A “deeply entrenched racist” A-level student, who shared weapons manuals and terrorism documents, has been detained for seven years.

Malakai Wheeler, 18, of Stamford Close, Swindon, was found guilty of six charges by a jury in September, including possessing a copy of the Terrorist Handbook.

At Winchester Crown Court, Judge Jane Miller KC handed him a seven-year term.

She told Wheeler he was “cold and calculating” and a “white supremacist”.

Mass-murderer manifestos

The other charges included possessing copies of the Anarchist’s Handbook, a document called Homemade Detonators, and sharing 92 documents and 35 images in a chatroom.

He was also convicted of two charges of sharing instructions for the use of items that could be used to perform acts of terrorism, including smoke grenades.

The cache included manifestos by Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik and the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque killer Brenton Tarrant.

Judge Miller KC described Wheeler, who was 16 at the time of his arrest, as a “white supremacist with an extreme right-wing mindset with a sinister interest in violence and insurrection”.

“I find you intended to encourage others to engage in terrorist activity,” she added.

The judge told the court Wheeler had been brought up by his “antisemitic” and “holocaust denier” father and was given a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf as a child, which he began reading at the age of 10 or 11.

She also said he was involved in discussions about a violent insurrection on internet forums and 100 videos were found on his phone, which included shootings, lynchings and executions.

When giving evidence, Wheeler, who had an interest in national socialism and anti-Zionism, admitted using a Nazi swastika as part of his profile image on social media platform Telegram and said he downloaded the terrorism documents because he wanted to create an archive of items he believed would be deleted from the site and the internet.

Wheeler said he viewed terrorist and other violent videos out of “morbid curiosity” and while he accepted being photographed in a skull mask doing a Nazi salute, he denied being a white supremacist.

‘Danger to the public’

Defending Wheeler, Abigail Bright said the teenager had a “lack of maturity” and had shown signs of a “really serious prospect of an early rehabilitation”.

“The defendant had a reckless rather than any other state of mind,” she added.

Det Ch Supt James Dunkerley, head of counter terrorism policing north east at Wiltshire Police, said Wheeler was “not simply curious or a passive observer” but was an active member of a “Telegram chat group committed to extreme right-wing ideology.”

He said it was “important young people recognise the potential impact of their online activity”.

Judge Miller KC said Wheeler poses an “obvious danger to the public” and there was a “significant risk” of him “causing further harm by further offences”.
Presentational grey line

BBC News

A prominent far-right activist who set up a group called Voice of Wales and campaigned against “illegal” migrants has been handed a suspended prison sentence for his involvement in a fraud that robbed hundreds of ordinary people of their savings.

Daniel Raymond Morgan set up the group in Swansea with another activist called Stan Robinson. Their YouTube channel was banned permanently in 2021 for its racist content.

Morgan stood as a UKIP candidate for the Senedd in 2021 and, following the row over a now discontinued Home Office plan to house asylum seekers in Llanelli’s Stradey Park Hotel, has been touted as the party’s general election in the town’s constituency.

But his political future is now in doubt following a conviction for his role in a despicable insurance scam that tricked many into parting with their money.

Swansea Crown Court heard how a call centre was set up to con people on the back of the PPI scandal. It was responsible for an astonishing 53 million scam phone messages.

The fraudsters promised big payouts in connection with mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance policies but in reality their aim was simply to get victims’ credit card details and steal money from them.

Hundreds of people paid up to £550 each after being tricked by the call centre staff into believing they were due substantial PPI refunds, with many of the victims of the scam being elderly and vulnerable. Sentencing 16 people involved in the fraud – from directors of the firm to those working the phones – a judge described the aim of the business as “deliberate, planned fraud”.

Lee Reynolds, prosecuting, told the court that the company at the centre of the fraud went by various names including HES Synergy Limited and HES Savings Audit Ltd, and was set up with the aim of taking unlawful advantage of the financial scandal around mis-sold PPI. He said the fraud was “specifically and carefully planned” to give victims the false impression that they were entitled to a significant PPI refund and to get them to pay a fee to process their claims.

The court heard the victims of the scam were led to believe the business had specific knowledge regarding their individual finances and had access to information about their payment of PPI as well as knowledge of how much they were entitled to by way of a refund. In reality those behind the fraud had no such information or knowledge.

