Edinburgh daughter handed out offensive flyers and posted online with her mum

DISTURBING CONTENT WARNING: Shirley Craughwell, 51, and her daughter Hannah Craughwell, 27, are facing jail time after posting extreme right wing content on social media accounts and handing out flyers in Edinburgh.

A Neo-Nazi mother and daughter who posted shocking anti-Semitic, racist and transphobic material on the internet are facing a jail sentence.

Shirley Craughwell and daughter Hannah – who used the online name ‘Hannah Hitler’ – posted hundreds of comments, images and videos of extreme right wing content on their social media accounts.

The pair linked the Israeli state to worldwide conspiracy theories including the 9/11 terror attack and Covid, denied the Holocaust and repeatedly used racist terms including “n*****” and “p***”. Shirley Craughwell, 51, openly using symbols and emojis connected to the Neo-Nazi movement and had links to publications including the controversial Anarchist Cookbook.

She also described non-whites as “a different species” and made comments including “Hitler was trying to save us” and “The need for a new holocaust is never more urgent than now”. While Hannah Craughwell, 27, branded the Jewish race as “the devil’s children” and dished out flyers in her local community in Edinburgh publicising a Neo-Nazi white power movie.

She also posted a sick mock up image of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay shouting at Hitler with the words “Put them back in the oven” and shared racist and transphobic videos on her account. The mother and daughter pleaded guilty to hate crime offences aggravated by racial and religious prejudice committed between 2021 and 2024 when they appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.

Sheriff Charles Walls described the conduct as “an appalling and sustained course of racist and anti-Semitic criminal conduct” and the “level and intensity” of the messages was of “considerable concern”. The sheriff noted Shirley Craughwell, of Galashiels, had made several threats to kill in her postings and said it was “in the public interest to refuse bail” and remanded her in custody.

Hannah Craughwell was released on bail pending the preparation of social work reports. Prosecutor David Gallagher told the court police received intelligence both women were posting “racist, anti-Semitic and threatening” material on social media in May last year.

Officers raided their homes the following month and Shirley Craughwell was found to have a Telegram account where she had posted thousands of extremist comments while in contact with others. Mr Gallagher said Craughwell used Nazi salute emojis and the term 88 – online slang for Heil Hitler – and claimed Humza Yousaf had made “anti-white speeches” during his time as the First Minister of Scotland.

The court heard her online comments included her stating she was “a proud racist” and posting “We must unite as a race”, “the borders are flooded by ni**ers” and “the police are run by Judean”. Hannah Craughwell, of Gilmerton, Edinburgh, was found to have an account on the US extremist chat site Gab where she used the online moniker of “Hannah Hitler”.

She regularly shared extreme right wing content on the site with one message stating: “I am disappointed Hitler never killed six million even though there wasn’t that many Jews at that time.”

The court was told racist material was also openly shared on her Facebook and Instagram pages and she had distributed flyers in her local area publicising the Neo-Nazi propaganda film Europa – The Last Battle. The pair were due to be sentenced on Friday, December 12, but Sheriff Walls was told the report for Shirley Craughwell was not available and he agreed to defer further to next month

Shirley Craughwell pleaded guilty to sending messages, voice notes, images and videos that were racist, anti-Semitic, threatening and abusive between December 2021 and April 2024. She also admitted to posting racially provocative leaflets in public places that were intended to stir up racial hatred against groups defined by race, colour or nationality between April and June 2024.

Hannah Craughwell pleaded guilty to posting images and comments on social media that were racist, anti-Semitic and transphobic between November 2022 and March 2024. She also admitted to a charge of posting and leaving racially provocative flyers in public places that were intended to stir up racial hatred at various locations in Edinburgh in March 2023.

Edinburgh Live