Neo-Nazi secret life of IT worker
AN IT worker and former Army reservist has pleaded guilty to joining a neo-Nazi terror group that was ‘planning to provoke a race war’.
Joel Wilmore has admitted being a member of the extreme rightwing organisation National Action, which was banned in 2016.
The 24-year-old, of Bramhall Moor Lane, Hazel Grove, sent abusive messages about Muslims and Jews during a conversation on the encrypted messaging service Telegram in February 2017.
He was due to stand trial alongside other members of the group at Birmingham Crown Court but pleaded guilty before the court case began.
He will now be sentenced in a two-day hearing beginning on Friday, December 14.
Wilmore will also be sentenced for possession of a terrorist document called Homemade Molotov Cocktails.
Another defendant in the case, Daniel Bogunovic, of Leicester, was also convicted of being a member.
The warehouse worker was a leading figure in National Action’s Midlands chapter.
Jurors were told Bogunovic already had a conviction from earlier this year for stirring up racial hatred after being part of a group that plastered Aston University, in Birmingham, with the group’s offensive stickers.
Adam Thomas, a twice-failed Army applicant, was also convicted of having a terrorist manual, namely the Anarchist’s Cookbook, which contained instructions on making ‘viable’ bombs.
Two other men who had been due to stand trial admitted being National Action members before the case began.
Thomas’s close friend Darren Fletcher, 28, from the West Midlands, and Nathan Pryke, 26, of March, Cambridgeshire, will be sentenced alongside Wilmore later.
Det Chief Supt Matt Ward, head of West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, said: “This result is a culmination of two years of painstaking work in the West Midlands and across the country to recognise and understand the threat of National Action.
“These individuals were not simply racist fantasists; we now know they were a dangerous, well-structured organisation.
“Their aim was to spread neo-Nazi ideology by provoking a race war in the UK and they had spent years acquiring the skills to carry this out.
“They had researched how to make explosives. They had gathered weapons.
“They had a clear structure to radicalise others. Unchecked they would have inspired violence and spread hatred and fear across the West Midlands.
“Today’s convictions have dealt a significant blow to National Action. We have dismantled their Midlands Chapter but that doesn’t mean the threat they pose will go away.
“Others on the periphery will take on leadership roles and so I ask for the public’s vigilance - if you see this group’s posters or stickers please report them to police where there are new cells, we will intercept and prosecute them.”