National Action neo-Nazi couple who named baby Adolf jailed for being part of the banned group

Adam Thomas posing with his partner Claudia Patatas
PA
Jacob Jarvis18 December 2018
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Two neo-Nazis have been jailed for being members of banned terrorist organisation National Action.

Adam Thomas and Claudia Patatas were found guilty of being members of the extreme right-wing group.

The couple named their baby son Adolf in honour of Hitler.

Thomas, 22, was jailed for six and a half years and Patatas, 38, was jailed for five years at Birmingham Crown Court today.

Adam Thomas and his partner Claudia Patatas with their new born baby
PA

Both had "a long history of violent racist beliefs", said the sentencing judge.

A total of six people were sentenced on Tuesday, for being members of what Judge Melbourne Inman QC described as a group with "horrific aims".

He said: "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."

A picture shown to jurors allegedly showing Adam Thomas posing with a knife
PA

The jury was informed Thomas and Patatas gave their child the middle name "Adolf".

This, Thomas said, was in "admiration" of Hitler and the couple had Swastika scatter cushions in their home.

Photographs, recovered from the couple's address, showed Thomas cradling his newborn son while he wore the hooded white robes of a Ku Klux Klansman.

In conversation with another National Action member, Patatas said "all Jews must be put to death".

Claudia Patatas, who was sentenced after being convicted of membership of a terrorist group
PA

Thomas had once told his partner he found "all non-whites intolerable".

The former Amazon security guard Thomas and Patatas, a wedding photographer originally from Portugal who also wanted to "bring back concentration camps", were found guilty after a seven-week trial.

Thomas, who was a twice-failed Army applicant, was also convicted on a majority verdict of having a terrorist manual, namely the Anarchist's Cookbook.

Jurors heard this contained instructions on making "viable" bombs.

The couple, of Waltham Gardens, Banbury, Oxfordshire, held hands and wept as they were sentenced.

Their friend, Darren Fletcher, of Kitchen Lane, Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, admitted National Action membership before trial and was jailed for five years for the same offence.

Three other men were also sent to jail including Daniel Bogunovic, of Crown Hills Rise, Leicester, who was found guilty of National Action membership after a trial.

The judge handed Bogunovic, the organisation's Midlands cell co-leader, a sentence of six years and four months.

He told him: "You were a National Action member from first to last."

Nathan Pryke, of Dartford Road, March, Cambridge, was the cell's "security enforcer" and who admitted membership.

He was jailed for five years and five months.

The group's "banker" and "cyber security" specialist Joel Wilmore, of Bramhall Road, Stockport, also pleaded guilty and was sent to prison for five years, 10 months.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in