30/10/2017 Inside Out West

Tonight, he fought terrorists

and then face terrorism charges.

It's a waste of taxpayers' money,

it's a waste of my time.

If I go to prison over this, well,

it would be a ridiculous miscarriage

of justice, essentially.

Back in Hartcliffe

25 years after the riots.

The most damaging night of the riot

was the following day when everybody

who fancied a fight with the police

from about 80 or 90 miles around

came to Hartcliffe.

And the grown-ups obsessed

with My Little Pony.

Welcome to Inside Out West.

First tonight, remember Josh Walker,

the young man from Bristol

who travelled to Syria to fight

against so-called Islamic State?

But instead of coming home

to a hero's welcome, he was charged

with being a terrorist himself.

Feeling the heat, Josh is hard

at work as a kitchen hand.

His life as a university student

on hold while he waits to find out

what is in store for him.

In just over a week,

Josh is due in court in Birmingham

to face charges of terrorism.

We have been given exclusive access

to this remarkable ordeal.

If he is found guilty,

he could go to jail for ten years.

A terrorism charge,

that is a big deal.

If I go to prison over this, well,

it would be a ridiculous

miscarriage of justice.

A year ago, Josh was in Syria,

against Foreign Office advice,

having joined Kurdish militia

in the fight against

so-called Islamic State.

When we met up with him, he had

returned safely home to Bristol

with an extraordinary story.

You felt strongly enough to pick up

a gun and do something about it.

But surely that is the same sort

of sentiment a terrorist has.

There is a big difference

between those who wish to commit

genocide and those who wish to stop

people from committing genocide.

There are no words really

to describe being under

aerial bombardment.

All you can do, essentially, is keep

your head down and hope it stops.

I'm meeting up with Josh in the same

cafe where we talked back in March.

Last time I saw you,

you'd recently come back

from Syria, now this.

What happened?

Obviously, they arrested

me when I returned.

And when they went to search my

room, they found a partial copy

of The Anarchist Cookbook,

which I had printed off

about two years ago.

I had completely forgotten about it.

And so in the context,

obviously, you know,

it didn't look the best.

What the police had found

in a drawer under his bed were pages

of a 46-year-old American

publication, The Anarchist Cookbook.

It was enough for Josh to be charged

under Section 58 of the Terrorism

Act for possessing information

likely to be of use to a terrorist.

They couldn't prosecute me for going

to Syria so they are getting me

on this stupid university thing,

just to cause trouble for those

of us who go and help the Kurds.

Life is undoubtedly stressful

with a criminal charge hanging over

you, but at work in Bristol,

Josh's colleagues

are right behind him.

He is a nice lad.

He's very smart, very logical.

We were joking about his going

to the court and getting jailed.

We are actually really, really

scared if it's going to happen.

We are all going to

feel bad about it.

I was quite surprised when I heard

about it because you look at Josh

and you don't really think he looks

like a terrorist.

I was a bit shocked really,

and a bit shocked by

what he's going through.

I want to have a closer look

at The Anarchist Cookbook.

Owning a copy is easy.

In fact, you can buy it online.

That's it, it's on its way.

It's now just a few days

until the trial and Josh is off

to London to meet his lawyer.

There's a chance

things can go wrong.

People can think all kinds of stupid

stuff, but I feel like worrying too

much is a waste of energy

and it's not happening today,

it's just more preparation.

Fortunately for Josh,

he is qualifying for Legal Aid,

which means the state is paying

for a top barrister to defend him.

But is this case a waste

of public money?

If what he did in Syria is worthy

of criminal sanction,

then litigate that, but to merely

find a book gathering dust

in a drawer under his bed

in his student room and to prosecute

that under terrorist legislation

does strike me as deeply worrying.

If the Director of Public

Prosecution really thinks this

book shouldn't exist,

it shouldn't be accessible,

why hasn't he gone after Amazon

rather than a part-time

student from Bristol?

This wouldn't be the first time that

somebody with a copy

of The Anarchist Cookbook has been

convicted, but in other

cases there was other

compelling evidence,

not just the book on its own.

Back in Bristol,

the post has arrived.

So here it is, my copy

of The Anarchist Cookbook.

If I was Josh Walker,

just owning this book

would be enough to land me

with terrorism charges.

So what is all the fuss about?

Looking at the contents page,

it's not what I thought.

Chapter one deals with drugs.

Chapter two, electronics,

sabotage and surveillance.

Chapter three, weapons.

Chapter four, the most useful

to a potential terrorist,

covers explosives and booby traps,

recipes for making things

like nitroglycerin, TNT

and Molotov cocktails.

