UK far-right couple with neo-Nazi views who named son after Hitler convicted
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A jury at Birmingham Crown Court in central England found 22-year-old Adam Thomas and 38-year-old Claudia Patatas guilty of being members of National Action. During the trial, jurors were shown photos of Thomas holding his baby son — who was given the middle name Adolf — while wearing the white robes of the Ku Klux Klan. (West Midland Police)
A British couple with neo-Nazi views who named their son after Adolf Hitler was convicted Monday of membership in an outlawed far-right group, according to multiple reports.
A jury at Birmingham Crown Court in central England found 22-year-old Adam Thomas and 38-year-old Claudia Patatas guilty of being members of National Action.
During the trial, jurors were shown photos of Thomas holding his baby son — who was given the middle name Adolf — while wearing the white robes of the Ku Klux Klan, as Sky News reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sky News also reported that Thomas, a self-confessed Holocaust denier, moved to Israel when he was 18 to convert to Judaism so he could join the Israeli military.
He told the jury, according to Sky News, he lived in kibbutzes in Israel, and returned home in August 2016, after he “just lost interest.”
Prosecutors said the defendants attended meetings of the banned group, and exchanged WhatsApp messages praising the Nazis’ murder of Jews.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A third defendant, Daniel Bogunovic, also was convicted of membership in the banned group. Three others pleaded guilty before the trial started.
All six defendants are due to be sentenced on Dec. 14.
The government banned National Action in 2016 after Labour Party lawmaker Jo Cox was murdered by a far-right extremist.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ten people now have been convicted of membership in the group, including a British soldier who had served in Afghanistan.
Sky News also reported that an Army veteran was at the heart of National Action, which set its sights on recruitment for the banned group in the armed forces.
Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen, 34, of the Royal Anglian Regiment believed in a coming “race war,” and wanted to help establish an all-white stronghold in a Welsh village, Sky News also reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Vehvilainen was convicted in March of being a member of National Action, and was jailed for eight years.
British police said the threat from violent far-right groups is growing, with four plots foiled in the year to March.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.