Nicholas Brock, 53, is covered in neo-Nazi tattoos while his bedroom is covered in SS memorabilia. He was convicted after police found he had manuals on how to kill people

A right wing extremist covered in neo-Nazi tattoos has been jailed after he was caught with manuals on how to kill people with knives and make homemade bombs.

Nicholas Brock, 53, decorated his bedroom with SS memorabilia and was convicted of three counts of possessing documents useful to a terrorist after a trial.

The specific documents the charges relate to were found organised into a folder labelled ‘army military manuals’ on an external hard drive seized by police in January 2018.

The documents were The Anarchists’ Cookbook version 2000, which contains bomb recipes, a document on knife-fighting techniques and a US military manual containing further instruction on fatal knife attacks.

But a treasure trove of far right material was found at the home Brock shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire, including literature, weapons, bomb recipes and violent videos.

Sentencing him today, Judge Peter Lodder QC said: “It is clear by the wide range of other material that you are a right wing extremist.

“Your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic, racist, Islamophobic and white supremacist iconography which you have stored and appear to share with others of similar views.

“Your bedroom was decorated with SS memorabilia and a framed KKK recognition certificate in your own name was hanging on your wall.

“Your degree of devotion is indicated by your decision to cover your upper body and arms with tattoos of symbols associated with neo-Nazis.

“I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs me about your criminality and the assessment of dangerousness.”

Jurors at Brock’s trial back in March heard police discovered Hitler’s Mein Kampf and books about owning a black slave and the neo-Nazi group Hail Combat 18 in Brock’s collection.

A variety of Second World War knives and daggers bearing Nazi and SS insignias and recipes for homemade bombs annotated with hand-drawn swastikas were found, the court heard.

Analysis of electronic devices found photos of a man “believed to be Brock wearing a balaclava, holding a large firearm and posing in front of a swastika flag in his bedroom”, prosecutors said.

There was also a snap of Brock wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ cap, associated with Donald Trump ’s 2016 presidential campaign, and standing in front of the Confederate flag.

The Nazi flag, which bore an eagle and swastika, was found on Brock’s wall during the police search, as well as an SS wall plaque, Nazi propaganda poster and a framed Ku Klux Klan certificate of recognition with his name on it.

A Nazi badge was also found on his bedside table.

Videos of “extreme violence” found on devices included footage taken by the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant as he shot 51 people dead in Newzealand, beheadings and KKK cross burnings.

The jury heard Brock has tattoos of “Nazi figures from the 1930s and 40s”, an SS Totenkopf skull and swastikas on his upper body.

In a police interview, Brock claimed he was a military collector and denied downloading the documents.

He said his friends would sometimes come round to play Playstation games in his bedroom and he would often be out of the room “making a cup of tea or a sandwich”.

Ms Gargitter told the sentencing hearing Brock has a conviction for burglary and theft dating back to when he was 19, and more recently for two counts of racially aggravated harassment in 2017.

He was handed a community order at Berkshire Magistrates’ Court for the harassment after sending racist messages and memes to an ex-partner relating to her mixed-race children – one of whom was just eight-years-old.

In mitigation Edward Butler, defending, said the offences were “documentary”.

He said: “There are cases where those documents are possessed with a particular plan or purpose in mind.

“This is not such a case. These documents were three of a vast quantity of data, much of it macabre and concerning in nature, obviously, but plainly accumulated over many years.”

He said there was “no evidence or suggestion” Brock was a member of any terrorist organisation or “intended to participate in any form of terrorist act”.

Mr Butler said the material was “hoarded” and the idea his client would participate in a knife attack was “fanciful” as he did not have the “physical wherewithal or ability” due to health conditions.

He said Brock was a “vulnerable defendant” who will find prison life “very challenging”.

Judge Lodder said he did not find Brock met the ‘dangerousness’ provisions in the law – which would have meant he was eligible for a longer prison sentence.

He said: “It is argued that although the pre-sentence report finds there is a high risk of serious harm for you, there is a low likelihood of re-offending.

“I’m concerned about what the report correctly identifies as high levels of immersion in ideological extremism but I find your situation is borderline.”

Brock, of Lancaster Road, Maidenhead, was jailed for four years with a licence extension of one year.

He will not be released until he has served at least two thirds of the sentence.

Daily Mirror

Nimmo was a racist with an “Islamophobic mindset who was clearly dangerous”, the court heard

An internet troll who encouraged the murder of Muslims has been jailed for a string of terrorism offences.

John Nimmo also distributed the Anarchist Cookbook – a terrorist manual on how to make explosives.

At Newcastle Crown Court, he admitted seven offences including encouraging terrorism and distributing material likely to stir up religious hatred.

Nimmo, 32, of Osborne Avenue, South Shields, was jailed for 10 years and two months.

He also admitted possessing and disseminating terrorist material, possessing a prohibited firearm and breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order linked to a previous offence.

Nimmo served prison sentences in 2014 and 2017 for sending abuse online aimed at Liverpool Wavertree Labour MP Luciana Berger, among other victims.

‘Racist mindset’

The court heard how he encouraged the murder of Muslims on his Gab social media account.

Judge Robert Adams said: “Nimmo has a racist and Islamophobic mindset – clearly, he’s dangerous”.

Prosecutor Matthew Brook told the court officers from Northumbria Police were tasked to regularly inspect Nimmo’s computer and devices as a result of the Criminal Behaviour Order.

He said Nimmo had posted illegal material in 2019 on social media, including calling Muslims “scum” and saying “a spring clean is in order”.

The hearing heard that another man Ciaran Anderson, 23, approached Dale Elliott, 29, and Nimmo in April 2020 asking whether they could make him a gun.

