Neo-Nazi who said ‘Jews must be put to death’ had bomb-making instructions
Court told that Adam Thomas, 22, and his partner Claudia Patatas, 38, had been members of the far-right banned terror group National Action
An alleged neo-Nazi terrorist said to have named his baby after Hitler had “viable” bomb-making instructions on his computer, a court has heard.
Adam Thomas, 22, together with his partner,Claudia Patatas, 38, are accused of being “fanatical” members of the extreme far-right group National Action (NA), which was banned in December 2016.
Birmingham Crown Court has already been told that the couple, of Waltham Gardens, Banbury, Oxfordshire, gave their son the middle name Adolf, which the prosecution alleged was in honour of the infamous Nazi leader.
Jurors heard evidence that Patatas once said “all Jews must be put to death”, in a message to a “vehement Nazi”, while Thomas told his partner, in a separate conversation, that he “found that all non-whites are intolerable”.
Co-defendant Daniel Bogunovic, 27, of Crown Hills Rise, Leicester, is also in the dock facing the same membership charge.
Thomas is further charged with possessing terrorist document The Anarchist Cookbook, which contained instructions on making “viable” explosives, jurors were told on Friday.
Sharon Broome, principal forensic investigator for the Government’s Forensics Explosives Laboratory, said the “cookbook” contained “credible” and “potentially viable” guidance for making various bombs, including plastic explosives.
In her expert report, she said: “In my opinion, there is sufficient detail that would enable somebody to identify the material needed and follow a process to make component parts of an improvised explosive device.
“In my opinion, you could actually make a device if you get the component parts by following the instructions in this document.”
The document, found on a Toshiba laptop at the couple’s home, had headings for making plastic explosive, dynamite, pipe-bombs and Molotov Cocktails.
Jurors also heard from Professor Matthew Feldman, director of the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, about NA’s history and activism, including its vocal support for the murder of MP Jo Cox.
Prof Feldman said social media accounts associated with NA had voiced for support for the murder of the Labour MP for Batley and Spen in June 2016, including one which stated: “Chat shit, get banged”.
Another said: “Only 649 MPs to go,” said Prof Feldman.
The NA’s north east group Twitter account posted: “Vote Leave. Don’t let this man’s sacrifice be in vain.
“Jo Cox would have filled Yorkshire with more sub-humans.”
When Ms Cox’s killer, Thomas Mair, later appeared in court and shouted “Death to traitors – freedom for Britain”, the banned group took his words and used them on a banner on its website, added Prof Feldman.
That support for Mair’s actions was part of the reason the Government banned the group in December 2016.
Prof Feldman said that while NA was active, from 2013, more than a dozen universities had seen their campuses stickered with far-right messages, some of which read “White Zone”, “White Jihad”, and featuring a figure delivering a Nazi-style salute.
The campuses stretched across England and Wales, including Aston University, Warwick University, Coventry University, De Montfort University, and the University of Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands.
Also stickered in the period were the University of Leeds, the University of Essex, London Metropolitan, University College London, the University of Cardiff, as well as others in Swansea, Newcastle, Nottingham and Cambridge.
Jurors have already heard that Bogunovic was convicted of stirring up racial hatred alongside “profound racist” Chad Williams-Allen, from Bird End, West Bromwich, and convicted NA terrorist Alexander Deakin for plastering stickers across the Aston campus in 2016.
Barrister Piers Marquis, for Bogunovic, asked Prof Feldman about a tweet the expert had made to his 918 followers in which he posted the lyrics to a Manic Street Preachers song, including the line “so if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists”.
Prof Feldman confirmed he had accompanied that tweet with the words “a great tune, but the lyrics especially apt with fascists breeding like rabbits once more”.
But he told jurors he had been referring to the chorus: “If you tolerate this, then your children will be next”.
Mr Marquis asked: “Rabbits? Like vermin? That need to be eradicated?”
Prof Feldman replied: “That would not be my position.
“Although I reject violence and political violence, I think it’s a brilliant song.”
Barnaby Jameson QC, opening the case, said: “The Crown say all the defendants in this case, along with those that have pleaded guilty or been convicted, were cut from the same National Action cloth.
“They were fanatical, highly motivated, energetic, closely-linked and mobile.
“And they all had, we say, a similar interest in ethnic cleansing, with violence if necessary, and the evidence in this case, we say, speaks for itself.
All three defendants deny wrongdoing and the trial, set to last four weeks, continues.
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