This weekend a mass of anti-Islam 'Gays Against Sharia' marchers and counter protesters will descend on Bristol city centre, sparking a major police operation.

The far-right demonstrators are expected to meet close to Temple Meads station on Saturday (April 27) and will be met by Avon and Somerset Police officers.

Counter protests against the 'Gays Against Sharia' group are being organised by LGBT+ groups and anti-fascist organisations.

(Image: Jon Kent)

More than 100 Avon and Somerset police officers are expected to be deployed to keep the two sides apart and to facilitate the march.

The last time a similar event took place was in September last year, when two alt-right groups calling themselves Gays Against Sharia and also British and Immigrants Against Terrorism.

Marchers will set off at around 2pm from Temple Meads in Bristol city centre and we will be bringing you up to date coverage from the event.

We will have a reporter at police HQ in Portishead covering the law enforcement operation and a reporter on the ground at the protest.

The group, which objects to being called ‘far-right’, are calling their event a ‘Justice March’. The ‘Gays Against Sharia’ said they are marching in solidarity with and to raise awareness about the case of Kevin ‘Bunny’ Crehan.

He was the Knowle West man who died in Bristol Prison at the end of December 2016. He had been jailed for a year after pleading guilty to an attack on a mosque in Totterdown in January 2016, which saw bacon placed on the door handles, a St George flag tied to a fence and abuse shouted at two elderly people.

Crehan was one of four people involved in the incident. Another man was also jailed, but two others were not. The judge who sentenced 35-year-old Crehan to a year in prison said he was taking into account his long history of convictions for mainly football-related violence in the sentence given.

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