(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The second in command of the far-right group Britain First, hurled abuse at a Muslim woman in front of her four young children for wearing a hijab, a court heard on Wednesday.
While brandishing a white cross, Jayda Fransen, aged 30, who lives near South Norwood, is alleged to have launched a tirade of religious abuse at Sumayyah Sharpe during a Britain First "patrol" of Bury Park in Luton.
The verbal attack is said to have started at around 1 pm on January 23 this year.
Fransen is accused of telling Sumayyah that Muslim men force women to cover up to avoid them being raped, Luton and Bedfordshire Magistrates' Court heard.
Sharpe was shopping with her children when she noticed members of the far-right group handing out Britain First pamphlets to passers-by, Your Local Guardian News reported. The front page read "World War Three has begun - Islam against the world," prosecutor Kirsty Allman told the court.
Sharpe said she later had to explain to her children what rape was and that her four-year-old son was now scared to leave the house in case they ran into the group again.
Fransen denies one charge of religiously aggravated assault, one count of failure to surrender to police bail and one count of wearing a political uniform.
Fransen was elected deputy leader of Britain First in the autumn of 2014 and is deputy to ex-Swanley British National Party (BNP) Councillor Paul Golding who recently stood for mayor of London.
In August, the group was banned from entering all mosques in England and Wales under a High Court injunction. Britain First’s leader Golding accepted the court's decision in fear of losing the legal battle and incurring costs from Bedfordshire Police.
The court order bans both Golding, Fransen, and their instructed followers, from entering any mosque or Islamic Cultural Centre, or its private grounds, without prior written invitation.
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