National Security Division

Spoken contribution by Toby Shone for the Tattoo Circus, Bristol, 2025

Posted on 2025/12/01 - 2025/12/01 by darknights

This is from a talk by Toby at the Bristol Tattoo Circus, which took place a few weeks ago at a squatted venue in the city. After the talks and workshops there was bands, DJs and a benefit party. Free the prisoners!

Hello everyone,

Ok, we’re at Tattoo circus, my name is Toby Shone, I’m an ex-prisoner and anarchist. Tattoo Circus was started around 20 years ago in Italy as a way to fund anarchist prisoner solidarity campaigns.

I want to thank the organisers for inviting me here to speak, it’s very important as a released political prisoner to be able to come back into the community. Especially after living for a considerable amount of time distanced from the social movement. So overall, I want to communicate any lessons that can be told. Some of you already know me, so I’ll try not to bore you with what you know already, but for others I’ll just re-cap the case that I was involved in, then I’m going to simply give some anecdotes about my time in prison, and then speak about solidarity briefly.

I was arrested in the November 2020 Operation Adream case, and I was imprisoned for three years in conditions of solitary confinement and monitored for a year in line with UK-wide anti-terrorist restrictions by the National Security Division and Counter-Terror Police. From the evidence I’ve seen, it indicates that there is an ongoing investigation by the anti-terrorist units into the social movement in the South West region, and we can conclude that it’s also taking place across the country. I think it is certainly not for us to have to justify our harmlessness, but to really think about what it is going to take, long-term, for the type of social changes we’re aiming for. Continue reading “Spoken contribution by Toby Shone for the Tattoo Circus, Bristol, 2025” →

UK: Schedule 7 – Anarchist comrade Toby Shone stopped at Gatwick Airport after Ozora rave

Posted on 2025/08/18 - 2025/08/20 by darknights

Schedule 7: Anarchist comrade Toby Shone stopped at Gatwick Airport after Ozora rave

“I don’t know”, “I can’t remember”

On the 5th August 2025 Toby was returning from the legendary Ozora psytrance festival in Hungary where he’d been partying for 12 days and invited to speak about social shifts, the war on drugs and his experience of being in prison for psychedelics. At the UK passport checkpoint he was approached by an Officer William NORMAN #39947, accompanied by a larger group of basement dwelling plain clothes bureaucrats of the Counter-Terror Police South East. Toby was detained against his will for several hours and subjected to weak verbal threats and physical intimidation. Toby was searched and his phone and MP3 player were seized by the cops.

Officer NORMAN unsuccessfully attempted to covertly record Toby’s legal call with his lawyer and it was clear that the police were upset that he’d been able to leave the country. According to NORMAN their intent was the continuation of the open investigation and harassment of our anarchist comrade on the first occasion that he re-entered a UK border, which granted them special powers of interrogation and seizure. Toby was later released without any arrest or charge.

This incident comes as the last collective house from Operation Adream was attacked and raided by violent local thugs and an armed response unit of Gloucestershire police in late March. One comrade was arrested and released under investigation and another comrade was identified at gunpoint, as they had issued an arrest warrant for Toby for Grievous Bodily Harm, which was related to self-defense to the attack on the collective house in Forest of Dean. An armed police team with dogs and torches searched for Toby in the surrounding forest and issued threats that Toby was a “danger to police”, which is only to justify their use of violence. This marker against Toby was set by agents of the National Security Division and Counter-Terror Police, after a few of them got their feelings hurt.

At no point was Toby asked about any of this, nor about anything related to “extremism”, or “terrorism”. Every State, authoritarian or democratic, calls its opponents “terrorists”, “extremists”. In a world of modern televised genocide these terms have completely lost any meaning. The time for revolutionary change is now. Fuck Schedule 7! Fuck the CTPSE!

