Kirbky man jailed after seting up "white supremacist hate website"
He also posted adverts for the site on lamp posts around Merseyside
A man who was a leading figure in a white supremacist movement and created a website full of racist material has been jailed.
James Costello, aged 38 of Old Rough Lane in Kirkby has been sentenced for five years for 19 offences of stirring up racial hatred.
In July 2021 several members of the public reported stickers found on a lampposts across Merseyside advertising a website called Creativitymovement.net. The website was full of racist material.
Merseyside Police launched a criminal investigation to identify the persons responsible for the website. This culminated in detectives and uniformed police officers executing search warrants and arresting Costello on suspicion of running the website. During the search officers recovered vast amounts of racist material linked to the website.
Merseyside Police lawfully seized the website and replaced it a splash screen indicating that it had been seized by the police. A Twitter account also used to promote the site was closed down whilst the investigation continued.
The racist material found that Costello was a leading figure in the “Creativity Movement” which are a white supremacist racist movement who pay homage to the Nazi 3rd Reich.
Costello was arrested in August 2021 and again in September 2021 as part of the same investigation. He was later charged on Monday 9 January with multiple counts of stirring up racial hatred.
Speaking after the sentencing Detective Chief Inspector Andy Milligan said: “Costello placed stickers across public sites in Merseyside with the intention of advertising this racist abhorrent website in the hope that he would recruit and radicalise people who lived in the area to the Creativity Movement.
“I would like to thank members of the public for reporting this racist website to us so that we could launch a criminal investigation.
"I would also like to thank the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division for working with us on this investigation so we could achieve this result.
"Our detectives worked hard to identify and seize the material whilst also identifying Costello as the main contributor to the site. Specialist Merseyside Police cyber crime officers took control of the website and closed it, significantly undermining and impacting upon the global reach of the racist white supremacist organisation, Creativity Movement.
“The racist and offensive material uncovered by our officers was deplorable and could have caused serious tensions, anguish and violence in our community.
“I hope this result show that online hate will not be tolerated and online offenders are not anonymous. Merseyside Police take all such reports seriously and we will continue to work hard to unmask and prosecute online offenders. This hate material will destroyed by our officers and anyone who creates it will be prosecuted and jailed for their crimes.”