A serving British soldier who displayed a Nazi salute and amassed a cache of weapons has been cleared of terrorism offences but convicted of possessing a banned canister of CS gas. Cpl Mikko Vehvilainen, of the Royal Anglian Regiment, was found not guilty at Birmingham Crown Court of possessing a terrorism document—the manifesto of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik—and two counts of stirring up racial hatred.
The 26-year-old, who pleaded guilty to the CS gas charge, had kept a photo of himself giving a Nazi salute and a homemade target dummy in his barracks garage at Sennybridge Camp, Brecon. His collection included 11 knives, knuckle-dusters, a face mask, Nazi flags, a shotgun, a crossbow, and homemade arrows. Police also found wiring and parts for a crude electromagnetic pulse device, along with a Hitler Youth knife and an SS dagger.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC argued that Vehvilainen was “putting into effect his repeated call to arms” for a race war. A notebook entry read: “Be prepared to fight and die for your race in a possible last stand for our survival.” Vehvilainen had also written an extreme rightwing magazine entitled Extinction, railing against mixed-race relationships and homosexuality, and had visited a white nationalist website 900 times.
Defence barrister Pavlos Panayi QC told jurors that while Vehvilainen was “not in dispute” as a racist, holding such views was not a crime. During his arrest in September last year, Vehvilainen told his wife: “I’m being arrested for being a patriot.” When police opened his wardrobe to find a Nazi flag, he remarked: “That’s what this is about, isn’t it?”
Vehvilainen was tried alongside Pte Mark Barrett, 25, who was acquitted of membership of the proscribed far-right group National Action. A third man, aged 23, was cleared of possessing Breivik’s manifesto but convicted of three other terrorism offences. Sentencing for Vehvilainen and the 23-year-old is scheduled for Friday.