16/08/2025

Forest Case solidarity group

UK: “Unsurprising Fact” – Letter By Anarchist Prisoner Toby Shone + Fallout From Publication Of “Unsurprising Fact”

Posted on 2024/11/02 - 2024/11/03 by darknights

“Unsurprising Fact” – Letter By Anarchist Prisoner Toby Shone

17/10/24

Some things don’t surprise us and for sure the recourse to judicial options I find distasteful but expedient. Anarchism is either illegal or it is not anarchism as our dear comrade Gustavo Rodriguez reminds us. Nevertheless, over the past few months my lawyers were able to obtain a Security Intelligence Report (SIR) produced by the prison’s anti-terror bureaucrats. This disclosure occurred in the course of a parole motion, which was denied in any event. The Secretary of State opposed my release and used a non-disclosure application to prevent me from seeing or being able to respond to “evidence” used against me on grounds of “national security”. The Parole Board disagreed and granted me access to a scant eight pages of intelligence reports. These cover the time period September 2023 – January 2024 and show an incomplete snapshot of the surveillance and censorship of my correspondence and books, the gathering of information on those that I am in contact with and the intel received about the fireworks solidarity demo at Bristol prison last year when I was detained there. The report revealed the collection of all the names, addresses and personal details of all those who communicate with me. For example, it is noted that one comrade writes that he works as a postman, another comrade “has a daughter in prison”, etc. Also listed in the entries are any personal connections and any details related to affiliations to any groups or tendencies. Geographic analysis using Google Maps has been made to view their locations. The Star and Shadow Cinema in Newcastle upon Tyne is designated a “potential meeting point” and BASE in Bristol described as “a heavily graffitied possible squat or commune.

Thus the level of intelligence and analysis displayed is low and crude but we can anticipate that the data is funnelled to the security services and the police state.

The security regime that I am imposed with is directed from outside the prison by a panel* comprising of senior police, Counter Terror Unit, National Security Division, governmental administration and forensic psychology.

We know that the state is afraid and takes step of repression; however it is rare that we see the evidence and its workings, therefore I am giving this account as my response.

I have nothing to justify.

In this situation I already knew perfectly well before disclosure what the secret “evidence” consisted off – the fact that I maintain my perspective and contacts with the anarchist dependency and with the social movement. The stand that I continue to write “and try to receive” letters and I am sent books and publications with critical content.

I will not apologise one sentence for those things.

I send my greetings to Alfredo, Anna, Juan and all the prisoners and those persecuted in Italy.

To Francisco, Monica and all the imprisoned comrades in Chile.

To the comrades imprisonned and those in struggle in Greece.

To Daniela Klette in Germany, strength.

Likewise to all the comrades detained in every territory and to the groups of action, I send a hug and my complicity.

A warm hug to Claudio who is now free.

To the application of practical theory.

For a black international.

Toby Shone
13th October 2024
HMP Garth
North-West

* MAPPA – Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement

Fallout From Publication Of “Unsurprising Fact”

22/10/24

As the result of Toby Shone having giving the text “Unsurprising Fact” to Brighton ABC, he had a visit from Counter-Terror Prevent duo Ian Turner and Mick McCormack on the morning of October 21st. He was issued 3 administrative sanctions and is now on Basic IEP regime, which means no television and only £5 a week to spend. The sanctions were for: writing an open letter to Joe Black at Brighton ABC on October 13th. [“Unsurprising Fact” was dictacted over the phone]; repeated phone calls to a friend during which she put him on speaker phone so that he could also talk to others in the room; and for speaking disrespectfully about staff including his Probation Offender Manager person Clare Ashton in a conversation with another contact in September. The first two people have been removed from his phone list.

NB: Toby is due to be relased on November 13th, 2024, having served his full sentence. This is just the latest (and hopefully the last) vidictive move by HMP Garth’s “anti-terror bureaucrats” attempt to punish him during his final days at “His Majesty’s pleasure.

Source: Brighton Anarchist Black Cross

Cardiff, UK: Demo at Probation Office For Toby Shone

Posted on 2024/03/21 by darknights

DEMO AT CARDIFF PROBATION OFFICE FOR TOBY SHONE

On March 6th 2024, anarchists demonstrated outside Cardiff Probation Office to show their solidarity with Toby Shone as his parole pre-hearing meeting approaches. For the last 3 and a half years, probation officers including Lewis Thomas, Ashley Fussell, Gillian O’Brien, and Paul Smith amongst others at Cardiff probation office have collaborated with police such as Philip Gay at the National Security Division (NSD) and SouthWest Counter Terror Police (SWCTP) to target Toby for his anarchist beliefs and his alternative lifestyle. The UK police state is trying to criminalise such beliefs.

