Accused tells court ‘far-right’ social media posts were meant to be comedy
A 24-YEAR-OLD man accused of encouraging terrorism has told a court that “far-right” views he expressed online were of a “comedy character”.
Gabriel Budasz, born in Poland, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of posting bomb-making tutorials online and encouraging terrorism.
Prosecutor Maryam Syed KC said Budasz was found by police as someone who used a number of social media posts to express “extreme racist views against black and Jewish people and encouraged others to direct action against them”. The defendant told the court that he moved to Weston-supermare, Somerset, from Poland when he was six years old, but he had difficulty fitting in because of language difficulties and because he was diagnosed with autism.
The defendant told the court that views he expressed on social media videos were the “views of a comedy character” and denied encouraging others to take violent action against governments.
When asked by his barrister, Tim Forte, if he held racist, homophobic, antisemitic or misogynistic views, Budasz replied: “No.”
Speaking of his social media videos, he said that he labelled them as “comedic” and added: “The views were a comedy show, they were done from the viewpoint of the character who was far right.”
He said that his sense of humour had become “desensitised” from what he had seen online and added: “Sometimes I find things that are extreme that are funny, sometimes I find things that are innocuous that are funny.
“People have been trying to explain why things are comedic for hundreds of years.
“I do not think I am intelligent enough to explain why things are funny.
“I do not find Sarah Millican funny but others do, I find Dave Chappelle funny, others don’t.”
He added that he “catered” for the far right “because they have a sense of humour, whenever I interacted with anyone on the left, it’s impossible to have any comedic conversation with them because they will think you are sexist, racist, offensive, they will call you far right, Nazi, extremist if you say ‘It’s OK to be white’, they will call you white supremacist.
“While the right is simplistic, to the point, it works, they have a broader sense of humour.”
The trial has heard that Budasz talked online about making firearms with 3D printers and buying materials for them from Tesco.
The prosecution have also said that he shared a bomb-making tutorial on a Telegram channel.
Budasz denies counts of dissemination of terrorist publications and encouraging terrorism, and sending electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
The trial continues.