British couple named baby after Adolf Hitler, court hears

Mother and father accused of being members of banned neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action

A British couple who are accused of being members of a banned neo-Nazi terrorist group named their baby after Adolf Hitler, a court has heard.

Adam Thomas, 22, and his partner, Claudia Patatas, 38, gave their child the middle name Adolf.

The prosecution alleged the couple were pictured at home with another man, a convicted racist and “vehement Nazi” who was holding a Swastika flag and performing a Hitler-style salute over their child.

Mr Thomas and Ms Patatas, both of Waltham Gardens, Banbury, Oxfordshire, are on trial at Birmingham Crown Court accused of being members of National Action. The pair have been charged along with Daniel Bogunovic, 27, of Crown Hills Rise, Leicester.

Opening the case, Barnaby Jameson, prosecuting, told jurors on Tuesday that all three defendants were alleged members of National Action – a group “so extreme and violent” it was banned by the government in December 2016.

He said the case was about a “terror spread by a small cell of fanatics”, built on a racist ideology.

The barrister added the case would detail the “hate crime committed by National Action members and the ruthlessness with which they were prepared to spread terror”.

Mr Jameson said Bogunovic and Mr Thomas had a “particular interest” in owning machetes, and that bomb-making instructions were found on the second man’s computer.

Turning to Mr Thomas and Ms Patatas’s child, he told jurors: “The Crown can tell you that one of his middle names was Adolf.”

He added: “Given that the child was born almost a year after National Action was banned, you may think the use of the name ‘Adolf’ – even as a middle name – was of significance.”

Mr Jameson said: “This case is about a specific type of terror. It is a terror fuelled by hatred and division. It is a terror born out of fanatical and tribal belief in white supremacy.

“It is a terror that regards anyone who falls outside a cult of violent white racial supremacy as sub-human.

“Those that fall into the sub-human category are primarily blacks, Jews and Asians. Others in that category include gays, communists and feminists.

“The cult had particular venom for female Labour MPs perceived as sympathetic to migrants.

“It is a terror that can be summarised in two words: ‘White jihad’ – in other words, a white holy war. This terror was spread by a small cell of fanatics of whom you will hear a great deal.”

He added that the case would take jurors to “a world in which any right-thinking person would wish did not exist”.

Mr Jameson said: “It is a world of banner-carrying paramilitaries aping Hitler’s SS. It is a world of swastikas and the burning crosses of the Ku Klux Klan, otherwise known as the KKK. It is the world of a group called National Action.

The jury of six men and six women heard Bogunovic was among four men convicted earlier this year of stirring up racial hatred after plastering Aston University campus in Birmingham with National Action stickers.

Jurors were also told of the defendants’ associations with “other prominent National Action figures”, British army soldier Mikko Vehvilainen, 33, based at Sennybridge Camp, Powys, Wales and “one of the group’s leaders”, Alexander Deakin, 23, from Birmingham.

Bogunovic had a “particular connection” with Deakin, with both having been involved in the university stickering operation, Mr Jameson added.

Jurors also heard that photos of an “arsenal” of weaponry which the “extremist’s extremist” Vehvilainen had built up were found on Mr Thomas and Ms Patatas’ phones.

A “close friend” of the couple was the convicted racist and “vehement Nazi” Darren Fletcher, 28, of Kitchen Lane, Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, the court heard.

Mr Jameson said after the couple’s arrest in January, “a photograph of Fletcher holding a Nazi flag and making the Hitler salute over Thomas and Patatas’ infant” was discovered.

Jurors heard Fletcher had a previous race hate conviction for dressing as a Klansman and hanging “a golliwog” from a noose on a stage in 2014.

The Crown’s barrister said the case would chart the links between “prominent members” Christopher Lythgoe, of Warrington and Matthew Hankinson, of Merseyside, convicted after trial in July.

Mr Thomas also stands accused of a having a terrorist document, namely the Anarchist’s Cookbook.

Ms Patatas, Mr Thomas and Bogunovic deny all the charges and the trial, which is expected to last four weeks, continues.

Additional reporting by Press Association