Toby was initially arrested on terrorism charges related to the 325.nostate.net website. This case fell apart the day before the trial in 2021. The Crown Prosecution Service had no evidence to offer the court. He was instead sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for a minor drugs charge. Released on licence in December 2022, Toby was recalled to prison on 19th September 2023 after attending a prisoner letter-writing night and dinner at the anarchist social centre BASE in Bristol. This meeting was being watched by two Counter Terror Officers. Toby’s licence conditions prevented him from contributing to or organising events at places like BASE. They also included a gagging order to prevent him speaking out about his case and his licence conditions. His attendance at this event was not a breach of his conditions but was used by his probation team, the National Security Division (NSD) and Southwest Counter Terror Police (SWCTP) to justify his renewed incarceration in a long-term high security prison 170 miles away from his home. Isolating him from his community and loved ones by sending him out of his area and by censoring his mail is a stated aim in police and probation paperwork and Toby’s treatment is apparently being signed off personally by the Secretary of State for Justice Alex Chalk.

Red and black smokies were set off, flyers were distributed inside the probation offices and to people in the street and comrades spoke in support of Toby and demanded his freedom from this revenge recall and from the whole rotten prison industrial complex including the probation service.

Soldarity with Toby

Solidarity with all imprisoned comrades

FUCK HMP!

The Final Straw Radio Podcast Interview With Imprisoned Anarchist Toby Shone + A Request By Solidarity Group For Toby Shone

Posted on 2024/03/05 by darknights

The Final Straw Radio Podcast Interview With Imprisoned Anarchist Toby Shone

US web-based The Final Straw Radio Podcast has a new interview with imprisoned anarchist Toby Shone in which he gives a background to Operation Adream, his arrest and trial and his recent recall to prisons plus the involvement of the security services in his case and the ongoing harrassment that he has suffered in HMP Garth.

https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2024/03/03/…

A Request By Solidarity Group For Toby Shone

The solidarity group for Toby Shone would like to ask that anyone writing to him could also take a moment to let us know that you have sent him a letter by dropping an email to forestcase@riseup.net

HMP Garth are telling him – as have other prisons he has been in – that he has no mail. The State and the pigs are desperate to isolate Toby and to make him believe that he has no support. This is stated in his probation paperwork as a goal of his probation team and the National Security Division.

Let’s not let them win! We have no control over whether the prison gives Toby his mail and books. We do however have control over writing to him and letting his support group know that you have so that even if he doesn’t receive it, he knows it was sent to him. A letter sent by recorded delivery so that we can tell Toby that yes, this letter arrived on such and such a date is even better.

Toby is very resilient and is always in good spirits. However, he has been very unwell, has lost a considerable amount of weight as a result of the lack of food and calorie count typical of Britain’s jails and now faces a month of no visits due to confusion over bookings. So now would be a really really good time to send Toby a postcard, a letter or an email (and then let us know that you have).

Thanks a million.
The State is the Terrorist.
No one is Alone!

Forest Case Folks
forestcase@riseup.net

Toby Shone A7645EP
HMP Garth
Ulnes Walton Lane
Leyland
Preston
PR26 8NE

Source: Brighton Anarchist Black Cross

UK: God will not save the King! Toby Shone’s coronation letter + The History of Regicide by Anarchists, Revolutionaries & Rebels

Posted on 2024/02/23 - 2024/02/23 by darknights

Our comrade Toby Shone was released from prison on 28th December 2022 under heavy restrictions (license conditions), which was overseen by a multi-agency team (MAPPA) including the National Security Division (counter-terror) and forced to live in a filthy bail hostel in Gloucester for 9 months. Since then he was abducted on 19th September 2023 at gun point by the armed scum of the anti-terrorist unit in between Gloucester and the Forest of Dean, along with being thrown back into prison once again.

We as anarchists in complicity with our comrade would like to highlight an intriguing and amusing event that occurred when Toby was still under bail and in conditions that were no better than an open prison.

Added to this post is a letter dated 14th April 2023 received from Lewis Thomas the scum Probation Service – National Security Division officer who was managing Tobyâ€™s bail and conditions. It expresses in a comical language that puts across an image of wanting to help our comrade rather oppressing him, which was pretty much the tactic adopted generally by the goons of the National Security Division towards our comrade, as if anarchism and holding revolutionary ideas is a mental disease that needs to be treated. For us this letter highlights even more the climate that is starting to begin in the United Kingdom that anarchism is to be combined alongside fascist and Islamic ideologies as extremism and terrorism.

