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PHOTO FILE: A prison officer stands in front of Wormwood Scrubs Prison during a protest in London, UK, on September 14, 2018. REUTERS / Hannah McKay / File PhotoReuters
LONDON (Reuters) – A The couple who named their child after Adolf Hitler was sentenced Monday in Britain to be a member of the far-right National Action banned group.
Adam Thomas, 22, and Claudia Patatas, 38, were convicted, as was Daniel Bogunovic, 27, of being members of the organization, after sharing messages praising Hitler and images of them dressed. members of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan KKK) and making the Nazi salute.
Three others have already pleaded guilty to belonging to the National Action, banned by the government after members of the group praised the assassination of lawmaker Jo Cox by a Nazi-obsessed loner in 2016.
"After the ban on National Action, the police went into hiding and changed their name, but it did not disappear," said Deb Walsh of the Crown Prosecution Service.
"These members continued to believe in his neo-Nazi racist worldview, kept in touch via encrypted email applications and organized meetings to move the group forward."
National Action is the first far-right group to be banned in Britain for decades. Right-wing parties have developed in much of Europe in recent years, but in Britain they remain on the margins of political life.
The Birmingham court heard that Thomas and Patatas had given their baby the name "Adolf" to express their admiration for the leader of the Third Reich.
The West Midlands Police published pictures of the posing couple holding their baby and a swastika flag. Thomas also posed in a KKK dress with his son and with a crossbow.
Local police chief Matt Ward said the group had collected weapons and investigated how to make explosives.
"These individuals were not just racist fantasies, we now know that they are a dangerous and well-structured organization," he said.
"Their goal was to spread neo-Nazi ideology by provoking a racial war in the United Kingdom and they had spent years acquiring the skills necessary to carry out this task."
(Report by Alistair Smout)
Copyright 2018 Thomson Reuters.
