18/12/2018
Adam Thomas was a member of banned terror group National Action and had "a long history of violent racist beliefs". He was jailed for six years and six months for being a member of a banned terrorist group. Claudia Patatas, his partner and mother of his child, was jailed for five years for the same offence. Thomas, a former Amazon security guard, and Patatas, a wedding photographer from Portugal, held hands and wept as they were sentenced.
The extremist couple had given their child the middle name 'Adolf' because of their 'admiration' of Nazi leader Hitler. Jurors saw images of Thomas wearing Ku Klux Klan robes while cradling his baby.
A further four people were sentenced for being part of what Judge Melbourne Inman QC described as a group with "horrific aims". Daniel Bogunovic was convicted of being a member of the banned group after standing trial alongside the couple. Described by prosecutors as a "committed National Action leader, propagandist and strategist", he was jailed for six years and four months.
Darren Fletcher, Nathan Pryke and Joel Wilmore had already pleaded guilty to being in the group. Fletcher was described by the judge as an "extreme member" and was sentenced to five years. Pryke, who was the group's 'security enforcer' was given five years and five months and Wilmore, who was their banker and cyber security specialist, was imprisoned for five years and 10 months.
Fletcher had trained his toddler daughter to perform a Nazi salute and sent a message to Patatas saying "finally got her to do it".
About National Action
The group was founded in 2013 by Ben Raymond and Alex Davies and was established as an explicitly neo-Nazi party. Raymond was a politics graduate from the University of Essex, whilst Davies was a former member of the British National Party. National Action shunned democratic politics and considered itself a youth-based street movement. Its members, which are believed to have never been more than 100, engaged in leafleting university campuses, aggressive publicity stunts and city-centre demonstrations.
In 2015, National Action member Zack Davies used a hammer and machete to attack a Sikh dentist. He was jailed for attempted murder.
Following the murder of Jo Cox in 2016, National Action tweeted: "Only 649 MPs to go #WhiteJihad".
The group was banned later that year, becoming the first far-right group to be proscribed in this country since World War Two.
However, jailing these extremists is not going to stop further incidents of xenophobic hate from happening. We need to look further at the reasons why these people, who were born without hate and prejudice, became consumed by such vile and violent thoughts. Who radicalised them?
The chances are that it was not in a church, or a prison cell, or a youth club.
In the vast majority of cases, these people are taught to hate by members of their own family; mothers, fathers, uncles and aunties. Maybe, in the case of those who have been taken away from their birth parents, there will have been other significant influencers.
Therefore, having identified those named within this article as extremists, the authorities should be looking at those who may have steered them in the direction of fear and hate. In order to stop the further spread of extremism, the influencers should be identified and prevented from infecting more people with their disease.
It is not enough to stop the likes of the criminals named above, and the other xenophobic bigots like Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen and their ilk to be stopped. We have to work at preventing the creation of more hate filled aggressive xenophobes.
These evil bigots are fuelling extremism.
In essence, National Action, the EDL, Britain First and the rest of the white supremacist groups in the UK and elsewhere, are actively encouraging not just racist and Islamaphobic extremism, but driving innocent peace loving minorities into the arms of other extremist groups.
They must be stopped.
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