The prosecutor said the scam began with the firm sending out millions of deliberately misleading recorded messages – known as “voice broadcasts” – designed to “hook” potential victims.

The message said: “Our records indicate that you haven’t yet claimed back your PPI on certain loans and credit cards. You are owed thousands. To claim this back press 5 to speak to an advisor and 9 to opt out”. Over a three month period the message was broadcast an astonishing 53,191,988 times.

The court heard that though the message was a short one, it contained three important false statements and was nothing more than a “fishing” exercise. In reality the business did not have “records” about each consumer; it had no way of knowing whether the consumer had ever taken out PPI; and the positive statement that the victim was “owed thousands” was false.

Lead generator

The prosecutor said if a consumer responded to the initial voice broadcast message by pressing option “5” the call would be answered by a “lead generator” in the Swansea call centre who would usually answer the phone by saying “You’re through to the refund department”. Mr Reynolds said from this point “call centre staff would act together and fraudulently to facilitate the taking of financial information from customers with the aim being to convince the victim to part with the upfront fee”.

The court heard that, following scripts of what to say, the lead generators would harvest basic information from the callers such as name, address, date of birth, email, general information on past financial agreements, the name of the bank they used, and details of active credit cards. Misleading phrases such as “our solicitors” and “you’re on the database” would often be used to build confidence, and specific amounts of refunds the callers were supposedly entitled to were mentioned.

The lead generators would then pass the victims’ details to a “closer” who would call them back and introduce themselves variously as a “senior adviser”, or someone “from the legal team”, or “from the verification team”. The closer would tell the victims that they were going to run a financial report to verify the PPI agreements and to look for any agreements they might have forgotten about before a decision was made as to whether there was a valid claim.

The court heard call centre staff would then create secret email accounts for their victims and, using the information gleaned from earlier calls, access people’s private credit reports from companies such as Noddle, Clearscore and Experian. Any additional information needed by the fraudsters to access the credit reports would be requested from the victims under the guise of data protection requirements or security checks.

Credit reports

The court heard that the information in the credit reports told call centre staff nothing about any PPI payments or potential refunds but it could be used to further hoodwink consumers into thinking the company was genuine and had access to some kind of PPI database. Once the credit report had been secretly obtained the next step for the scammers was for a closer to ring the victim back again, provide them with details of the agreements on the credit report, and tell them there was a “green light” from the “legal team” and they had a strong claim. Again, all this was a lie.

The prosecutor said it was at this stage that the call centre staff introduced the concept of an “upfront fee” – this was normally £550 – which was presented to the victim as a “holding deposit” to be put on their credit card while the claim was being processed and was often referred to as being refundable. The closer then pressed the consumer to access their email account while on the phone so that documents with the terms and conditions could be sent to them to sign immediately.

Some consumers who didn’t have internet access or were unfamiliar with the online “e-sign” process were often asked if they could go to the local library to access their emails or get their son or daughter to help them. If victims had no email account the company arranged for a courier service to visit them to deliver the documents. The court heard the purpose of obtaining a quick signature was so that the company could take the upfront fee as soon as possible. However the evidence suggested that in many cases the fees were simply taken before signatures were collected or without any signature being obtained.

Mr Reynolds said victims would typically receive around five phone calls from the Swansea call centre on the same day, usually within the space of a few hours and with each successive phone call being “cleverly designed to build the victims’ trust and reinforce the impression that the victim had a valid PPI claim”. Having given their credit card details the victim would often get a final call just to confirm that their payment had gone through, and to say their claim was now commencing.

Regulated

The court heard that to allay any concerns about the company the victims were frequently told the company was “regulated”, “fully regulated” or “government regulated”, and they were directed to the Companies House website to show the firm was registered on a “government website”. If a victim chose to look at the Synergy website they would find fake customer testimonials, such as the one purporting to be from a “Mr Jones in Devon” which read “Synergy Express Audits were fast and reliable … and also passed my information onto their affiliate company to handle my PPI and package bank account fee. This was mis-sold to me and I got my refund in less than 12 weeks”. The court heard no evidence of a Mr Jones from Devon having got a refund was ever found in the company records.

