A suspended Labour councillor who said far-right protesters should have their throats slit has been found not guilty of encouraging violent disorder.

Ricky Jones, 58, drew his finger across his throat and called demonstrators “disgusting Nazi fascists” at an anti-racism protest in east London last August following the Southport murders.

Jones, a borough councillor in Dartford, Kent, from 2019, said he felt it was his “duty” to attend the protest in Walthamstow, despite being warned by his party to stay away. He was suspended the day after the incident.

Jones, of Dartford, who denied one count of encouraging violent disorder, told police he was “sorry” he made the comments “in the heat of the moment”, and had not intended for them to be “taken literally”, the court had earlier heard.

On Friday, jurors found Jones not guilty after just half an hour of deliberations. The suspended councillor was seen mouthing “thank you” at the jurors after the verdict was handed down.

Former Home Secretary and Tory leadership candidate James Cleverly called the jury’s verdict clearing Jones “perverse”, writing on X that “decisions like this are adding to the anger that people feel and amplifying the belief that there isn’t a dispassionate criminal justice system”.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the verdict was “another outrageous example of two-tier justice”.

His statement was echoed by former Reform chairman Zia Yusuf, who said the “two-tier justice in this country is out of control” as Jones was cleared “while Lucy Connolly gets 31 months in jail”.

Connolly pleaded guilty – meaning she did not face trial – last year to a charge of inciting racial hatred by publishing and distributing “threatening or abusive” written material on X during the Southport riots.

A video of Jones speaking to cheering protesters went viral on social media after the demonstration, which had been organised in response to plans for a far-right march outside nearby Waltham Forest Immigration Bureau, jurors at Snaresbrook Crown Court were told.

It followed the nationwide violent disorder that occurred last summer after the Southport murders when Axel Rudakubana killed three girls and attempted to murder eight others at a summer holiday Taylor Swift-themed event.

Jones, who was also employed as a full-time official for the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) union at the time, was arrested a day after the protest and questioned by police in Brixton.

Jones said during his trial that his comment about cutting throats did not refer to far-right protesters involved in the riots at the time, but to people who had reportedly left National Front stickers on a train with razor blades hidden behind them.

Before he made the comment, footage shows Jones telling the crowd: “You’ve got women and children using these trains during the summer holidays. They don’t give a shit about who they hurt.”

Prosecutor Ben Holt said during the trial that Jones used “inflammatory, rabble-rousing language in the throng of a crowd that we will hear described as a tinderbox”.

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He told the court that Jones gave his speech, which was amplified through a microphone and speakers, “in a setting where violence could readily have been anticipated”.

Jones, who said he was on the left of the Labour Party, told jurors that he was “appalled” by political violence, adding that the riots left him feeling “upset” and “angry”.

“I’ve always believed the best way to make people realise who you are and what you are is to do it peacefully,” he said.

Victims of child sexual exploitation are “not explicitly within the scope” of the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy being drafted by the government, Sky News can reveal.

Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSEA) is a form of child abuse, described by police as a “critical threat” to women and girls.

It includes crimes such as grooming, and can involve both physical contact, such as rape, or non-physical – like forcing children to look at sexual images.

Sky News has been shown an internal Home Office document presented to various stakeholders in the sector.

It’s titled “Scope of the Strategy… Our draft definition of VAWG”, and says that while it recognises “links” between VAWG and child sexual exploitation, it is not “explicitly within the scope of the strategy”.

“VAWG is Violence Against Women and Girls. If you take child sexual abuse out of it, where are the girls?” Poppy Eyre told Sky News.

Poppy was sexually abused and raped by her grandfather when she was four.

It wasn’t until she was 11, after a PHSE lesson on abuse at school, that she understood the enormity of what had happened.

“I remember very vividly when the police came round and told me… this is what we’re charging him with,” said Poppy.

“We’re charging him with sexual abuse and rape. And I remember being like, I had no idea that’s what it was, but I know that’s really bad.”

Poppy’s grandfather was convicted and died in prison.

She questions how authorities would police crime if child sexual abuse is excluded from an umbrella strategy to tackle violence against women and girls.

