Members of far right group put behind bars
MEMBERS OF the banned extreme right-wing neo-Nazi group National Action that included two people from Calderdale have been jailed.
Group leaders Alice Cutter, aged 24, and her partner 25-year-old Mark Jones, both from Wharf Street, Sowerby Bridge, were jailed for three years and five and a half years respectively.
Garry Jack, aged 24 from Heathland Avenue, Shard End, Birmingham was jailed for four and a half years and Connor Scothern, aged 19 from Bagnall Avenue, Arnold, Nottingham, received an 18 month jail term. They were told they will have to serve at least two thirds of their sentence before they can apply for parole.
Daniel Ward, aged 29 from Highmore Drive, Bartley Green, Birmingham, pleaded guilty at a previous court hearing and was jailed for three years on July 19 last year.
The grouup were found guilty at Birmingham Crown Court on 19 March after a previous trial resulted in a hung jury in June last year.
One other man had admitted membership of the group before the first trial.
The second nine-week trial was the culmination of a two year investigation into rightwing terrorism which had already seen eight people imprisoned for National Action membership as well as other offences.
National Action was formed in 2013 and in December 2016 became the first organisation to be banned by the government since World War II.
The group became members of National Action pre-proscription and regularly met to share their extreme ideology and attend demonstrations, however when the organisation was banned, they continued to communicate covertly using encrypted messaging platforms.
They held secret meetings to discuss their ambitions for a race war and sharing intensely shocking images mocking the holocaust and glorifying Hitler.
National Action became the first organisation to be banned since World War II.
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