Four years for PC in neo-Nazi terror cell
THE first police officer to be convicted of belonging to a neo-Nazi terrorist group has been jailed for more than four years.
Ben Hannam, 22, was found guilty of being a member of banned Rightwing extremist group National Action following a trial at the Old Bailey.
Hannam, of Edmonton, north London, was a probationary officer for the Metropolitan Police for nearly two years before he was found on a leaked database of users of extreme forum Iron March and was arrested last year.
He pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited image of a child and was convicted of lying on his application and vetting forms to join the force.
Hannam was a member of National Action in 2016 until September 2017. He was also convicted of owning two documents related to terrorism, detailing how to kill someone with a knife and making explosive devices. Judge Anthony Leonard QC sentenced Hannam to a total of four years and four months yesterday, with an extra oneyear licence period. “I consider what you did to be very serious and you have harmed public trust in the police by your deceit,” the judge told him. “I accept your politics...played absolutely no part in your policing.” The judge added there was no evidence that Hannam planned to “infiltrate himself into the police force so as to be useful to the far-Right at any stage”.
Prosecutor Dan Pawson-Pounds said Hannam had “a consistent adherence to neo-Nazi tropes between 2014 and 2019”, as demonstrated by his internet downloads, social media comments and even his schoolwork.
The court heard that as early as May 2014, Hannam wrote online: “I’m not racist, I just don’t like people who’s [sic] skin is darker than mine!” In March 2016, he signed up to Iron March when he joined the London branch of NA. Hannam, who has autism, tried to recruit for National Action and posed in an official photograph at the group’s national conference in 2016, jurors heard.
Even after it was condemned for glorifying the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, Hannam continued to meet with members of the organisation.
On July 19 2017, days after spraypainting the NA logo in a storm drain for the group’s promotional video, Hannam applied to join Scotland Yard.
Mr Pawson-Pounds said the Met paid him more than £66,000 in salary and benefits and he performed his duties to “an acceptable standard”.