A neo-Nazi couple who named their baby son after Adolf Hitler and turned their home into a “shrine to extreme racism” have been jailed for membership of a banned terrorist organisation.
Adam Thomas, 22, and Claudia Patatas, 38, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday. Thomas received six years and six months, while Patatas was jailed for five years. The pair had been found guilty of belonging to National Action, which was banned in 2016.
The court heard that Thomas was pictured holding the child while wearing Ku Klux Klan robes, and that the couple gave their son the middle name “Adolf” in admiration of Hitler. Patatas, a Portuguese-born wedding photographer, had said “all Jews must be put to death” and expressed a desire to “bring back concentration camps”. The judge, Melbourne Inman QC, said their views were so extreme that they had both claimed to be willing to murder a mixed-race child to further their ideology.
Thomas, a former Amazon security guard, was also convicted of possessing a terrorist manual – a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook. The judge described his home with Patatas as a “veritable shrine to extreme racism”, and noted their involvement in the desecration of war memorials, including one in Warwickshire.
Four other members of National Action were sentenced for their roles. Daniel Bogunovic, 27, from Leicester, described as a “committed leader, propagandist and strategist”, received six years and four months. Darren Fletcher, 28, of Wolverhampton, was jailed for five years after teaching his daughter to perform a Nazi salute. Joel Wilmore, 24, a cyber-security worker, was sentenced to five years and ten months, and Nathan Pryke, 26, a van driver, was jailed for five years and five months.