In the spirit of this comical letter and in the age-old tradition of assassination that the UK state and all states around the world should fear, we give a limited chronological account of the history of attempted and successful assassinations of monarchs by anarchists, revolutionaries and rebels who made the fear change sides, with the propaganda of the deed.

God will not save the King!

Anarchists in complicity with anarchist comrade Toby Shone

The History of Regicide by Anarchists, Revolutionaries & Rebels

(Attempted) Napoleon III of France, 1858

On the evening of 14 January 1858, as the Emperor and Empress were on their way to the theatre in the Rue Le Peletier, the precursor of the Opera Garnier, to see Rossini’s William Tell, Felice Orsini Italian revolutionary, leader of the ‘Carbonari’ and his accomplices threw three bombs at the imperial carriage. The first bomb landed among the horsemen in front of the carriage. The second bomb wounded the animals and smashed the carriage glass. The third bomb landed under the carriage and seriously wounded a policeman who was hurrying to protect the occupants. Eight people were killed and 142 wounded, though the emperor and empress were unhurt. They judged it best to proceed to the performance and appear before the public in their box.

Orsini himself was wounded on the right temple and stunned. He tended his wounds and returned to his lodgings, where police found him the next day. Orsini was sentenced to death and went calmly to the guillotine on 13 March 1858. Accomplices Pieri was executed and Gomez condemned to hard labour for life. Di Rudio was sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island near Cayenne, whence he escaped and later went to America.

The improvised bomb that Orsini used was infamously named after him the ‘Orsini Bomb’ (pictured below). The weapons were somewhat commonly used by anarchists in the latter half of the 19th century in Europe, and surplus bombs were also used by the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The design is reminiscent of modern impact fused grenades, such as the Soviet RGO hand grenades. Orsini bombs were designed to remove “the uncertainty of slow burning fused weapons”. In several plots, including an attack at Rossini’s Opera William Tell at Liceu Theater in 1893 by anarchist Santiago Salvador; resulting in the death of 20 people and wounding 30.

Continue reading “UK: God will not save the King! Toby Shone’s coronation letter + The History of Regicide by Anarchists, Revolutionaries & Rebels” →

UK: Letter for the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners August 23rd – 30th by Imprisoned Anarchist Toby Shone

Posted on 2022/08/03 - 2022/08/03 by darknights

Letter for the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners August 23rd – 30th by Imprisoned Anarchist Toby Shone, UK

“Does this rising generation know that those who inaugurated the 8 hour day were put to death at the command of Capital?”
Lucy Parsons, The Haymarket Martyrs, November 1926

“Although we are not reformists, the struggle to obtain improvements in one’s immediate situation (wages, housing, health, education, occupations etc) sees the anarchists present, but they do not see these struggles as ends in themselves. They push the exploited towards this form of struggle so that they can develop the elements of self-organisation and refusal of the delegate which are indispensable in order to develop direct action at all other levels.”
Alfredo M. Bonanno, What are Anarchists?

Despite being in prison, news occasionally reaches me of the many repressive operations and terrible circumstances that our comrades are confronting. That’s why I am in agreement with the proposal once again put forward by the Anarchist Black Cross for a week of solidarity at the end of August. This date is chosen to mark the State murder of anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. We cannot give in to resignation or become complacent in these times. It is more important than ever to explain and make accessible the anarchist analysis and to put it into practice immediately.

Anarchism is internationalism, self-management, mutual aid, solidarity, and direct action: incisive, voracious and alive. That’s why our spaces are raided and evicted, our publications seized, our communities hunted, beaten, imprisoned and killed around the world.

During my interrogations, the Counter-Terror cops at one point focussed on the International Week of Solidarity with anarchist prisoners, accusing this event of supporting terrorism, glorifying terrorism. That’s because part of their strategy is to try to illegalise the Anarchist Black Cross. Their aim is to destroy all solidarity and counter-information structures which spread information about and provide material support for the legal cases of anarchist comrades who are locked up. Continue reading “UK: Letter for the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners August 23rd – 30th by Imprisoned Anarchist Toby Shone” →