A Hampshire grandmother has today been handed a lifetime ASBO for a "racist" and "frightening" poison pen campaign.

Margaret Walker, 73, from Walnut Drive, Hill Head, has been ordered by magistrates to stop sending "foul" and "abusive" letters. She has also been ordered to sign every piece of post she sends and supply a return address.

The order came after Walker carried out a five-year campaign of hate – sending around 500 racist letters all around the country.

MPs, pubs, parish council, shops and individuals were among those that received the "extreme" leaflets, which used a variety of racist slurs and graphic hand-drawn images.

Among other insults, Walker referred to people from Pakistan as scroungers and implied that all Muslim men were "paedophiles".

The letters also included rants against Scottish people, who she referred to as "scum" and various politicians.

Walker was also ordered to pay £5,000 costs.

Southern Daily Echo, 25 September 2012

See also Daily Mail, 26 September 2012

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A Hampshire gran has denied being a racist – despite sending hundreds of letters containing racial slurs.

Pensioner Margaret Walker sent the handwritten mail to parish councils, MPs, businesses, pubs and clubs nationwide.

The targets of her anonymous campaign ranged from politicians – including Prime Minister David Cameron, who she claimed was "flooding the country with ethnic people" – to the BBC, which she claimed was a "Marxist organisation". Walker, 73, of Walnut Drive, Fareham also referred to Scottish people as "scum", called people of Pakistani origin "scroungers" and used a variety of racist terms.

Many of the letters, sent over several years, referred to the unsolved case of white 14-year-old Charlene Downes, who disappeared from Blackpool in 2003.

Two Middle Eastern men were acquitted of her murder in 2007 after the Crown Prosecution Service conceded it had "grave doubts" about crucial evidence. Despite their acquittal, the court heard that Walker referred to the men in her letters as "Muslim, paedophile murderers".

She admits writing around 500 letters but claims they were not antisocial. She told the court: "I wrote the letters because I was absolutely disgusted that for 30 years my countrymen, cousins, children have been sexually abused, raped and in some cases murdered by Muslim paedophiles and people didn't know what was going on in this country because it was hidden by the establishment. I'm English and if you're English in this country with a voice you're called a racist."

Southern Daily Echo, 11 September 2012

See also "'Racist' gran says she was trying to expose cover-up", Portsmouth News, 11 September 2012

Although Walker denies she is a member of the British National Party (she says she just "admires and supports" them), the BNP hailed her as a heroic defender of the right to free speech and organised two demonstrations in her support (see here and here). The party's South East region even posted scans of her hate-filled leaflet on their website, praising its "use of imagery, metaphor and quoted statements" and describing it as "probably the most hard hitting, no nonsense piece of campaign literature that I have ever had the experience of reading".

However, it may be that the BNP is now having second thoughts about being publicly associated with an unbalanced crank like Walker. Her leaflet has since been removed from the BNP South East website and when the party's regional press officer Tim Rait, who appeared as a witness for the defence, was presented with the material Walker had sent, he replied: "It's not a thing we would have issued – maybe that's tantamount to disassociating ourselves with it."

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Mass murderer Anders Breivik has received letters of support from sicko fans in the UK.

The Norwegian racist, who slaughtered 77 people last summer, has had more than 100 messages from warped well-wishers around the globe. Several of his penpals said they were "inspired" by the far-right nut. Breivik, 33, has been so overwhelmed by the volume of notes that he has been unable to reply to them all.

Knut Bjarkeid, director of the Norway's Ila Prison, which has been holding Breivik for the past nine months, confirmed the killer received letters every day. And in a psychological report, jail psychiatrist Terje Tørrissen revealed they had been sent from Britain, Sweden, Russia and Germany, among others.

He said: "These letters are full of support and they contain the same political views held by the defendant. There are political cronies who have written. They use the same language and terminology as him. Some say they have been inspired by him and have become more extreme as a result of seeing his actions."

Tørrissen quoted Breivik as saying: "I welcome these letters from people who share the same opinion and with whom I can work together in the future."

The case is being screened on television and there are fears it is inspiring other ­far-right activists in the UK and around the world.

The killer has spoken of his links to UK groups and claimed a meeting in ­London with a Brit called "Richard the ­Lionheart" laid the foundations for his ­rampage. Breivik had been in regular contact with members of the anti-Islam group the English Defence League and has 600 EDL members as ­Facebook friends.

UK security services have taken these British links "extremely seriously" and there are concerns a UK supporter of Breivik could carry out a copycat killing spree here.

Daily Star on Sunday, 22 April 2012

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