"Secret Nazi" Housing Boss Faces Showdown over Future

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Jewish community shocked by revelations

Gareth Mead, the Hammersmith and Fulham Council housing boss who was suspended following revelations by a Sunday newspaper that he had a bizarre Nazi fetish, faces a disciplinary hearing which will decide his future.

The Sunday Mirror revealed that Mead, 44, whose job as Assistant Director with Housing Options involves helping people from all backgrounds to avoid becoming homeless, has sent violent, racist and anti-semitic texts to men he met on websites dedicated to gay men who are into leather and uniforms.

He has also posed for pictures in front of swastikas and wearing Nazi regalia.

When the Sunday Mirror confronted Mead, he admitted sending the texts, but said: " It's a private fetish - I'm not interested in anything political and I'm not a racist. There are Jewish men who do this as well."

The revelations however have shocked members of the Jewish community. Mark Gardner from the Community Security Trust said: " Regardless of Mead's sexual or political motivation, his use of filthy racist language is simply inexcusable."

Stephen Cowan, leader of Hammersmith and Fulham's Labour Group of Councillors, also said he was "genuinely shocked".

He said: " I only met him once but he seemed like a fair minded person who was concerned about the homeless, which was actually his job. So I cannot understand how he has behaved like this.

" His comments and activities show a disgusting lack of understanding at the sheer depth of horror the Holocaust brought, during which six million Jews and many other ethnic minorities, homosexuals and people with disabilities were coldly murdered."

Mead reportedly met his friends through a gay fetish website, where he described himself as a "friendly, fit, intelligent, clean living guy who happens to enjoy leather and has a bit of a twisted side."

He adds: " Have a great b/f who's not into leather so we have the usual 'arrangement' so I'm looking for buddies and occasional leather sex."

His texts however, shocked some of the men he contacted, using extreme and violent racist language towards black and Jewish people and ending with "Heil Hitler! Your Nazi buddy."

One man said: " I could not believe he had such extreme views while he is earning a lot of council taxpayers' money paying lip service to multi-cultural political correctness.

"The pictures showed just how far he had gone with the whole thing. He had all the bits to go with the uniform. He even had a gun in one picture laid out on a Nazi flag."

Asked if his bosses would accept his fetish, he said: " I would have thought not, but I think there will be sympathy for me. I am well regarded by white and black colleagues."

After being contacted by the paper, Hammersmith and Fulham council suspended Mead pending a full investigation. A hearing is expected to follow soon.

March 19, 2010