Mark Collett

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Mark Collett outside the Leeds Crown Court following his acquital (November 10, 2006)

Mark Adrian Collett (born 1980) is a former chairman of the Young BNP, the youth division of the British National Party (BNP), and is currently the Director of Publicity of the Party. [2] He was educated at Loughborough Grammar School and the University of Leeds. He was formerly active in the British National Front and was a regular at Blood and Honour Nazi skinhead events until he made more enemies than friends in the latter organisation.^{[citation needed]}

He became more well-known following a Channel 4 documentary on the BNP, Young, Nazi, and Proud, by David Modell, broadcast in November 2002, in which he was heavily featured. Collett declared his admiration for Adolf Hitler and UDA terrorist Johnny Adair, unaware he was being filmed. Collett was sacked from his position in the party days after the broadcast, although party leaders continued to share speaking platforms with him. Collett is currently the party's head of publicity and produces the party's monthly magazine Identity.

As a result of a police investigation into another documentary, BBC1's The Secret Agent, which in July 2004 broadcast secret footage of alleged racist activities, Collett, then aged 24, was bailed on race hate offences at Leeds magistrates' court on April 7, 2005 alongside party founder John Tyndall and party leader Nick Griffin. The trial ended on February 2, 2006 after a jury acquitted Collett of two charges of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred, and two alternative charges of using words likely to stir up racial hatred. The jury failed to reach a verdict in respect of a further four charges.

The Crown Prosecution Service subsequently announced that he and Nick Griffin would face a retrial on the remaining charges of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred. This retrial began at Leeds Crown Court on November 1, 2006 and he and Griffin were found not guilty. [3] The defendants were greeted with crowds of supporters and anti-BNP protestors as they entered the court during the trial. [4]

Despite the BNP taking a softer public stance on homosexuality, Collett made a number of comments about homosexuals in Russell Brand's 2001 TV show RE:Brand.^[1] He described homosexuals as "AIDS Monkeys", "bum bandits" and "faggots" and said the idea of homosexuality was a "sickening thought". According to The Times, Collett said that he considered AIDS a “friendly disease because blacks, drug users and gays have it." [5]