It was complaints from legitimate PPI reclaim companies about the conduct of HES Synergy that led the Ministry of Justice to launch an investigation into its operations in September 2015. The extent and sophistication of the fraud was revealed after search warrants were executed at the company’s offices on Swansea Enterprise Park in the following January.

The court heard that by the time of the raids the business had already stopped trading but this was not due to an attack of conscience or morals on the part of the scammers but was simply because so many unhappy consumers had used the chargeback procedure on their credit cards to try to get their payments back that the firm was struggling to get payment providers willing to work with them.

Trading standards officers recovered hundreds of thousands of recorded phone calls between staff and victims and potential victims, as well as the call centre scripts with the misleading and false statements which staff had been using.

The prosecutor said while the fraud was orchestrated from those at the top of the business, anyone involved in the PPI calls for any length of time would have realised that lying was “rampant, essential, and expected” and in the call centre “lying to customers was the norm”.

Reporting restrictions

Six defendants, including Morgan, were convicted at trial in January this year but the trial could not be reported at that time due to reporting restrictions ahead of a second trial of their co-accused. All the remaining defendants subsequently pleaded guilty.

Judge Huw Rees said the call centre operation had been a “deliberate, planned fraud carefully structured and fraudulent from its inception” and at the heart of the conspiracy lay the defendants’ greed which “overrode any compassion or concern” for the victims. He told the defendants they had routinely misled people about the prospect of PPI refunds and peddled “blatant lies” on the phones, noting the lies “tripped easily off the tongue” for them. He said not only had the fraud affected individual victims who had been left with a feeling of “violation” but had affected the wider public’s respect and confidence in the industry.

Nine admitted conspiracy to commit fraud, six – including Morgan – were convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud following a trial and one admitted money laundering.

Morgan, 38, of Lamberts Road, SA1 development, Swansea, was part of the “Noddle team” fraudulently accessing people’s credit reports. He was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for 12 months with a rehabilitation course and a mental health treatment requirement.

Tom Scapens, for Morgan, said the defendant was a father to four children and, given his lack of convictions before or after his involvement in the call centre, the court “might think he is not a man in need of rehabilitation”.

Racist content

Morgan has been a prominent far right activist in Wales for several years. In 2021 YouTube removed two channels jointly run by him and fellow far-right activist Stan Robinson because of their racist content. Welsh politicians and race equality groups condemned the Voice of Wales channel for airing interviews with The Proud Boys, an American far-right group that has been outlawed in Canada, and controversial figures such as former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson.

The YouTube account was terminated for breaching the platform’s terms of service. A second YouTube account, also set up by the men, was also removed.

Morgan usually styles himself “Dan Morgan” and did so when he stood in Swansea East at the Senedd election in 2021, coming fifth with 567 votes (3%). But in the South Wales West regional list section of the ballot, his full name – Daniel Raymond Morgan – appeared as Ukip’s number two candidate. Ukip came sixth with 2809 votes (2%).

We asked UKIP whether it would be taking any action against Morgan following his conviction, but received no response.

Nation Cymru

Tommy Robinson is banned from contacting journalist Lizzie Dearden about anything other than stories about him

Tommy Robinson was dubbed a “bully” by a judge as he lost a bid to overturn a stalking protection order which bans him from invading a journalist’s private life.

The 40-year-old activist turned up at reporter Lizzie Dearden’s home unannounced when he learned she was planning a story accusing him of misusing donations to his campaigns.

Robinson – real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – was heard shouting “f*** you Lizzie” in the late-night incident in January 2021, as he continued to ring the buzzer to the block of flats and shout out her name, Southwark crown court heard.

When she refused to come outside, Robinson made a series of false allegations about the journalist’s partner and threatened to “expose” him online.

A stalking protection order was imposed in October 2021, banning Robinson from contacting the journalist and her partner or talking about them online.

At a two-day appeal, the activist admitted the incident was not his “finest hour”. He also conceded that the allegations about Ms Dearden’s partner – which he shouted in the street and threatened to publish to his online followers – were entirely false.

Judge Gregory Perrins and two magistrates upheld the order, which lasts until October 2026, banning Robinson from contacting Ms Dearden about matters outside her journalistic work.

