Joshua Bonehill-Paine

Joshua Mark John Bonehill-Paine, also known as Joshua Bonehill, is an internet troll and sockpuppeteer from Yeovil, Somerset, England, and owner of Daily Bale, a website that has published libel, fake news and racist hoaxes leading to Bonehill facing criminal charges under the Malicious Communications Act 1988 (which includes electronic communications). For his trolling and publicity stunts that resolve around racism, Bonehill has become rather infamous. He regularly now appears in national newspapers such as the Daily Mail.

It is unclear if Bonehill is a genuine anti-Semite or white supremacist since he has posted himself that his online racism is a spoof and "comical act". Some actual white supremacists and neo-Nazis have turned against him. National Action, however, once accepted him as a member of their far-right "white gang". It ultimately doesn't matter because as Kurt Vonnegut said: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."

Criminal charges and investigations
Bonehill has been harassing people online for several years. This includes calling innocent people paedophiles and drug dealers, resulting in Bonehill pleading guilty to seven charges of malicious communication:

The trial was postponed until early 2015 when Bonehill was found guilty of malicious communication and was handed a three-month prison sentence, suspended for 18-months.

In April 2014, Bonehill was sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work for a hoax he started the year earlier which resulted in owners of a Leicester pub receiving death threats.

In October 2014, Bonehill was investigated by police over anti-Semitic comments he had posted about Labour MP Luciana Berger.

In February 2015, Bonehill was arrested over allegations of inciting racial hatred over the internet and released on bail. He has been temporarily banned from entering London.

In December 2015, Bonehill was sentenced to three years and four months imprisonment for promoting a far-right "anti-Jewification" march in Golders Green, London, an area with a substantial Jewish population. In December 2016, he was found guilty of an online hate campaign against Labour MP Luciana Berger.

Sockpuppetry
Bonehill has been blocked from Wikipedia on numerous sock accounts (see: Jooner29) after trying to edit his own article to boost his ego. He also appears to have been trying to remove the word 'troll' from his page intro. Despite being prosecuted for posting libel, starting a hoax that endangered the lives of people, as well as harassing people across the Internet, Bonehill insists he is not a troll, and people who call him this are Jews (although see below, Joshua has admitted to being a troll and a spoof of a racist). He has also had several accounts suspended on Twitter for abusing people.

It is also known that Bonehill owns lots of Facebook accounts and pages, many where he impersonates other people. He has also set up fake Twitter pages of the United Kingdom Independence Party. "Followers" on his personal website and the Daily Bale are also more alt accounts he creates to exaggerate his support; for example, the Daily Bale claims to have over 20,000 followers.

T-shirt money scam
Bonehill tried to cash in on the murder of Lee Rigby by charging £20 for remembrance t-shirts. He originally declared that the cash raised as profit would go to charity. Instead, he took £1000 for himself and an "accomplice" (most likely someone he invented, so himself again), £100 in administration costs, and donated only £5 to a charity. When questioned about this by someone, he posted on Twitter:

National British Resistance
Bonehill claimed to have founded a far-right political party called the National British Resistance (NBR) taking money from David Childs, a former member of the British National Party from London, who thought the money was going towards registration with the electoral commission and other party costs. In September 2014, however, it was revealed that Bonehill had taken the cash for himself, never having used the money to set up the party. Childs was then 'expelled' from the NBR by Bonehill after questioning where his cash went and has never received his sum of money back from Bonehill.

As of January 2015, Bonehill and Childs continue to clash on Twitter, each calling the other "fake nationalists" and paedophiles. Bonehill has also posted attacks against Childs on his website.

Like Bonehill, Childs has been investigated by the police for sending racist tweets.

Liberate Stamford Hill
Bonehill most recently was behind an anti-Semitic publicity stunt called "Liberate Stamford Hill". In January 2015, he called for a public demonstration against the "Jewification" of Stamford Hill in north London. However, Scotland Yard never authorised Bonehill's request to stage a march. Furthermore, he most likely would never have attended himself.

Racist spoof?
Bonehill has occasionally posted his racism and online "Joshua Bonehill" persona as a far-right nationalist is a parody or spoof. Further, that his online postings do not represent his real views, i.e. they are an "act", or trolling. In one essay entitled The Rise and fall of leader Bonehill, a fictional character and persona I penned from the mind of Joshua Bonehill he wrote:

Bonehill's declarations that he is a misunderstood "performance artist" who got carried away has failed to convince judges and juries of his harmless intent.

National Action
Bonehill was associated with or a member of the neo-Nazi group National Action. However, in February 2015, he posted he had left them.

Bonehill's link to the group was not surprising since it has high-profile Twitter trolls in it such as Garron Helm who was jailed for harassing a female online with anti-Semitic abuse.

Arrest over harassing a woman
Bonehill was arrested for harassment in May, 2015. He was charged with sending a woman explicit sexual messages and wanting her to be his "Eva", leaving her a swastika gift.