So what on earth was Josh

doing with the book?

In Birmingham, his trial

is about to start.

Outside the court, members

of the local Kurdish community

are here to show support.

And Josh's mum.

How does your mother feel about it?

She's not incredibly happy

with me, I'm pretty sure,

and of course she's worried.

Inside the court, Josh confirms

he did download large portions

of The Anarchist Cookbook

but he had a legitimate reason.

I have been listening

to what is going on in there

and Josh told the court that

at university he was involved

in something called

the Crisis Gaming Society,

where they re-enacted historical

scenarios involving terrorism

and genocide.

Josh bought the book, he says,

because he wanted to bring

accuracy to these scenarios.

When the games ended,

rather than dispose of the book,

he put it in a drawer under his bed

where it was found by the police.

The next day, Josh

takes to the stand.

Afterwards, he is visibly exhausted.

Yeah, I feel quite tired now.

I've still got another day

to go and then it's over.

All the evidence has now been heard

and it's up to the jury to decide

whether that book in the drawer

under Josh's bed could really

be used for terrorism.

It's verdict day and both Josh's

parents are with him.

The wait is a nervous one.

It's a waste of taxpayers' money,

it's a waste of my time.

If I go to prison over this, well,

it would be a ridiculous miscarriage

of justice, essentially.

It is disproportionate,

it's not necessary to interfere

with what, in legal terms,

is Josh's right to have,

share and gather information,

unless it would actually do

something to lessen the risk

of terrorism, which in his case

it obviously doesn't.

The jury takes less

than an hour to decide.

Josh is not guilty.

For his mum, huge relief, but also

angered that it happened at all.

Really emotional

and really stressful.

The whole experience

has been so surreal,

it's been hard to call

what the outcome would be

because the fact we are here in

the first place is just an absolute

waste of taxpayers' money.

We are very angry.

It has cost tens of thousands of

pounds but justice has been served.

Josh is innocent.

But he doesn't escape

a scolding from his mother.

You've got a lot to make up for.

You've got a lot of grovelling

to do, haven't you?

And you better not do anything

for the next 20 years

that may cause me any worry at all.

That might be a little difficult

but I will do my best.

He can do his best.

Hero or zero

or somewhere in between?

What do you make of Josh's story?

I would love to hear from you.

Coming up, meet the Bronies.

By day I am a mortgage conveyancer

at a lawful firm

but in my spare time

I am also a Brony.

25 years ago, Hartcliffe

was torn apart by rioting.

It all started with the death of two

men in a police chase.

We have reunited two people whose

lives changed for ever.

Relations with the police

in this part of Bristol

have often been tense.

In 1992, they were at their worst

and Hartcliffe errupted.

It began with the theft

of a motorcycle and ended

with the deaths of two men

on Bristol's Hartcliffe estate.

25 years later,

feelings still run deep.

She lost a brother

and I lost a friend as well.

That's right.

But it never leaves you.

No.

So what caused the riots

and what has changed

for Hartcliffe since then?

Shaun was a lovable rogue.

He was born to ride

and born to drive.

Shaun ended his life here,

where the tree used to be.

I used to decorate it

on his birthday

and the memorial of his death.

Shaun, it's not

the same without you.

Shaun Starr was 32 years old and had

a reputation for stealing cars.

Shaun was on a stolen motorbike,

the two police officers coming that

way, Shaun was coming this way.

The first police officer tried

to come into Shaun but swerved out

of the way and the second one came

down and hit Shaun right

in the middle of the bike.

His friend Keith Buck

was on the back.

He was 18 years old and was also

killed after the unmarked police

car smashed into them.

The bike they were riding had

belonged to the regional crime squad

and the officers who pursued them

were not in uniform.

I said, "Mum, he's been killed."

And I'll never forget

the screams and cries.

It was absolutely horrendous.

But my mother has never

been the same since.

The news of their deaths spread

quickly through the estate.

Many in Hartcliffe who already felt

persecuted by the police now

branded them murderers

and they made their feelings clear.

There was a lot of people coming

from outside Hartcliffe

on the second night, I think.

One of the shops that was firebombed

was the Bread Basket Bakery.

It had belonged to Neil Derrick.

I have been here six years.

I have put all the money I've got

into it and my parents have put

a lot of money into it.

Keith Buck, the man

killed on the back of

the bike, worked for him.

It's been 25 years and he's meeting

Lorraine for the first time

since the riots.

They've come back to the pub

where it all began.

You lost a brother and I

lost a friend as well.

That's right.

I think I'm probably one of the last

people to see them both.