The judge said the visit to her home and shouted abuse in response to a request for comment on Ms Dearden’s story was not a “legitimate response….nor does it constitute any form of legitimate ‘journalism’ on the part of the appellant.

“It was, in our opinion, a calculated attempt to bully, intimidate and frighten Lizzie Dearden either as an act of revenge for the article she had written or in an attempt to prevent publication of that same article in the national press.”

The court also found that Robinson had effectively “spied” on the journalist by using a private investigator to track down her home address.

He said Robinson’s call to his social media followers for information on Ms Dearden’s partner was a further attempt to “intimidate her further”, and he had come close to blackmail with an email threatening to go public with the false allegations about her partner.

In her evidence, Ms Dearden, who was the Home Affairs editor at The Independent, said the incident left her terrified and the couple “went into hiding” as a result.

She also contemplated leaving her job at the media organisation.

The judge found Robinson had carried out actions associated with stalking, and that he continues to pose a risk to Ms Dearden and her partner due to the “significant grievance” he has.

The judge did agree to modify the court order to allow Robinson to exercise his freedom of speech by commenting publicly on stories written about him by the journalist.

This is includes a planned documentary featuring Robinson speaking about Ms Dearden in a 20-minute segment where he issues a string of rebuttals to the stories she had written.

But the judge said Robinson needs to be “careful” not to incite his followers into stalking the journalist, while the documentary also currently includes “sexual slurs” aimed at the journalist and her partner which he said would breach the stalking protection order if aired.

Robinson attended court for the two-day hearing last week, but was not present as the ruling was handed down on Wednesday.

Evening Standard

A man has admitted encouraging terrorist activity but denies threats to kill two terrorism experts.

Harry Parris, 22, pleaded guilty to four counts of encouraging terrorism online on the basis he was “reckless”.

On dates between 2019 to 2021 he published on video hosting services and messaging apps, the Old Bailey heard.

Parris, of Bittaford, Devon, also admitted six offences of having documents likely to be useful to a person preparing acts of terrorism.

However, the defendant denied making threats to kill two counter-terrorism analysts on 16 February 2020.

He also denied alternative charges of encouraging terrorism by publishing statements with the intention that members of the public would be encouraged.

The defendant entered his pleas before Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, via video link.

A provisional trial date has been set for 13 May and is due to be heard at Bristol Crown Court.

The defendant was granted continued bail with conditions, including not engaging in extreme right-wing activity online.

BBC News

He was dealt with in court

A man who beat a deaf victim to the floor after they bumped into each other in a local shop has been jailed.

Onlookers watched on as Thomas Allan inflicted the assault on the vulnerable man in Sunderland, in April 2023, which included repeated punches.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the pair were known to each other, and that Allan was part of an “antisocial” group at the time of the attack.

Judge Timothy Gittins said the victim, who is “profoundly deaf”, was leaving the store when he happened to bump into Allan who was approaching the doorway.

The judge told Allan: “You immediately punched him forcefully to the face and he retreated into the store.

“Regrettably, those present did little if nothing to protect him or to call the police and you were caught on CCTV chatting to others at the door before deciding to pursue him into the store and corner him by a freezer section.”

The court heard Allan then continued the attack but did so just off camera from the CCTV system and it is unknown if he used kicks or not.

Another man, who was known to both parties, later intervened and managed to usher the defendant away from the victim.

Allan fled the scene but was later arrested. The victim was found to have suffered cuts to his face during the attack.

Allan, 38, of Hendon Valley Road, Hendon, Sunderland, admitted common assault but denied occasioning actual bodily harm which he was found guilty of by a jury in September 2023.

The judge added that “no real motive” had been put forward by Allan, but that the defendant believed the victim had been involved in “other offending.”

Nicholas Lane, defending, told the court Allan never disputed being responsible for an assault but did insist on a trial because the level of injury caused was in question.

Mr Lane added that he has since left the “antisocial” group he was part of and has taken up a range of roles while in custody.

However, the judge said only immediate custody was justified and locked him up for 18 months.

Sunderland Echo

A Norwich teenager has been banned from contacting members of a far-right group and attending all LGBQT+ events.