“Are they holding child sexual abuse at the same level of importance as they are with violence against women? You’d hope so, but potentially not, because it doesn’t need to be in the figures”, she said.

The government has pledged to halve VAWG within a decade, by 2035.

“If the government are measuring themselves against halving violence against women and girls – if they’re not looking at the scale of child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation within that – that will mean we are failing many young victims of abuse,” said Andrea Simon, director of campaign group End Violence Against Women.

The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, which is funded by the Home Office, estimates 500,000 children in England and Wales are sexually abused every year.

‘Danger’ of having separate plan

Rape Crisis told Sky News that “for any strategy to be effective” it “must include all forms of gender-based violence against all women and girls”, suggesting there is a “danger” in having a separate plan for child sexual abuse.

Its chief executive, Ciara Bergman, said it could create a “problematic and potentially very unhelpful” distinction between victims of domestic abuse, expected to be covered by the strategy, and child sexual abuse.

“Some perpetrators of domestic abuse also sexually abuse their children,” she told Sky News.

The government insists the strategy will include action to tackle child sexual abuse, but says it also plans to create a distinctive programme to address its specific crimes.

“Sexual abuse is violence against a child,” said Poppy’s mother, Miranda Eyre, who now works as a counsellor specialising in trauma.

“It is violence against girls… and you can’t separate it out,” she said. “I’m speechless to be honest… it does make me quite angry.”

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A Home Office spokesperson told Sky News it is “working tirelessly to tackle the scourges of violence against women and girls and child sexual abuse”.

“These issues are complex and run deep within the fabric of society,” they added.

“The government wholly recognises that they overlap. But it also recognises that concerted action is needed to tackle child sexual abuse which is why we have set out a range of actions… and why we are launching a national inquiry into grooming gangs.”

A British veteran has spoken about how he witnessed Japan’s wartime surrender up close as a 20-year-old sailor.

Reg Draper was off Japan’s coast on the HMS Duke of York when the captain announced the war was ending.

Recalling that moment – 80 years ago today – he said cheers went up from the battleship’s crew.

Mr Draper saw the Japanese sign the agreement on USS Missouri when he went on board to help his friend, who was the ship’s photographer.

“All the ships mustered in Tokyo Bay with the USS Missouri, which was the American ship, and it was on the Missouri where they signed the peace treaty,” the 100-year-old recalled.

“Then we all came back down to Australia and we went and celebrated – we went down to Tasmania and everybody had four days leave in Hobart.

“Everybody wanted to take us to their home and there were a couple of dances in the dance hall.”

Mr Draper, who grew up in Leeds, was a stores assistant on the Duke of York after volunteering on his 18th birthday.

His duties included rationing out the rum so all the sailors could get their 11am hit. He said senior crew got theirs neat while everyone else had theirs watered down.

He also recalled being clattered by Prince Philip after the Queen’s future husband, who was on a destroyer escorting his ship, came aboard.

“We used to have deck hockey on the quarter deck and it was murder playing deck hockey,” said Mr Draper.

“He [Philip] knocked me over once and then the next time he came round he hit me, there’s still a mark there, he gave me a clout with his hockey stick.

“He came to see me just to see how I was. They just put a stitch in and it was alright.”

The pair met again in 1972 when Mr Draper was training sea cadets for the Duke of Edinburgh awards.

He said Philip noticed his medals and recalled escorting the ship – but didn’t mention the hockey game.

Mr Draper’s time on the Duke of York included Arctic convoys to deliver supplies to Russia and sailing to Sydney, Australia, in 1945 before joining the East Indies Fleet.

“We started going up to the islands, kicking the Japanese out of the islands as we went,” he recalled.

Japan surrendered after the US dropped two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on 6 and 9 August.

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Mr Draper turned 21 on the trip back to Europe and said 2,000 people were on board as they had picked up prisoners of war.

He went on to become an insurance salesman and said he’s planning to watch today’s 80th anniversary commemorations from his home in Elton, Cheshire.

The King released an audio message in which he said the sacrifices of VJ Day veterans should “never be forgotten”.

He described how the heroic actions of those sent to fight in the Far East, as well as the brutal treatment of civilians, “reminds us that war’s true cost extends beyond battlefields, touching every aspect of life”.