A former Labour councillor with ties to the anti-racism group Hope Not Hate has been convicted of child sex offences at Southwark Crown Court.
Liron Velleman, 31, was a councillor for Whetstone ward in Barnet, north London. He pleaded guilty in February 2026 to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, and to attempting to cause a child aged 13 to 15 to look at an image of sexual activity.
The messages were sent between 3 and 10 December 2024, under the alias “Tim Graham 95”, on the messaging service Chatib and on Snapchat. The person at the other end, who Velleman believed was a 13-year-old schoolgirl, was an undercover officer from the Metropolitan Police.
Prosecutor Edmund Blackman told the court the undercover officer, using the name Kaylee, was approached by Velleman at the start of December 2024. “He was told from the off that she was 13, and he maintained an interest in her.” The messages went on for days, turned sexual quickly, and ended with Velleman sending a video of his penis.
On 20 March 2026, Judge James Lofthouse handed Velleman an eight-month sentence, suspended for 15 months, plus 180 hours of community service and 20 rehabilitation days. He will be on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years, and under a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for the same period.
“You know you have no one to blame for the disintegration of your personal and professional life but yourself,” the judge told him. “This is where your reckless, vile and frankly devious interest in children has led you. This could have been a real child.”
Velleman was described by The Jewish Chronicle as “part of anti-racism group Hope Not Hate”, and by other outlets as a former Hope Not Hate worker or team member. He resigned his Barnet Council seat in April 2025, months after his arrest. Labour won the by-election to replace him.
At the time of writing, Hope Not Hate has not publicly commented on the conviction of its former affiliate. We have asked the organisation for a response and will update this piece if one arrives.
Here’s the part I keep coming back to. This is a conviction, not an allegation. A court has ruled. The man convicted worked alongside an organisation that spends a great deal of its energy telling the rest of us who is and is not acceptable company. The conviction does not implicate the organisation itself, and I’m not pretending it does. But it does raise a question that nobody at Hope Not Hate seems to want to answer: what due diligence do they actually run on their own people?
Let me be fair, because fairness is the whole point of this publication. Hope Not Hate’s research has genuinely contributed to convictions of far-right activists, including Oliver Bel, convicted at Manchester Crown Court in 2021, and National Action members convicted under terrorism legislation. That record is real, and we record it without qualification. The group’s work on the far right is not in dispute here. The question is narrower, and it is about their own house.
Sources
- BBC News — “Former councillor Liron Velleman sentenced over child sex offences” (20 March 2026)
- BBC News — “Labour ex-councillor admits child sex offences” (10 February 2026)
- The Jewish Chronicle / Press Association — “Former Labour councillor convicted of child sex offences spared jail” (20 March 2026)
- Hope Not Hate — “Nazi exposed by HOPE not hate found guilty” (22 April 2021)
- Hope Not Hate — “Case file: Stephen Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson)”
All sources accessed 15 August 2026. This article was prepared from public court reporting; the underlying court record is held by HM Courts & Tribunals Service.