Kai Stephens, 19, has appeared at Norwich Magistrates’ Court accused of two charges of harassment.

He is also facing charges of sending communications containing indecent or offensive messages.

District Judge David Wilson agreed to adjourn the case until November 24 after being told a significant amount of messages and information relating to the charges had still to be extracted from his mobile phone.

Gina Mattioli, for Stephens, said the information was required as it “may contradict the allegations”.

Stephens, of Bullard Road, was told bail conditions prevented him from contacting members of Patriotic Alternative and attending any lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender events.

Last year far right group Patriotic Alternative staged a protest outside the Forum in Norwich over a planned story time event held by a drag queen claiming they were “protecting the minds” of children.

The group also sparked complaints after a campaign dropping leaflets containing a mixture of anti-migrant and anti-vaccination sentiments through letterboxes in areas of the city.

Eastern Daily Press

An ex-soldier found with terrorism documents, Nazi memorabilia and indecent images of children has been jailed for four years.

Serj Forster, 26, was arrested at home in Norwich in May last year, and police seized a number of items including instructions on bomb making.

Forster was found guilty of collecting terrorist publications including the Advanced Anarchist Arsenal and US Army Improvised Munitions Handbook.

Hundreds of indecent images were found.

Forster pleaded guilty to a third charge of possessing a handbook with instructions on making a sheet-metal gun at home, but was cleared of a fourth charge.

His trial, which ended in February, heard that Forster, of Cardiff Road, was “fascinated” by the extreme right.

Sentencing him at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, Judge Richard Marks referred to a night out Forster had in London where he was pictured doing the Nazi salute in front of a Black Lives Matter slogan.

However, Judge Marks noted that Forster had never “been on marches, demonstrations, political meetings and never joined any political parties or associations”.

Images showed ‘distress’

Forster had a separate trial where he faced three offences relating to making indecent images of children.

The trial heard that there were hundreds of still and moving images seized, including 262 classed as Category A – the most serious type.

Defence counsel John Lyons had argued that Forster’s phone was hacked, but he was found guilty.

Judge Marks said the children pictured were as young as three years old and clearly showed signs of “distress”.

‘Obsessed’

Other items police found in the offender’s property included Nazi memorabilia, National Front stickers as well as knives and imitation guns.

The court heard that, as a schoolboy, Forster was referred to Prevent over his “neo-Nazi” views, and the judge noted he had “failed to respond” in a meaningful way to the government-funded scheme, which aims to steer people away from extremist ideologies.

At 13, he joined the British group National Action, which is now a banned terror organisation, and was kicked out of college because of his beliefs in May 2013.

Forster began basic Army training in 2017, but was made to leave after his extreme right-wing comments were discovered on Twitter, now known as X.

Prosecutor Ben Lloyd said Forster had previously described himself as being “obsessed” with right wing culture.

“In May 2022, he [Forster] said in summary that he accepted that he had been involved with the far right since he was aged about 13,” said Mr Lloyd.

Forster told police he accepted his involvement with the far right, and had an interest in the English Defence League and National Action.

BBC News

A 17-year-old former RAF cadet who drew Nazi symbols on a mural celebrating he Caribbean community has been named for the first time.

Aristedes Haynes fantasised about making a gun and killing a schoolboy, the Old Bailey heard.

Haynes, from Port Talbot, was given one year and seven months detention.

A second boy, 15, from Tonyrefail, Rhondda Cynon Taf, helped Haynes in a series of terror offences and criminal damage.

The two boys carried out several offences of racially and homophobically aggravated criminal damage, over several months throughout south Wales.

Among the damage was the extreme right-wing graffiti on a Windrush mural in Port Talbot and a smoke bomb which was rolled into The Queer Emporium, an LGBTQ+ business in Cardiff city centre.

A court order granting Haynes anonymity under Section 45 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 was lifted post-sentencing following an application from the press. The 15-year-old’s anonymity remains in place.

Aristedes Haynes had previously had anonymity before a court order was lifted

The anonymity order would have expired on Sunday when Haynes turns 18.

Haynes painted graffiti over the Port Talbot Windrush mural twice during 2022, the Old Bailey was previously told.

The vandalism appeared within hours of the mural being completed.

