Arrest warrant issued as Kent far-right agitator goes missing

Harry Hilden, the self-styled “Warrior of Christ” and principal organiser of Kent’s anti-migrant protest scene, was due before Maidstone Magistrates’ Court last week, but didn’t show up. Now a warrant is out for his arrest. The hearing concerned the charge against him of assaulting a 67-year-old man in Faversham during a disturbance on Love Lane…

Harry Hilden Dartford
Harry Hilden at Dartford demo last year

Harry Hilden, the self-styled “Warrior of Christ” and principal organiser of Kent’s anti-migrant protest scene, was due before Maidstone Magistrates’ Court last week, but didn’t show up. Now a warrant is out for his arrest.

The hearing concerned the charge against him of assaulting a 67-year-old man in Faversham during a disturbance on Love Lane in November.

Called to disturbance

Hilden was arrested after police were called to the scene following reports of a disturbance near the town cemetery, linked to the removal of St George’s flags from lamp posts.

Also charged in connection with the same incident is Justin Ford, whom Hilden is alleged to have assaulted and who faces a charge of possession of a saw in a public place.

Pink Lady meeting – cancelled “because of Searchlight”

In other Kent far-right news: for those who were wondering about the “Kent Women First Pink Ladies – British Women First” meeting planned for 24 March at the Command House pub in Chatham: it did not happen.

The venue cancelled the booking, and the Pink Ladies have, characteristically, blamed Searchlight.

The organisers now claim to have secured an alternative venue in the Maidstone area for a daytime meeting, but the details were apparently too sensitive to share publicly, which rather undermines the movement’s insistent claim to be a spontaneous expression of ordinary women’s concerns rather than a clandestine operation.

The driving force behind this north-Kent incarnation of the Pink Ladies is Danielle Kennedy, based in Swanscombe.

Far-right focus

The context for the Medway push becomes clearer from an interview Kennedy gave to Michelle Lee, filmed outside The Limes in Brent Lane, Dartford, a former care home housing unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors that has become a focus of far-right activity in the area.

Danielle Kennedy interviewed by Michelle Lee
Danielle Kennedy interviewed by Michelle Lee

Kennedy explains: “We’ve got a women’s safety event which is coming into Medway again soon because there was an awful incident where a lady was stabbed to the point of near death.

“We’re not sure of the perpetrator, where they come from, etc., but we just want to raise awareness because we know that Medway are feeling a little bit scared as a result.”

We have identified the incident in question. On the evening of 30 January 2026, police, paramedics and the air ambulance were called to Common Road in Chatham, near Blue Bell Hill, after concerns were raised about a woman who had been seen near the Robin Hood pub. She was found with a knife injury and taken to a London hospital.

No attacker

And here is where it gets awkward for Kennedy’s narrative: the injuries are believed to have been self-inflicted. Kent Police, in short, concluded there was no attacker, of any origin.

Had Kennedy taken thirty seconds to read the local coverage of the incident she was citing as the justification for mobilising Medway women against a shadowy, unspecified threat, she would have known this.

The phrase “we’re not sure of the perpetrator, where they come from” takes on a rather different complexion when the answer, according to police, is that there was no perpetrator, from anywhere.

Council disruption

Meanwhile, the reverberations from the far-right disruption of Swale Borough Council’s meetings in December 2025 and January 2026 continue to be felt.

Charges have now been brought against the two young boys, aged 12 and 14, arrested for criminal damage to the council’s offices during the December meeting. They were due before Medway Magistrates’ Court last Thursday but proceedings do not appear to have taken place.

Harry Hilden disrupts council meeting 28 Jan 2026
Harry Hilden at the Swale council meeting in January disrupted by far-right campaigners

During that December meeting, toilets were smashed, taps left running causing flooding, a lift was badly damaged, and £10,000 worth of damage was done to the council’s Sittingbourne offices, which were forced to close the following day.

The disruption was not spontaneous. In advance, far-right activists had flooded local Facebook groups with distorted claims about the motion before the council – a Lib Dem proposal to make Swale a “district of sanctuary” for refugees and asylum seekers – falsely presenting it as a plan to import hundreds of refugees into the area without consultation.

Among those leading the disruption was Jodie Scott, aka MissusKent.


Paul Nowak

Paul Nowak

The essence of trade unionism is solidarity, fairness and equality – for all workers – from all backgrounds. That’s why our fight against the far-right has always been part of our movement’s DNA. Searchlight is an incredibly important resource for trade unions and members to understand the contemporary tactics of far-right activity. Their work and intelligence gathering over the years have been incredibly insightful for the work we do, and how we fight the scourge of fascism.

Paul Nowak
TUC General Secretary

Nick Davies

Nick Davies

To investigate fascists takes real courage and unusual commitment. The government, police, mainstream media occasionally take a look, but in the UK only Searchlight have kept at it, relentlessly and admirably, regardless of threat or obstacle. It’s journalism that matters. A rare thing.

Nick Davies
Multi-award-winning investigative journalist and writer

Peter Hain

Peter Hain, founder of the ANL and friend of Searchlight

British Jews have been persecuted over the centuries; British blacks since the Windrush generation of the 1950s; British Muslims, especially after the Islamist 9/11 and then 7/7 terrorist attacks in New York 2001 and London 2005. But until the last few years there has not been a simultaneous threat against all three British communities of Jewish, Black and Muslim Britons – meaning the need for Searchlight has never been greater.

Peter Hain
Labour peer, former MP and Cabinet Minster

Alf Dubs

Lord Alf Dubs

Searchlight’s voice is more important than ever, and I am delighted that it will now be available to a wider audience than ever before in its new incarnation online. Searchlight has been extremely helpful over the years in exposing the far right, corruption, criminality and the murky links between organised crime and powerful interests in the UK and abroad. I wish Searchlight the very best.

Alf Dubs
Labour peer, former MP and Cabinet Minister, and Kindertransport child

Professor Colin Holmes

Professor Colin Holmes
Everyone who wants to understand contemporary racism and its historical background needs to read Searchlight.
Professor Colin Holmes
University of Sheffield

Paul Holborow

Paul Holborow

In the campaign against the National Front, Searchlight provided a rich and utterly reliable basis for much ANL propaganda – particularly with reference to the two leading NF figures, John Tyndall and Martin Webster. The appearance of Tyndall in full nazi uniform, drawn from the archives of Searchlight, was a key part of ANL propaganda, coupled with deeply damaging nazi quotes from Webster.

Paul Holborow
Founding member of the ANL and National Organiser 1977-81

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