He said he had deleted one sticker from the library because it “got close to incitement”, and that one of the Hundred Handers’ rules was not to put stickers on private property.
“The idea of the messages is to start a conversation, not to make someone feel intimidated,” he said.
Richard Canning, for Mr Melia, asked him if he had intended for the stickers to be seen.
“Oh God yes, it’s not just for my own pleasure,” the defendant replied.
“What use would a sticker be sat in your bedroom drawers? I intended for them to be public.”
Mr Melia added he thought stickering was an “accepted form of engaging in the democratic process”.
“It never even crossed my mind it would be criminal damage,” he said.
He said at the time of his arrest in April 2021 he had moved on from the Hundred Handers and was spending most of his time as the Yorkshire organiser for far-right group Patriotic Alternative.
He said he was a “pro-British or a white advocate” and denied hating people of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
“Everyone deserves their own homeland and I wish them well in that homeland,” he said.
The trial continues.