The graffiti included swastikas, the words “Nazi zone”, white supremacist symbol “1488”, and a racial slur.

The mural depicts Donna Campbell, a nurse and daughter of the Windrush generation who died during the pandemic, and her mother Lydia.

The court heard how Haynes, who has been diagnosed as autistic, was referred to the Prevent de-radicalisation programme last spring by the air cadets.

He was expelled from the group last September, after he sent images to other cadets of himself with a swastika painted on his chest.

Haynes was also banned from Instagram for posting racist and Nazi images.

After vandalising the mural the teenager bragged about his actions on messaging app Telegram, writing: “Check my art out.”

He also was involved in setting off a smoke bomb at the Queer Emporium in Cardiff in October 2022, the court previously heard.

The 15-year-old boy appeared at Cardiff Youth Court on 15 August.

He pleaded guilty to one count of criminal damage and four counts of racially aggravated criminal damage.

He was given a referral order for a year, a criminal behaviour order for two years and ordered to pay £100 compensation to The Queer Emporium.

Det Chief Insp Andrew Williams from Counter Terrorism Policing Wales said the investigation revealed Haynes was “also involved in the online distribution of extreme right-wing material, which clearly fell into the space governed by terrorism legislation”.

“The offences were particularly abhorrent in nature and understandably caused upset to many people, both within the communities the boys targeted, and beyond.”
BBC News

An A-level student has been found guilty of sharing weapons manuals and terrorist documents.

Malakai Wheeler, 18, of Stamford Close, Swindon, Wiltshire, was convicted by a jury at Winchester Crown Court of six charges, including possessing a copy of the Terrorist Handbook.

Judge Jane Miller KC told Wheeler, who was 16-years-old when he committed the offences, to expect a custodial sentence.

He will be sentenced on 3 November.

Along with the Terrorist Handbook, police found copies of the Anarchist’s Handbook and a document called ‘Homemade Detonators’ in Wheeler’s bedroom.

The teenager was also convicted of sharing 92 documents and 35 images in a chatroom, as well as two other charges of sharing instructions for the use of items that could be used to perform acts of terrorism, including smoke grenades.

Wheeler told the court he had an interest in national socialism as well as anti-Zionism and admitted using a Nazi swastika as part of his profile image on the social media platform Telegram.

He said he downloaded the documents because he wanted to create an archive of items he believed would be deleted altogether from Telegram and the internet.

Wheeler said he accessed videos from the terrorist group calling itself Islamic State, which showed people being killed, out of “morbid curiosity”, adding: “It’s not something you see in every day life.”

Explaining why he downloaded instructions on how to make weapons, he said they could have been useful in the case of “social disorder”.

He said: “Weapons could be useful if there was a serious emergency. Covid showed things could come out of the blue. It could be an economic problem or a foreign invasion – things can just pop out of nowhere.”

Wheeler also said he accessed a file called 100 Deadly Skills because he felt they could have been useful – with their descriptions of techniques to escape from a hotel or “stop yourself from drowning if you were tied up in the water”.

The teenager also accepted being photographed in a skull mask and doing a Nazi salute.

‘Deeply entrenched’

Describing his links to national socialism, he said: “I have an interest and sympathy with some of it but not all of it.”

Det Ch Supt James Dunkerley, head of counter terrorism policing North East, said: “Although only 16 at the time of his arrest, Wheeler was deeply entrenched in a Telegram chat group committed to extreme right-wing ideology.

“He was not simply curious, or a passive observer within the group.

“He clearly shared the same mindset as other members and was very active when it came to promoting racist and anti-semitic views and propaganda.”

He added: “It is important young people recognise the potential impact of their online activity, before they cross a line into criminality, or engage in harmful or dangerous behaviours.”

BBC News

The 17-year-old youth from South Wales admitted a string of terror offences and criminal damage and appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday.

A former RAF cadet daubed a Windrush mural with Nazi symbols and fantasised about making a gun and killing a schoolboy, a court has heard.

The 17-year-old youth from South Wales admitted a string of terror offences and criminal damage and appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday.

The court heard how the youth was referred to the Prevent de-radicalisation programme last spring by the Royal Air Force Air Cadets.

