Ben John leaving court, inset, William Shakespeare
Ben John was ordered to learn literary classics after being discovered responsible of terror offences (Image: PA/ Leicestershire Stay/BPM Media/Getty)

A right-wing extremist who was advised to learn basic literature to keep away from jail after being convicted of a terrorism offence advised the choose he ‘loved Shakespeare greater than Jane Austen’.

Ben John, who police described as a white supremacist with a neo-Nazi ideology, was given a two-year suspended jail sentence at Leicester Crown Courtroom in August final yr.

Sparing him speedy custody, Choose Timothy Spencer QC stated: ‘Have you ever learn Dickens? Austen? Begin with Pleasure and Prejudice and Dickens’s A Story Of Two Cities. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night time. Take into consideration Hardy. Take into consideration Trollope.’

At a assessment listening to yesterday the choose stated: ‘I need you to write down down now what literature you could have learn since we final met.’

John advised him: ‘I loved Shakespeare greater than I did Jane Austen however I nonetheless loved Jane Austen by a level.’

The choose replied: ‘Nicely I discover that encouraging.’

He advised John he needed to return to Leicester Crown Courtroom in six months to have his progress checked, including: ‘I'm inspired about what you could have written out for me and I'm inspired by your efforts to hunt employment, and I want you properly with that.’

The choose stated: ‘It's clear that you've got tried to type your life out’ including publicity of this case had affected his rehabilitation.

Ben John leaving court
The Nazi sympathiser’s sentence has been described as ‘unduly lenient’ by the Legal professional Normal (Image: PA/Leicestershire Stay/BPM Media)

John was discovered responsible by a jury of possessing a report of knowledge prone to be helpful to an individual committing or making ready an act of terrorism.

The cost underneath Part 58 of the Terrorism Act, which has a most sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment, was introduced following the invention on a pc of a publication containing diagrams and directions on methods to assemble varied explosive gadgets.

Police stated John, of Lincoln, had additionally amassed 67,788 paperwork in bulk downloads onto exhausting drives, containing ‘a wealth’ of white supremist and antisemitic materials.

CHAWTON, ENGLAND - JULY 18: Books are displayed at the home of the celebrated late British author Jane Austen on July 18, 2017 in Chawton, England. Jane Austen spent the last eight years of her life in the cottage in Hampshire from 1809 until 1817, before dying on July 18, 1817, of an unknown illness. Today marks the 200th anniversary of her death. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
The ex-student stated he loved Jane Austen’s novels ‘to a level’ (Image: Dan Kitwood/Getty Photographs)

The choice to spare John a jail time period was met with widespread criticism final yr, as campaigners known as the case to be thought of underneath the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

The Legal professional Normal Suella Braverman QC has since requested the Courtroom of Enchantment to assessment it.

Anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate despatched an open letter saying: ‘This sentence is sending a message that violent right-wing extremists could also be handled leniently by the courts.’

.