Dodgy duo disappear - or do they?

BPP associates Stephen Whittle and Simon Sheppard, found guilty last week on charges of publishing racially inflammatory material on Sheppard's Nazi-loving Heretical website, failed to appear at Leeds Crown Court yesterday to face further related charges.

Warrants were issued for the arrest of both men, who now face further charges of breaking bail.

Postings on the Nazi Stormfront under the nom de guerre of British Peoples Party women's section leader Kate McDermody lend currency to a story being touted on the internet that both men have fled to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, allegedly because TRN Cyprus is recognised only by Turkey and has no extradiditon treaty with the UK.

McDermody states: "Within an hour Sheppard's home was entered by the Police to enforce the warrant. One hour. Obviously by this point he was sunning himself on a beach", and :"Let's look this objectively - aeroplane tickets are booked and data stored on a database which is indubitably monitored intensely by the security services yet Simon Sheppard and Steve Whittle (two men deemed guilty the day before) were STILL able to buy international travel tickets, remain on a database for a few hours and STILL flee the Country? I'm sorry but common sense dictates that in my opinion they could very easily have been intercepted but were not. Whoever overlooked their little jollies, thank you from every Nationalist in the World!"

In fact, McDermody repeats the same "fled the country" line so often (without confirming TRN Cyprus as the fugitives' destination) that it's beginning to look like a case not of "she doth protest too much" as "she confirms to often".

Other than in Nazi circles speculation as to the true whereabouts of Whittle and Sheppard is hardly at fever-pitch, but some anti-Nazi cynics smell a large rat, believing that both men remain in the UK and that the whole thing has been cooked up to propel their little reported case into the headlines in the hope of making "martyrs" of the pair and winning the tiny BPP (now run by dole-scrounging Nazi coward Kevin Watmough) national publicity.

Given McDermody's statements on Stormfront, it can't be very long before the police pay her a visit (they may already have done so), since with every word she posted on Stormfront she openly advertised her inside knowledge - a remarkably strange thing to do in the circumstances, unless she was deliberately inviting police attention.

More on this as we get it - and we don't think we'll be waiting too long.