National Action: ‘Grandaddy Terror’ and ‘Miss Hitler’ jailed for neo-Nazi terror offences

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A neo-Nazi who called himself “Grandaddy Terror” has been jailed alongside other members of National Action.

Mark Jones, who counterterror police described as a “lynchpin in the national structure” of the terrorist group, was sentenced alongside his former fiancée Alice Cutter.

A trial heard she entered the terrorist group’s “Miss Hitler” beauty pageant and made “shocking” comments about Jews, including violent fantasies of murder and ethnic cleansing.

Birmingham Crown Court heard that Jones, 25, and Cutter, 24, sported “his-and-hers swastika knitwear” and had a collection of Nazi paraphernalia, knuckle dusters, knives and other weapons.

They denied membership of a proscribed organisation alongside Garry Jack, 24, and Connor Scothern, 19, but were convicted in March following a retrial.

Sentencing the group at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Paul Farrer QC said National Action was “the most extreme version of a neo-Nazi organisation to appear in the UK for many decades”.

“As a result of its extreme ideology and behaviour, it was proscribed as a terrorist organisation on 16 December 2016,” he added.

“Following proscription, you were not prepared to disassociate yourselves from the vile ideology of this group and you therefore defied the ban.”

Jones was sentenced to five-and-a-half years’ imprisonment, Jack four-and-a-half years, Cutter three years and Scothern was given an 18-month detention and training order because he was under 18 at the time.

Under new sentencing laws, all four defendants will be considered by the Parole Board before they can be released – and they were handed terrorist notification requirements and extended licences.

Prosecutor Barnaby Jameson QC said they were part of a “fellowship of hate” who continued to further National Action’s aims after it was banned.

He said the “tiny, secretive group of die-hard neo-Nazis” were prepared to achieve their goals with terrorism, including the cleansing of Jews, ethnic minorities, gay people and liberals.

“The ultimate aim of the group was all-out race war,” Mr Jameson said. “Members of National Action were equipping themselves with weapons and the ability to produce explosives.”

After the ban, Jones was one of the senior figures who received instructions from de facto leader Christopher Lythgoe that National Action was “just shedding one skin for another” and would continue underground.

The organisation fragmented into regional cells and successor groups.

Jones, described as a “National Action die-hard” in court, was a leading figure with connections to international neo-Nazi groups in the US, Ukraine and Lithuania.

He called himself “Grandaddy Terror” in a chat group on the encrypted Telegram app that was reserved for National Action’s co-founder and regional leaders.

Jones met new National Action recruits and created neo-Nazi artwork for the group, as well as spin-offs Scottish Dawn and NS131, which were later banned.

The railway engineer, who grew up in foster care amid a backdrop of domestic violence against his mother, also organised members’ physical training including boxing sessions in Swindon.

Judge Farrer said he attended post-proscription meetings where leaders planned how National Action would survive, adding: “You played a significant role in the continuity of the organisation.”

A counterterror policing source told The Independent Jones was a “real lynchpin in the national structure”.

The court heard that he was a regional organiser in London before meeting Cutter and moving to West Yorkshire to live with her in 2017.

Cutter had entered National Action’s “Miss Hitler 2016” competition, which was a publicity stunt to attract more members, under the name Buchenwald Princess.

The name referenced a German concentration camp where Jones had performed a Hitler salute in an execution chamber the month before.

Cutter’s barrister, Liam Walker, said she had been a “20-year-old racist, antisemitic waitress” at the time, who was vulnerable and lacked maturity.

He claimed she had been groomed by Midlands National Action leader Alex Deakin and that her shocking statements on Jews were “cries for attention”.

“The ‘Miss Hitler’ moniker will haunt her for the rest of her life,” he added.

Judge Farrer said she had provided “encouragement and advice on recruitment, training and security”, and voiced racist and violent ideas.

He said Cutter’s decision to remain a member after the ban was “in part” because of her relationship with Jones, and that she suffered from anxiety and depression.

In a previous hearing, Cutter cried in the dock as the court heard that Jones had cheated on her with a 16-year-old student he was attempting to recruit, and the couple broke up during the trial.

But during the first day of sentencing on Monday, they could be seen appearing to chat, laugh and smile at each other in the dock.

The pair were in the Midlands cell of National Action alongside Jack, who joined in 2016 and was previously convicted of stirring up racial hatred with a neo-Nazi stickering campaign at Aston University in Birmingham.

Jack wrote a letter to the judge saying he had rejected far-right ideology since his conviction in March and wanted to help deradicalise other people alongside his mother.

Judge Farrer said he treated the claim with a “degree of caution” and outlined Jack’s commitment to National Action and his involvement in a 2017 attempt to recruit new members from the National Front.

The judge said that Jack’s mental health difficulties, including autism, anxiety and depression, and social isolation “may have played a part in the decision to remain a member” after the ban.

The youngest defendant, Scothern, practised Islam from the age of 12, then was drawn to communism before settling on National Action in his mid-teens.

The court heard that he joined demonstrations, including one that saw him make a Hitler salute at a war memorial, and downloaded a recipe for making Molotov cocktails.

In a message sent after the group was banned, he said: “Even if this land is lost, which I don’t think it is, I’d rather die than capitulate.”

Judge Farrer said Scothern was 15 when the offence was committed but that his commitment to National Action was “undiminished” by the ban, as he attended meetings planning how it would continue.

Scothern also purchased and spread hundreds of Hitler stickers and joined a publicity stunt for NS131.

“You were not seduced into joining National Action, you sought out this group and engaged enthusiastically with their agenda,” the judge said.

Jones, Scothern and Jack claimed they quit National Action when it was proscribed, while Cutter denied ever joining the group and claimed she would not have been admitted as a woman.

The case brings the total number of National Action supporters convicted of membership to 15, while several others have been jailed for other offences including plotting to kill an MP and making a pipe bomb.

But its founders, Ben Raymond and Alex Davies, have never been prosecuted.