distributing racist election literature on behalf of the British National Party. He was expelled from the BNP the same day (though not Hannam, who remains a senior administrator in the party), and on June 14 2000, Sheppard was convicted at Hull Crown Court of publishing or distributing racially inflammatory material. According to his own website, Sheppard has been banned from every public library in Hull, Hull University and Hull College "merely for expressing opinions".

Sheppard was one of the founders of Redwatch, a far-right site that claims to mirror the activity of the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) in publishing names and addresses of political opponents.

In 2005 Sheppard's house was raided by police in connection with death threats made by others towards various figures, including Billy Bragg and left wing comedian Mark Thomas. [cite web | title = Nazi Hate Site Boss is Raided | url = http://www.spinwatch.org/content/view/1103/9 | publisher = Spinwatch | date = 2005-05-01 | accessdate = 2008-03-04]

In July 2008, after being found guilty of a number of race-hate charges, with co-defendant Stephen Whittle he absconded from bail and flew, via ferry to Ireland, to Los Angeles, USA. His website is based in Torrance, California, so Sheppard refutes English legal precedence over the published writings. After they demanded political asylum, the pair were put into Santa Ana Prison. [cite web | title = Holocaust deniers skip bail to claim asylum | url = http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=237 | publisher = Searchlight Magazine | date = 2008-08 | accessdate = 2008-09-02]

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