Nigel Farage has said he feared a migrant would “come to England and shoot me” after allegedly threatening the Reform UK leader in a TikTok video, a court has heard.
Fayaz Khan, 26, is charged with making a threat to kill the Reform UK leader between October 12 and 15 last year in a post that Mr Farage said was “pretty chilling”.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court was told on Tuesday that Khan had a “very large presence online” with his videos on TikTok, under the username “madapasa”, amassing hundreds of thousands of views.
Opening the trial, prosecutor Peter Ratliff said Khan’s videos were focused in autumn last year on his attempts to come to the UK “by small boat” – with the defendant being an Afghan national who had lived in Stockholm, Sweden, since 2019.
On October 12 last year, Mr Farage uploaded a video to YouTube titled “the journey of an illegal migrant” which highlighted Khan and referenced “young males of fighting age coming into our country about whom we know very little”.
The prosecution said Khan responded with a video on October 14, which was played to the jury, in which Khan appears to say: “Englishman Nigel, don’t talk shit about me.
“You not know me. I come to England because I want to marry with your sister. You not know me.
“Don’t talk about me more. Delete the video.
“I’m coming to England. I’m going to pop, pop, pop.”
Mr Ratliff told jurors that while Khan said “pop, pop, pop” he made “gun gestures with his hand”, as well as headbutting the camera during the video, and pointing to an AK47 tattoo on his face to “emphasise he wasn’t joking”.
Detective Constable Liam Taylor told the court that Khan had “live-streamed” his journey across the English Channel from France and was arrested on October 31 after arriving in the UK on a small boat.
Mr Farage said Khan’s video was “pretty chilling”, adding “given his proximity to guns and love of guns, I was genuinely worried”.
The Reform UK leader, wearing a dark suit and a pink tie, added: “He says he’s coming to England and he’s going to shoot me.
“I understood that very clearly indeed, as did many people who saw it at the same time.”
Mr Farage added: “In high-profile politics, a lot of nasty stuff gets posted. A lot of nasty stuff gets said.
“What you don’t see is an individual say on social media they are coming for you directly, and secondly, the means by which they are going to do it.”
Asked by the prosecution about the reference to his sister, Mr Farage said: “I’m not sure he wanted to marry my sister, you could perhaps draw a different inference from that.”
Asked by defence lawyer Charles Royle whether he was concerned that Khan “wanted to marry” his sister, Mr Farage said: “Really, are you being serious? It said so much about the mindset of this individual.
“I was concerned there was a man who clearly treats women as mere objects and could be a threat to them on our streets.”
Mr Farage added that the comment was “deeply misogynistic”.
Mr Ratliff asked the politician: “Did you become aware that this person in terms of his social media presence, was highlighting his journey from Sweden to the UK?”
Mr Farage replied: “Yes, he was highlighting his journey in a rather more colourful way. Normally, videos on TikTok are produced by smuggling gangs as means of advertising their wares.
“It’s quite unusual for a person to be advertising their own journey.”
The Reform UK leader added: “What drew my attention – we all have different tastes but I thought the face tattoo was particularly aggressive, the presence of guns in previous posts and a general demeanour.”
Discussing Khan during cross-examination, Mr Farage added: “The man was boasting that he was illegally coming to this country.
“Do people have that tattoo at your local golf club, I highly doubt it.”
Mr Ratliff told jurors: “By releasing his video to social media, the defendant plainly believed and intended that his threat would reach Nigel Farage.
“And he plainly intended that Nigel Farage would fear that it would be carried out.”
The prosecutor added: “Whatever you think about Nigel Farage or his politics, whatever you think about migration or illegal migration specifically – all of that is just irrelevant.
“The only real issue in this case is whether the defendant intended that Nigel Farage would believe that he would carry out his threat.
“He did. He wanted Nigel Farage to believe he would carry out the threat because he wanted Nigel Farage to stop bringing attention to him and maybe his associates because he knew that bringing attention to him in that way might disrupt his attempt to get to the UK or his associates business.”
Khan, who has numerous face tattoos and appeared in the dock wearing a grey sweatshirt, spoke to confirm his name through a Dari interpreter.
He denies making a threat to kill Mr Farage.
The trial continues.
