Posing in a burqa and fishnets, BNP candidate who backs execution of ‘Paki’ criminals

A BNP parliamentary candidate today defended as "hilarious" pictures of her wearing a burqa and fishnet stockings at a party.

Charlotte Lewis, standing in Carshalton and Wallington, also used her Facebook account to post racist messages, including one calling for foreign "Paki" criminals to be executed.

In another message she encouraged attacks on the home of a teenager who hurt a cat and said: "I hope she gets cancer."

In the pictures, Miss Lewis, 37, is shown at a Halloween party wearing suspenders with the burqa and drinking alcopops.

She said today that she thought wearing the burqa was "completely acceptable" and "hilarious".

Miss Lewis was jailed in 2001 for sending death threats to a drugs company over animal testing. She pleaded guilty to four charges of harassment after threatening letters were sent to staff at the Huntingdon Life Sciences centre in Cambridgeshire.

Miss Lewis has launch a series of racist attacks on her Facebook site.

One posting referred to the murder of Kriss Donald, a 15-year-old who was kidnapped, stabbed and set on fire in Glasgow in 2004 in a racially motivated attack. Miss Lewis wrote: "The Pakis that murdered Kriss Donald should be put on it [the electric chair]. They were born in Glasgow I think, but their parents were from Pakistan — so they are Pakis."

In another message she targeted the Equality and Human Rights Commissioner Trevor Phillips, whose recent court proceedings forced the BNP to open their membership up to non-whites.

She wrote: "If that w***** Trevor Phillips died then I would open a bottle of champagne and party."

She wrote another posting on the day Akmal Shaikh, 53, a mentally ill father-of-three, from north London, was executed in China after being convicted of drug smuggling. She said: "Now I'm no fan of the Chinese but they were right to execute that Briton'. Britain should have the death penalty for murder, but if you're in a foreign country and you break the laws then you must accept their punishment."

Miss Lewis is standing against Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake and Conservative candidate Ken Andrew.

In February last year she lost a Croydon by-election when her violent animal rights background was revealed.

In 2006 she was questioned by police over possible fraud when standing for election in Waddon, Croydon, after she was found to have used a false address.

Miss Lewis has a history of psychological problems and suffers depression. She has recently used the internet to encourage a campaign of terror on "animal abusers".

She joined a Facebook group to track down the address of a teenager convicted of harming a cat and wrote: "I hope people turn up in the middle of the night and throw bricks through her windows.

"Her brain needs to be re-programmed. She's sub-human, and not fit to breathe the same air as the rest of us. I hope she gets cancer."

Defending the photographs, Miss Lewis said: "I think it's completely acceptable to dress that way. I thought it was hilarious and so did everyone at the party. Anyone who does not find it funny needs to develop a sense of humour."