‘Flag Man’ Behind Nazi-Linked Anti-Migrant Protests Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Woman

A leading ‘Raise the Colours’ flag campaigner, who has claimed that he is fighting to “protect our women and children” from migrants, has pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman.

Craig John Kitts, 25, who was a key figure in the Bell Hotel demonstrations in Epping, which were co-organised with members of a neo-Nazi splinter party, pled guilty to assault by beating at Colchester Magistrates’ Court – the latest in a string of criminal offences he has committed.

Byline Times has also established that Kitts has prior convictions for theft, handling stolen goods, and driving while uninsured and disqualified, and has publicly endorsed his Homeland Party co-organiser Callum Barker – described by the campaign group Stand Up to Racism as a “hardened neo-Nazi”.

Kitts, a vehicle recovery agent from North Weald, Essex, was instrumental in setting up several anti-immigration Facebook groups, and has called himself “Flag Man” due to his role in local groups that are part of the ‘Raise the Colours’ flag campaign.

The protests followed the July 2025 arrest of Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian national housed at the Bell Hotel days after his arrival in the UK on a small boat. He was found guilty in September of five sexual offences against a 14-year-old girl in Epping, and jailed for 12 months.

But the wider claim adopted by Kitts and his co-organisers – that the hotel’s residents are responsible for sexual crime in the area – is not borne out by the data. In the last year, there were 1,412 recorded sexual offences in the Epping area. There are 140 men living at the Bell Hotel, which has been used as asylum-seeker accommodation since 2020, and only Kebatu has been convicted of a sexual offence.

Kitts has denied allegations of being far-right, posting a lengthy statement on Facebook telling attendees at one of the hotel protests there is to be “no racial [sic] speech…It does not matter what race you are, this is a protest about illegal migrants roaming our streets and harming our children”.

However, pictures of the Bell Hotel protests show members of the Homeland Party holding placards bearing their own logo, while reports indicate that party member Callum Barker gave speeches from the back of Kitts’ van. Kitts has also commended Barker on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), referring to him as “Epping’s lion”.

The Homeland Party emerged as a splinter group from Patriotic Alternative, a neo-Nazi organisation. Homeland Party members Callum Barker, Adam Clegg and Andrew Piper are administrators of the “Epping Says No!” group on Facebook alongside Craig Kitts.

Barker, according to the campaign group Stand Up to Racism, is a “hardened neo-Nazi who has posted images that reference the numerical code ‘1488’” – a code coined by the American neo-Nazi David Lane, who was convicted in connection with the 1984 murder of the Jewish radio host Alan Berg. The “88” codes for “Heil Hitler”, as H is the eighth letter of the alphabet; the “14” refers to a fourteen-word white supremacist slogan written by Lane in prison: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

The rest of Kitts’ X account provides some explanation of his willingness to associate with high-profile extremists.

Kitts’ profile has a link to an Amazon wishlist from which followers can purchase red paint and British flags, which Kitts then uses to decorate street furniture. Taking his cue from the ‘Flag Force/Raise the Colours’ initiative, which saw similar groups operate across the UK, he has branded himself the “Essex Flag Man”.

During the first Bell Hotel protest, as larger X accounts began to post about the event, Kitts repeatedly posted in reply “message me mate”, commenting on a GB News post that “some credit would be nice”, and responding to a post by Elon Musk by writing “inboxed you. We need help!!!”

Seemingly receiving no replies, Kitts’ response on X to a local newspaper columnist revealed another layer of motivation. Asked why he had only just begun protesting, Kitts replied that “[the] crime rate has spiked… and more exposure coming out around the hotel… from YouTubers/auditors making us realise how bad this situation really is.”

‘Auditing’ began as a YouTube trend in which men approached company buildings to harass security guards in the hope of a reaction. Since then, it has become a lucrative accompaniment to the UK’s far-right protest movement. Often claiming to be journalists, many have a criminal history and try to goad counter-protestors and actual journalists into aggressive reactions, which can then be monetised on their social media channels.

One of the ‘auditors’ followed by Kitts is Anthony Barnes (aka AY Audits), a self-described citizen journalist who has previously entered migrant hotels to harass both staff and residents in the name of showing his 134,000 viewers “the truth”. Ten years ago, Barnes was sought by Epping police after being accused of making threats to kill two women.

Claiming to be promoting women’s safety has become a favoured tactic of those on the far right. The Homeland Party with whom Kitts co-organised the Epping protests, neo-Nazi groups presenting drag queens as a threat to toddlers, and Tommy Robinson inventing child protection scandals have all weaponised violence against women to present Muslims as a threat to the country.

That weaponisation has emerged against a backdrop of misogyny within the movement itself. News reports published last year highlighted that two in five of those arrested for violence during the race riots of 2024 had previously been reported for domestic abuse. Other anti-migrant groups claiming to stand for the safety of women and girls have members with convictions for the harassment of women, and for child abuse.

The charity Women’s Aid, in a statement on its website, said: “Following a recent stream of anti-migrant protests seen across England, and growing racist and Islamophobic rhetoric and abuse, we, at Women’s Aid, are deeply concerned about the impact that this is having on already vulnerable women and children.

“We condemn these far-right actions and reject their deliberately deceptive and divisive narrative that these demonstrations are geared towards protecting women and children. We all want a future free from abuse, but those pitting the rights and safety of women and girls against other oppressed groups, many fleeing persecution and harm themselves, are weaponising our movement to disguise and excuse their racist propaganda, incite violence, and further their political agenda. This is a dangerous and manipulative tactic that undermines the safety of the very people they claim to protect.”

In response to Byline Times’ request for comment, Kitts wrote via email: “I was accused of ‘assault by beating’ the ‘victim’ claimed to have felt pain in her left leg which apparently effected her walking, although cctv shows I trod on her right foot during an argument, complete mistake and no done purposely but due to her have strong left wing beliefs and me putting up England flags she decided to dispute this.”