Family who used neo-Nazi music to incite racial hatred jailed

A father and his two adult children who used neo-Nazi music to incite racial hatred have been jailed.

Robert Talland, 59, was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on Thursday alongside his son Stephen, 36, and 33-year-old daughter Rosie.

The 59-year-old, of Waltham Abbey, was also convicted in June of two counts of encouraging terrorism after distributing CDs of bands which encouraged attacks on racial minorities, and one count of possessing racially inflammatory material.

He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment with 12 months on extended licence.

Stephen and Rosie Talland were also found guilty of stirring up racial hatred through the lyrics in their songs.

Stephen, of Harlow, received a two-year jail term while Rosie was sentenced to 18 months in custody.

Robert Talland organised a gig at the Corpus Christi Club in Leeds on 21 September 2019 at which both children performed songs that incited racial hatred in front of an audience that responded by making Nazi salutes, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

He managed his children's band, Embers Of An Empire, and was a leading figure of the Blood and Honour neo-Nazi network which promoted their ideology through "performances by far-right bands at gatherings of supporters of the neo-Nazi cause", a judge said.

Sentencing the defendants, Judge Andrew Lees, said: "At the time of your offending I am satisfied that each of you had a long-standing allegiance to the neo-Nazi cause."

"That is most clearly evidenced by the racist and antisemitic messages, videos, memes and other materials you posted via social media.

"The concerts were characterised by the display of extreme right-wing symbiology including Nazi flags and banners, and provided a forum for the encouragement through music of racial hatred and neo-Nazi ideology."

Robert Talland had been involved in the far-right music scene since the 1980s when he acted as security for concerts by the skinhead "white power" movement.

A builder from Waltham Abbey, Essex, he went on to run the Blood and Honour network.

His children followed him into the world of far-right music as he sought to encourage a younger generation to attend gigs around Britain and Europe.

Lucy Organ KC, prosecuting, said Stephen and Rosie Talland were "imbued by their father with all his hatred, all his attitude to violence and all of his beliefs".

Robert Talland's barrister Mark Gadsden sought to persuade the trial judge that the lyrics of bands were no different to church hymns.

However, the lyrics included: "A bullet in your head should make you understand we don't want Muslims in our land. Like the Aryan bred we are racially pure and for our Zionist enemies, we are the cure."

The children's involvement began in their 20s when blonde-haired Rosie would regularly pose alongside Nazi-inspired emblems at alcohol-fuelled gigs her brother performed at.

They went on to form Embers of an Empire, which performed at their father's gigs.

The band was aimed at encouraging a new generation to join the far-right music scene amid concerns that their audience was ageing in the UK.

CCTV of one gig showed children in the crowd as the audience threw Nazi salutes in front of a line-up of bands singing racist lyrics.

After police raided the Tallands' Essex mansion, they uncovered the family's efforts to radicalise younger people.

Rosie Talland acted as a personal assistant to her father, and had items of Nazi memorabilia in her bedroom.

In one message exchange, she discussed whether she hated Muslims or Jews more, saying London was "disgusting" and "like Africa".

Ms Organ, prosecuting, said the Blood and Honour movement was "explicitly organised around music".

Their gigs acted as "ideological spaces" for recruitment and radicalisation for the neo-Nazi cause.

"They are racists, they are neo-Nazis, who believe in violence in support of their grotesque cause," the prosecutor added.

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