Neo-Nazi activists face prison term

Sentencing for four members of National Action

CRIME: Four neo-Nazi activists are facing jail terms for being “active members” of the banned terrorist group National Action. The extreme right-wing group, whose members have been described as “diehards” was banned in 2016.

FOUR NEO-NAZI “diehards” are facing jail terms for being “active members” of the banned terrorist group National Action (NA).

Alice Cutter and her expartner, Mark Jones, appeared at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday, along with Garry Jack and Connor Scothern.

The extreme right-wing group, whose members have been described as “diehards” by the director of public prosecutions (DPP), was banned in December 2016 after a series of rallies and incidents, including praising the murder of MP Jo Cox.

Former Miss Hitler beauty pageant contestant Cutter, her ex Jones, both of Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, as well as Jack and Scothern, were all convicted of membership of a terrorist group, after a trial in March.

At their sentencing yesterday, Cutter was described as “an active member” by prosecuting barrister Barnaby Jameson.

Frustration with a lack of activism in her native Yorkshire led her to join the NA’s Midlands sub-group.

The 23-year-old, who entered the beauty contest as Miss Buchenwald – a reference to the Second World War death camp – had denied being a member, despite attending the group’s rallies, in which banners reading “Hitler was right” were raised. Jurors were also shown messages in which she made offensive remarks about synagogues and Jews.

In one exchange with another NA member on the day after Ms Cox was murdered, Cutter made an offensive remark about the politician.

Jones, a former member of the British National Party’s youth wing, was described as a “leader and strategist” who played a “prominent and active role”. The 25-yearold, who was originally the group’s London regional organiser, acknowledged posing for a photograph while delivering a Nazi-style salute and holding an NA flag in Buchenwald’s execution room, on a trip to Germany.

Jack, appearing on videolink for the sentencing, was described as “an active and committed member” of the group by Mr Jameson.

Jack had previously been given a suspended jail term for plastering Birmingham’s Aston University campus with racially-aggravating National Action stickers in July 2016, some of which read “Britain is ours, the rest must go”.

Jack, 24, of Birmingham, distributed the stickers with Alexander Deakin and Daniel Bogunovic, also since convicted of being senior group members, and another man, Chad Williams-Allen, of Bird End, West Bromwich.

The sentencing continues today.