Ann Marchini

Unmasked: wealthy backers behind far right league A City investor and a property tycoon are trying to turn the English Defence League from a rabble into a political force Dipesh Gadher, and Robin Henry Sunday December 11 2011, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times A property tycoon and a City-based financier quizzed by police over his links to the gunman who slaughtered 69 people in Norway are exposed today as key figures behind the rise of the far-right English Defence League (EDL). A Sunday Times investigation has revealed that Ann Marchini, a mother from Highgate, north London, and Alan Ayling, a former director of an investment fund, have sought to mould the thuggish anti-Muslim group into a credible political force. They are both linked to the murky world of the online “counter-jihad” movement from which Anders Behring Breivik drew ideological inspiration before committing his massacre in Norway in July. They have remained in the shadows until now by using aliases on the internet to mask their true identities. Breivik repeatedly mentioned the EDL in his 1,600-page “manifesto” and once belonged to an Oslo-based offshoot called the Norwegian Defence League. The EDL, whose support has mushroomed since it was formed in Luton in 2009, has organised a string of protests against what it perceives as the growing “Islamisation” of Britain. Many have descended into violence perpetrated by a hard core of football hooligans. However, the “brains” behind the group — which plans to field candidates at the next council elections — come from a different background. Marchini, who is thought to be in her fifties, runs a buy-to-let property empire from her £1.6m mock-Tudor home in Highgate, a leafy suburb usually associated with liberals. Marchini, who is believed to be divorced from an Italian banker, operates under at least two aliases: “Gaia”, the Earth goddess from Greek mythology, and “Dominique Devaux”. She is said to have helped organise a “pivotal” meeting between EDL figures and anti-jihad thinkers in July 2009 and recently attended a discussion where the EDL agreed to consider an electoral pact with the right-wing British Freedom party (BFP). A report by Gaia on the BFP website states that Stephen Lennon, the EDL leader, “explained that the EDL need to move up a notch — they cannot go on forever staging street demos. They are still widely perceived as a rabble, and as such cannot possibly obtain funding or be taken seriously by the political class”. Marchini was photographed alongside Lennon, 28, at a far-right demonstration this year and the image was posted on the website of Hope Not Hate, an anti-fascist group. Her name and address also appeared on a leaked list of EDL donors. The 2009 EDL meeting took place at the £500,000 flat of Ayling in the Barbican in central London. Lennon attended with two relatives from Luton. Paul Ray, who claims to be a founder of the EDL, was also there. He says he travelled to the venue from Highgate with Marchini, whom he knew at the time as “Ann”, “Gaia” or “Dominique”. He says he had previously stayed for “a few months” at one of her rental flats on British Street in Bow, east London. Ray regards the Barbican meeting as “pivotal”. “It was the key people being brought together,” he said. “It was bringing together the ideological and political side with the boots on the ground.” Two days after the meeting, Ray received an email from “Dominique Devaux”, using the account “gaia2600@hotmail.com”. “Still very interested in helping EDF [sic] grow as a movement,” it stated. It was signed off by “Ann”. https://archive.is/F0xb4#selection-613.0-769.221