Children as young as 13 are being seduced into Neo-Nazi ‘death cults’ online, report reveals
- Neo-Nazi groups such as National Action are using the dark net for recruitment
- Hope Not Hate warns the far right is actively trying to groom young children
- Home Office figures show a jump of a third into investigations into the far right
- Last year, 1,312 children under 15 were reported for having far-right links
Children as young as 13 are being groomed by Neo Nazi groups a shocking new report has warned.
Researchers from Hope Not Hate have been charting the rise of the far right in Britain.
Extremist groups, such as National Action, are targeting youngsters over the internet, using social media to spread their message.
These three neo-Nazis, Adam Thomas, middle, his partner Claudia Patatas, right and their friend Darren Fletcher, left, were all jailed for being members of National Action, a far-right organisation which was banned by the government after the murder of Jo Cox in 2016
Thomas, pictured, in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, and is partner Patatas named their infant son in honour of Adolf Hitler
Adam Thomas, left, was jailed for Thomas for six years and six months while Claudia Patatas, right, was sentenced to five years
Researcher Duncan Cahill told The Independent: ‘The trend towards younger, more violent Nazis is a real concern and needs to be monitored closely.
‘The threat of far-right terrorism comes from both organised groups, like National Action, but increasingly from lone actors who get radicalised on the internet.
‘It’s a death cult. They want to be noticed, to be feared, to be respected. A lot of them will grow out of it but some of them won’t.’
Many of the more extreme far right activists use encrypted networks on the dark web to organise and communicate.
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Last year, the Home Office revealed a jump of a third in the number of youngsters under 15 referred to the Government’s Prevent programme suspected of far right extremism.
The number of far right referrals has increased from 968 in 2016/17 to 1,312 last year. Over the same period the number of Islamic extremists dropped from 3,704 to 3,197.
Far right supporter Thomas Mair murdered Labour MP Jo Cox in the run up to the 2016 Brexit referendum.
As he attacked the mother-of-two outside her constituency office, Mair, who was jailed for life, shouted: ‘This is for Britain’.
While, last year neo-Nazi couple Adam Thomas, 22, and Claudia Patatas, 38, who named their baby son in honour of Adolf Hitler, were jailed for being members of National Action, a group who were banned in 2016.
Thomas was jailed for six years and six months while Patatas was sentenced to five years.
A sentencing judge told them they both had ‘a long history of violent, racist beliefs’.
At trial, the jury heard Thomas and Patatas gave their child the middle name Adolf, which Thomas said was in ‘admiration’ of Hitler, and they had Swastika scatter cushions in their home.
Neo Nazi Thomas Mair, left, was jailed for life after he murdered Labour MP Jo Cox in the run up to the 2016 Brexit referendum. Mair shouted ‘this is for Britain’ as he launched his attack
Photographs recovered from their address also showed Thomas cradling his new-born son while wearing the hooded white robes of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
In conversation with another National Action member, Patatas said ‘all Jews must be put to death’, while Thomas had once told his partner he found ‘all non-whites intolerable’.
Former Amazon security guard Thomas and Patatas, a wedding photographer originally from Portugal who also wanted to ‘bring back concentration camps’, were found guilty after a seven-week trial.
Thomas, a twice-failed Army applicant, was also convicted on a majority verdict of having a terrorist manual, namely the Anarchist’s Cookbook, which jurors heard contained instructions on making ‘viable’ bombs.
Judge Melbourne Inman QC, jailing the couple at Birmingham Crown Court told Patatas: ‘You were equally as extreme as Thomas both in your views and actions.
‘You acted together in all you thought, said and did.
‘In the naming of your son and the disturbing photographs of your child, surrounded by symbols of Nazism and the Ku Klux Klan.’
The couple from Banbury, Oxfordshire, both wept and held hands in the dock as they were sentenced, while Thomas repeatedly shook his head.
Their close friend, Darren Fletcher from Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, who admitted membership before trial, was also jailed for five years.
During his trial court heard a prosecutor claim Fletcher, 28, had taught his daughter to give a Nazi salute and how he sent a message to Patatas saying ‘finally got her to do it’.
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