Neo-Nazis who named baby after Hitler jailed for terror group membership
The pair, who even had swastika scatter cushions at their home, named their son in "admiration" of the German dictator.
Tuesday 18 December 2018 18:43, UK
Fanatical neo-Nazis who named their baby in honour of Adolf Hitler have been jailed for being members of a terrorist group.
Adam Thomas, 22, and Claudia Patatas, 38, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, were found guilty of being members of National Action - an extreme right-wing group banned in 2016.
Thomas was jailed for six years and six months, and Patatas for five years.
Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court had heard how Thomas, a former Amazon security guard, and Patatas, a wedding photographer, gave their child the middle name "Adolf".
Thomas, who even had swastika scatter cushions at his home, said the name was given in "admiration" of the German dictator.
Photos taken from the couple's home showed Thomas holding his son while wearing the hooded white robe of the Ku Klux Klan.
The court also heard how Patatas, who moved to the UK from Portugal, told another National Action member "all Jews must be put to death".
Thomas once told his partner he found "all non-whites intolerable".
The couple, who also wanted to "bring back concentration camps", were found guilty after a seven-week trial.
A close friend of the couple, Darren Fletcher, was jailed for five years after admitting National Action membership before trial.
Thomas, who was rejected from joining the army twice, was also convicted on a majority verdict of having a terrorist manual.
Jurors heard the book, the Anarchist's Cookbook, contained instructions on making "viable" bombs.
Sentencing Thomas and Patatas, Judge Melbourne Inman QC said both had "a long history of violent racist beliefs" and described National Action as a group with "horrific aims".
"Its aims and objectives are the overthrow of democracy in this country by serious violence and murder, and the imposition of a Nazi-style state which would eradicate whole sections of society by such violence and mass murder," he said.
Prosecutors said Fletcher had taught his daughter to give a Nazi salute, and that he sent a message to Patatas saying "finally got her to do it".
In all, six people were sentenced on Tuesday for being members of National Action, including the Midlands chapter's "banker" and "security enforcer".