Adam Thomas: Neo-Nazi terrorist who named baby after Hitler 'moved to Israel and planned to convert to Judaism'
Self-confessed Holocaust denier and racist says he looked into converting to join Israeli military
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A neo-Nazi terrorist who named his baby after Adolf Hitler claimed to have lived in Israel for nearly two years in a bid to convert to Judaism.
Adam Thomas, 22, was found guilty of being a member of the far-right organisation National Action, which was banned in 2016.
He was convicted alongside his partner, Claudia Patatas, 38, at Birmingham Crown Court.
Giving evidence in his defence from the witness box, Thomas, a self-declared Holocaust denier and racist, said he moved to Israel when he was 18.
He said he was motivated to look into converting because it would have allowed him to join the Israeli military.
But Thomas, who told the jury he lived in kibbutzes and at a college while in Israel, said he “just lost interest” and returned home in August 2016.
He met Patatas – who jurors heard told a chat group “bring back concentration camps” – in a pub in December that year, and had a baby with her at the end of 2017.
Thomas told the court they had given the child the middle name Adolf in part because of their “admiration” for Hitler.
On the first day of his evidence, barrister Paul Wakerley asked Thomas: “At some stage, aged 17, you decided you would convert to Judaism?”
Thomas replied: “I finished college and, just after turning 18, I moved to Israel, and lived there just under two years.
“I lived with very different people, I stayed on a farm, and a kibbutz.”
Asked if he mixed with Jewish people, he replied: “I did, the population is Jewish and I was interested in converting to Judaism at that stage.”
The former Amazon warehouse security guard added that he had done “security” work while over there, as part of an interest in joining the military.
He said: “If you do convert to Judaism, it comes with a passport and that allows you to join the Israeli military.”
Asked why his plans changed, he added: “I just lost my interest in that and couldn’t see what I was chasing. I stopped being able to see what was out there for me.”
When counter-terrorism police raided the couple’s home following their arrest in January 2018, they found a Ku Klux Klan flag hanging in their lounge and a variety of fascist memorabilia, including Swastika cushions and pastry cutters.
Thomas and Patatas were convicted along with Daniel Bogunovic, 27.
They will be sentenced at a later date.
Additional reporting by Press Association