Pc guilty of being part of a neo-Nazi group

A POLICEMAN has become the first British officer to be convicted of belonging to a neo-Nazi terrorist group.

Pc Ben Hannam, 22, was found guilty of membership of banned right-wing extremist group National Action (NA), which was outlawed after it glorified the murder of Batley and Spen MP Jo Cox.

Following a trial at the Old Bailey he was also convicted of lying on his application and vetting forms to join the Metropolitan Police and having terror documents detailing knife combat and making explosive devices.

A jury had deliberated for more than 32 hours to find Hannam guilty yesterday.

Judge Anthony Leonard QC lifted a ban on reporting the case after Hannam admitted possessing an indecent image of a child, which was to have been the subject of a separate trial.

Hannam was granted bail ahead of his sentencing on April 23 but warned by the judge that he faced jail.

He had been working as a probationary officer for the Metropolitan Police for nearly two years before he was found on a leaked database of users of extreme right-wing forum Iron March.

He had signed up to the forum when he joined the London branch of neo-Nazi group NA in March 2016.

The officer, who has autism, said he was “desperate to impress” an older NA organiser who gave him free stickers and badges.

His association with NA ended before he began working for the Met and counter-terrorism officers acted “swiftly” once he had been identified as a suspect.

Commander Richard Smith, head of the Met’s counter-terrorism command, said it was a “unique” case.

He said: “Ben Hannam obviously lied on his application form to join the Met.

“He would never have been able to join had we known then of his interest in the extreme right wing and his previous membership of National Action.”

The ideology of NA was described in court as based on “Aryan purity” and hatred of nonwhite groups, particularly Jews.

In his first post on Iron March, Hannam wrote that he was “completely swayed” by NA.

At the NA national conference in Liverpool in April 2016, Hannam posed in an official photograph on Crosby Beach.

On December 16 2016, NA was outlawed after it glorified the murder of Ms Cox.

However, Hannam continued to meet high-profile people linked to the group in early 2017 and on July 2, spray painted the symbol for an NA alias – NS131 – in a storm drain on the outskirts of Swindon, which was filmed for a promotional video.

Days later, on July 19, Hannam applied to join Scotland Yard, fraudulently denying he had ever been a member of the British National Party “or similar organisation”.

In his defence, Hannam, of Edmonton, north London, denied he had ever been a member of NA before or after it was banned.

Hannam is currently suspended from duty.

Checks found “nothing of concern” in his work at the Met and no complaints from colleagues or members of the public about his behaviour.

Some of Hannam’s former associates have been convicted over their activities.

They include London branch organiser Mark Jones, 25, from Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, who was convicted of belonging to NA and jailed for five-and-a-half years in 2020.