Last September, he was expelled from the group after he sent images to other cadets bare chested with a Swastika painted on his chest and was banned from Instagram for posting racist and Nazi images.

The youth, then aged 16, went on to paint graffiti on a Windrush mural in Port Talbot, which celebrates the town’s Caribbean community, on two occasions in October and November.

Community members were shaken and disgusted after several swastikas, the phrase “Nazi zone”, white supremacist symbol “1488” and a racial slur appeared on the mural hours after it was completed.

The mural depicts Donna Campbell, a much-loved nurse and daughter of the Windrush generation who died during the pandemic, and her mother Lydia, known as Mrs Campbell in her community, with a merged image of a Welsh dragon and the Jamaican flag.

The teenager had bragged about his actions on Telegram telling a user: “Check my art out. Didn’t even spray this shit. I pulled up with a f****** paint brush.”

On October 31 last year he was involved in setting off a smoke bomb at The Queer Emporium in Cardiff, which damaged the floor.

The emporium was targeted because it is a centre for the local LGBT+ community, the court was told.

Prosecutor Lucy Jones outlined how the full extent of the defendant’s right-wing ideology was laid bare after he was arrested on November 8 last year.

In a search of his bedroom, police found a stash of knives, an air rifle and antisemitic literature.

A copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf had been bought for him by his mother and contained the defendant’s handwritten notes, Ms Jones said.

Other items from the defendant’s room included gas masks and flags bearing a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) symbol and a swastika.

The defendant’s electronic devices were seized and the court was shown homemade videos and images in which he made Nazi salutes and shared his far-right ideology.

In one video, the youth talked about “white power” while wearing a swastika pendant, which he was regularly seen sporting on social media.

In other videos, he posed with an air gun and referred to himself as the “KKK” and “Hitler’s strongest soldier”.

The court was told that on one occasion he had fired the gun through the skylight in his bedroom.

His internet search history revealed a fascination with far-right mass killers and extreme groups such as the Atomwaffen Division.

Ms Jones said: “There appears to be an unhealthy interest in school shootings and videos showing live coverage of these shootings taking place.

Ms Jones said: “He is an isolated and angry youth who spends a considerable amount of time reading extreme right-wing, white supremacist literature and he had violent fantasies.”

The defendant’s diary also outlined a desire for “race war”, the court was told.

Among the entries was a hate-filled rant about an Asian schoolmate who be believed “grassed” on him.

He wrote: “I would be doing the world a favour if I just killed him.”

A list of life goals included “burn a building down, maybe bomb it”, “kill someone”, “join a Nazi militia”, “get a gun or make one” and “get buff as hell”.

The prosecutor said the defendant was not just a “keyboard warrior”, saying: “He’s carrying out his ideals not just in relation to the criminal damage but advocating in views in his social media. He’s not anonymous, he is willing to show his face and share and support his views.”

In June, the youth pleaded guilty to eight charges – two of possessing a terrorist document, three of distributing a terrorist document and three charges of criminal damage.

One of the terrorist documents the youth shared with another teenager gave details on bombmaking, derailing trains, attacking power lines and kidnapping police officers, as well as glorifying notorious mass murderers.

He possessed and disseminated another manual with “step-by-step” instructions on gun-making.

In mitigation, David Elias KC said the defendant’s parents were in court and were “fully supportive of him”.

He said they thought he had knives for “field craft” in the cadets and knew nothing about his extremist online activities.

Mr Elias said: “(The defendant) was a member of the cadet force and his father allowed him to use that air rifle. A target range was set up in the garden for him to practise what he was already doing at the cadets.”

He added that his collection of gas masks should be seen in the context of his fascination with the Second World War.

The defendant had been diagnosed with autism and during the pandemic found it easier to talk to people and make friends online, the court was told.

Mr Justice Jeremy Baker observed an impression could be formed that the defendant’s parents “cherished their child to the extent he could not do anything wrong”.

Mr Elias replied: “They did not know what he was doing and when they found out they were, as anyone who has seen those videos and messages, absolutely appalled.”

Mr Justice Baker said it was a troubling case and told the defendant his sentencing would be adjourned until September 21.

The defendant was granted continued bail.

Evening Standard