A prison officer accused of running a far-right fitness club and encouraging terrorism through neo-Nazi rap songs has told a court that he was just providing a social outlet for lonely “nationalists”.
Ashley Sharp, 42, from Cudworth, Barnsley, was the founder of the White Stag Athletic Club, allegedly established to train others to be “soldiers” for the racist cause.
Sharp, a prison officer at HMP Leeds in Armley, began as a moderator of a site called Fascist Fitness where he adopted a drill sergeant persona and members would post weekly Friday updates showing off their physique.
He started his “fitness club” in 2019 with six others based around boxing, jiu-jitsu and running, he told Sheffield Crown Court.
White Stag Athletic Club began in the summer of 2020 and “went public” in October 2021, and Sharp told the court it was like a “nationalist boy scouts for grown-ups”.
He described the club as “something beautiful, a brotherhood among a lot of men who have none – white working-class men”.
Sharp talked about “climbing over a mountain with 14 other guys who see the world same as you do, and you conquer these things”.
However, the court heard that Sharp was sharing songs with lyrics that referred to a “national socialist death squad”, sending Jews to “the ovens” and sprinkling “Zyklon like condiment,” a reference to the chemical used in Nazi gas chambers.
A song called Get ‘Em Out said it was “bedtime” for homosexuals and referred to them as “degenerates” while one called on listeners to “beat up” communists on YouTube and urged “young whites” to “pick up” where Hitler left off, jurors were told
Sharp told his trial at Sheffield Crown Court that the songs were “comedic parody, it is a guy singing out of key, shouting 1488 [a far right slogan], Sieg heil, over The Proclaimers.
“It is shock humour. If someone who is not a national socialist hears it, they will be shocked, as you guys were.
“No doubt you think these jokes are horrible, sometimes jokes are horrible – it’s like how far is he willing to go for a laugh, a big part of it is braggadocio.
“It is about how a national socialist sense of humour works. I do not think anybody in their right mind is going to listen to a rap song and conduct terrorism. The very idea is insulting to humanity.”
Denise Breen-Lawton, prosecuting, accused Sharp of issuing a “call to action against the Jews” and “glorifying” the murder of black people, Muslims and homosexuals.
“It is not supposed to glorify, it is supposed to be shocking,” Sharp said.
Sharp denies encouraging terrorism and possessing material useful for terrorism.
The trial continues.