Shaun put his head around the bakery

window and said, "Keith,

"do you want to come

on a motorbike?"

That day?

I think it was about dinner time.

I said, "Just go careful."

Two hours later,

I think it was about 2pm.

1:40pm.

The news went through

Hartcliffe pretty quick.

I was devastated.

I couldn't believe

what had happened.

They all came out

fuelled with drink.

They knew they had a limited amount

of time to cause as much damage

as they could so they just picked

on the shops without shutters,

which was unluckily mine.

But that's not what my brother

would have wanted because he loved

Hartcliffe and there's no way

he would have wanted it

destroyed the way it was.

And for it to go on for three

days and three nights,

it was absolutely horrendous.

There was a lot of people coming

from outside Hartcliffe

on the second night.

I think the word got around

on the news and they were coming

from other parts of Bristol.

They were turning

the riot vans over.

That's when I went down

and asked them to go

and the girl said to me,

"Who are you?"

I said, "I am Shaun's sister."

And she said, "Who's he?"

Obviously, she didn't

come from Hartcliffe.

"Take your baby and go home."

I drove in a round the back

of my shop, parked,

I walked around the front,

there were so many rioters,

and it was quite strange

because they saw me with my bakery

clothes on and they just all parted,

moved away, and then I saw

the devastation of everything

in my shop and I just

burst into tears.

All the hard work I done over

the last seven years.

I think it was just caused

by the police and that's it.

Over the course of three days

and nights, 65 people were arrested.

Extra officers were called

in from Gloucestershire,

Dorset and Wiltshire,

15 receiving hospital treatment

for injuries.

The riots marked the lowest point

in Hartcliffe's history.

Many blame the closure

of the tobacco factory,

which was the largest in Europe.

It had closed a year before

the riots, taking thousands

of local jobs with it.

It was a major blow to Hartcliffe,

damaging a community

that was already struggling

with the recession

and mass unemployment.

Paul Smith was the local

councillor at the time.

I wasn't just the local councillor,

I was also a local resident.

At that time Hartcliffe had

the highest uneployment

level in the city.

People talked about poor quality

housing, poor housing conditions,

not enough jobs.

But it hadn't always been that way.

Symes Avenue was once the bustling

heart of Hartcliffe with more

than 40 mainly independent traders.

High unemployment,

recession and then the riots

all took their toll.

And one by one, the shops fell away.

It was finally torn down.

A new shopping precinct

was built to replace it.

To Lorraine and Neil,

it's almost unrecognisable.

The bakery would have

been around there.

What's it like to be back here?

Frightening.

Just to visualise where my shop was.

All your hard work.

And memories.

All gone.

It doesn't feel like Symes Avenue.

As you can see,

that is the car park.

That was the heart of Symes Avenue,

where everybody talked

and laughed and shopped.

And now it's a car park.

Today, the underlying

causes of Hartcliffe's

riots haven't gone away.

Parts of Hartcliffe

are in the national top 10% areas

of deprivation so some of those

areas are very deprived.

It doesn't mean to say that

all the people in that area

are deprived but it is one

of our concentrations

of deprivation within the city.

Although the population in Bristol

is rising by an average

of around 10% a year,

in Hartcliffe it's falling.

We really do need to get

an injection of new people

into the community to make it more

diverse as a community,

particularly in terms

of income and education

and all the rest of it,

so that it works like

the communities in Bristol do,

as a vibrant mix community.

25 years ago, a police chase ended

the lives of two young men here.

The events that unfolded changed

Neil and Lorraine's lives

and Hartcliffe for ever.

We all loved kids TV shows

when we were kids

but some people never

grow out of it.

Meet the Bronies.

Hi, I'm Sam.

By day I am a mortgage

conveyancer at a law firm.

But in my spare time

I am also a Brony.

A Brony is someone that is

interested in My Little Pony,

more specifically the fourth

generation of shows.

It's a term that refers to a fan

in the same that

Trekkers does for Star Trek

or Whovians this for Dr Who.

Someone who is a fan

of the franchise, watches the show,

might buy merchandise like this,

and basically just enjoys

talking about it

and sharing it with friends.

Obviously there are people who look

at you a bit weird, usually parents.

It's My Little Pony,

that's for girls.

Sam and Marcus are members

of the Severn Bronies,

fans from the West Country

and Wales who just love

the colourful cartoon canterers.

The Severn Bronies,

I'm one of the organisers.

We get together, play games,

have lunch, watch episodes,

sometimes just hang out as friends

who come together

because we enjoy the show.

Have a meal, go bowling,

have a few drinks.

Just hang out.

