An army veteran who served in Afghanistan has been jailed for eight years for being a member of the banned far-right group National Action, after reporting restrictions were lifted.
Cpl Mikko Vehvilainen, 34, was described as an "outstanding" soldier but was convicted of being a recruiter for the organisation, which was banned in 2016. Prosecutors said he was a key part of the group's strategy to expand its membership within the armed forces. The self-confessed racist believed in a coming "race war" and wanted to establish an all-white stronghold in the Welsh village of Llansilin.
At Birmingham crown court, Vehvilainen appeared alongside Pte Mark Barrett, who was acquitted of membership. The court heard that Barrett had a cardboard swastika on his window sill at Alexander Barracks in Cyprus. Vehvilainen, a married father of three, was arrested in September 2017 after police found a photograph of him giving a Nazi-style salute at a memorial to Finland's independence, along with weapons and swastika bunting. He told his wife: "I'm being arrested for being a patriot." His father-in-law suffered a stroke following the arrest and died a month later.
Alexander Deakin, 24, the Midlands regional organiser and senior member of National Action, was also jailed for eight years. He was arrested hiding in an airing cupboard after bragging that counter-terrorism officers would never catch him. Deakin spread racist propaganda from his parents' house and told fellow members on the encrypted app Telegram that the group would have a "KKK-themed death squad" in a future race war.
The convictions bring to 10 the number of National Action members convicted. Chf Supt Matt Ward, head of the West Midlands counter-terrorism unit, said far-right extremists were "more organised, more sophisticated" than before. Assistant commissioner Neil Basu told MPs last month that of 17 planned terror attacks foiled since March last year, four were being organised by far-right groups.
In other connected cases, Jack Coulson, a 17-year-old member, was convicted of making a pipe bomb, while the group's leader, Christopher Lythgoe, was jailed for eight years. The group was also linked to a plot to kill Labour MP Rosie Cooper.