I would say without it my life

would be completely different

because there are so many friends,

and even my own partner,

I all met because of me

being interested in the show.

I would definitely say

it is a passion and probably one

that will stay with a lot of people

for the rest of their lives.

It's just something

that I very much love.

Their dreams are about to come true

as the first feature-length film

starring their favourite horsey

characters is about to hit cinemas.

It's a special event

and a special occasion.

I don't know if I'll be

able to sleep the night before,

I'm that excited.

I would say, generally,

if you are watching this

and you think this is all a bit

weird, I'm trying to calm your

worries by saying that's all it is,

we really like a show.

We like a show so much that we buy

a lot of merchandise,

we make our own characters.

Marcus' character

is called Scribble.

My character is a writer,

specifically.

I generally do a lot

of writing myself, people

get their own custom made figures,

people make their own suits

of their own character,

which can go into the thousands.

I wanted to spend a lot of time

on making sure it was the perfect

one and it was a lot of money.

I think this was over £100.

It's nice to have by my side

to show my creativity off as well.

But outside the fandom,

there are people who assume there

is something more sinister involved.

Some people think it is sexual

attraction to the characters

or that they might want to do things

with actual horses or they collect

the cuddly toys or whatever to do

lewd things to them,

which is again sensationalist hype

and completely untrue.

Special edition cards

from the people who make

the card games as well.

There are so many different types

of people in the world who enjoy

different types of things

and as long as it makes them happy

and doesn't hurt anyone,

what does it matter?

Even in our local group,

the Severn Bronies, there has been

a lot of occasions where if someone

needs help with something

or a shoulder to cry on,

one of the cool things

about being a Brony is knowing

we have got each other's backs.

Life can be pretty bad sometimes,

life can be a bit too serious

sometimes, it's nice to take time

off and have a bit of fun.

That's what I generally

see it as all in all.

I usually struggle with

depression and anxiety.

Pretty much since I was a teenager.

It's very here and there.

It comes whenever it wants

to so I feel like whenever that

comes about, I am really down

and I don't want to do anything,

staying in bed all day,

it's usually just like putting

on something like My Little Pony,

with its colours and it's

very uplifting nature,

I feel like that really helps

in dealing with depression anxiety.

For me, anyway.

I have seen the show help a lot

of people deal with depression,

with suicidal thoughts,

social isolation, anxiety and so on.

We generally do a lot of socialising

and it helps a lot of people

who tend to struggle with it

because a lot of people

who are into this kind of stuff

usually have some form of autism

and so when it comes to social cues

and that, they struggle.

I feel like it is some kind of way

of helping with that kind of stuff.

All of us tend to rally

round and support each other

because that's the kind

of people we are.

The movie coming out soon,

I'm very excited because it has been

something I have been waiting

for for a long time.

This October, the world's

coolest little ponies

are coming to the big screen.

Since April 2011, when I started

watching it, I was like,

I need to see a movie of this.

I will probably be up

all night looking forward to it,

sitting in my bed.

Finally, the opening night has

arrived and Bronies from all over

the West are heading

to a cinema in Bristol.

I can't really

contain my excitement.

This is probably the most excited

I've been about My Little Pony

in a very long time.

I might bring along some merchandise

as well to show off.

Shirts, maybe some of

the cuddly toys, my bag.

A bit more of a Brony presence

about my person than normal.

He is literally on

the street right now.

Just going out to the cinema,

watching My Little Pony

with friends, it's just

a dream come true.

Who is looking forward to the film?

Yes!

Let's go.

Who is looking forward

to seeing ponies?

I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle

and this is my home.

A land filled with magic, music

and most importantly friendship.

So, what's the verdict on the film

they've waited so long for?

It was amazing.

Worth every day

we have been waiting.

It was well worth seeing.

I have to agree with that.

I would say it exceeded

my expectations.

I expected it to be good

but it turned out to be

a bit more than that really.

I didn't expect that really.

When the movie started

we were all excited

but when the credits rolled

we were on our feet applauding.

It was incredible.

I feel a very warm, fuzzy feeling

inside and that's how I feel

with the show normally so top marks.

If anyone is thinking

about giving the show a shot,

there's nothing lost by trying

and you might find it

something you enjoy.

Worst case scenario,

you are not into it,

best case scenario,

you are one of us.

So are you a Bronie at heart?

Let me know.

You can find me on

Facebook and Twitter.

That's it from us for tonight.

We are back next week.

Until then, good night.

Next week, we meet bird girl,

a 15-year-old determined to make

the green movement more black.

They are the least likely to go

into nature but they are the most

likely to have mental

illness and it's important

that they are able to apply

that to something.