But after getting cold feet, Anderson rang police claiming to have heard a firearm discharged on Osborne Avenue in South Shields, where Elliott and Nimmo were neighbours.

Police found two homemade “slam guns” and home-made ammunition inside Elliott’s home. They also found a video of Elliott discharging a slam gun and Nimmo holding one.

Weapons were found during searches of the men’s addresses

Anderson admitted conspiracy to transfer a prohibited firearm and was jailed for three years and four months.

Elliott pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm and ammunition without a firearms certificate and was jailed for five years and seven months.

Benjamin Newton, defending, said Nimmo had mental health problems and had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

He said: “The internet for him is almost like a drug that brings out the worst in him.

“There was no real chance anyone was going to act on his words.”

BBC News

A University of Cambridge maths graduate with an “extreme right-wing mindset” has been jailed for possessing a bomb-making instructional manual.

Oliver Bel was arrested after making racist and anti-Semitic comments online and posting on Facebook that he wanted to “go on a killing spree”.

Police then searched his home and found a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook.

The 24-year-old, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, was jailed for two years at Manchester Crown Court.

Bel declined to give evidence in his trial and was convicted in April of collecting information useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

The court was told he ordered the book after he had been in contact with a member of banned far-right group National Action, who he had asked for advice on how to network with other far-right individuals and how to take action.

‘Arrogant young man’

He was reported to authorities in January 2019 while studying at Cambridge, after making anti-Semitic comments and posting about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in a Facebook group.

He subsequently met with a counter-terrorism officer from the government’s Prevent programme, but was subsequently reported again in July 2019 after posting on the social media site that he wanted “go on a spree”.

Analysis of his phone found other racist and anti-Semitic comments and a statement about how he wanted “to go on a killing spree”.

Police searched his then home in Salford four months later, shortly after anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate published an article which revealed Bel’s beliefs, and found the manual.

At trial, his claim that he had the book for legitimate intellectual interest was rejected by the jury.

Sentencing him, Judge Alan Conrad QC told him the evidence heard had “showed your extreme right-wing mindset”.

He said Bel’s “pronouncements were abhorrent to all right-thinking people, as were the vile images that you kept on your mobile telephone”.

He told Bel that he believed his diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome was “something upon which you play when it suits you” and said he was an “arrogant young man” who was “blessed with high intelligence [but] whose heart is filled with so much hatred”.

Speaking after sentencing, Hope Not Hate’s Matthew Collins said Bel threatened his organisation “with legal action and with violence” after they exposed him.

“His sentencing today is welcome, but should also be a reminder of the continued growth in the threat of far-right terror,” he added.

BBC News

Here are the Judges statement when he was sentencing Bel.
R v OB 21-May-2021 15-37-06(1)

A Surrey man who ran a number of extreme right wing group chats and shared how to make explosives and firearms online has been convicted.

Michael Nugent, 37, of Ashford, has been convicted of terrorism offences after showing people how to deliver bombs as Amazon packages.

According to Met Police, Nugent used different personas in the chat rooms, and expressed his racist views and hatred of ethnic minorities.

But the investigation by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command linked the various online accounts to Nugent’s real-world identity and he was arrested and convicted as a result.

Following his arrest on August 19, 2020, he was interviewed over seven days but gave no comment.

Nugent was initially charged with 12 Terrorism Act offences and first appeared in court on August 25, where a further six charges were subsequently added.

On May 13, 2021, Nugent pleaded guilty to five counts of dissemination of terrorist publications and 11 counts of possession of a document containing information likely to be useful to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism.

He pleaded not guilty to two counts of encouraging terrorism, and these charges were ordered to lie on file.

Commander Richard Smith, who leads the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Nugent was an active member of internet chat rooms where he freely shared his abhorrent extremist views with others.

“He sought to influence and encourage other members to commit acts of violence, and passed on manuals detailing how to produce deadly weapons and explosive devices.

“However, he was stopped when he was arrested by counter terrorism officers.

“The police investigation unearthed a huge amount of incriminating evidence which forced Nugent to admit to his offences before trial.

“This is another case which shows how harmful online extremism is.

“That is why it is important that anyone who believes that they have a friend or loved one who has been or is vulnerable to radicalisation seeks help.”

Nugent is due to be sentenced next month on June 23.

Surry Comet

A racist who claimed to be ‘more extreme than Tommy Robinson’ has been jailed after tweeting calling for ‘civil war’.

White supremacist Tobias Powell, 33, sent a series of tweets including showing a photo of his Nazi tattoo and and said: ‘Civil war is the only way… at first it will be a blood bath’.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard one image posted online showed his dog with a paw raised alongside text that said: ‘Sieg heil.’

Drug addict Powell shared ‘extreme right-wing language’ and published ‘anti-Islamist and anti-Semitic posts and retweets,’ prosecutor Amy Packham said.

Counter-terror investigators found a mass of far-right material at his home in Pagham in a February 2019 raid.

Investigators found Powell had set up his Apple ID using the name Adolph Hitler, and played the football game Fifa with ‘Nazi’ on the back of a player’s shirt. He named the player using a racist epithet and ‘killer’.

He also shared tweets by former American president Donald Trump and far-right figures including Nick Griffin, Tommy Robinson and American white supremacist David Lane, Ms Packham said

His posts online also showed support for proscribed far-right group National Action.

An email found by police revealed he claimed to have done ‘10 years of research’ and as a ‘white lad’ had now decided to ‘become active in a movement’ committed to ‘furthering the white race’.

“I have been trying to find a serious and like-minded group of brothers I can join and fight alongside,” he said.

“I have no problem shooting off a kneecap or scalping a radical Imam or removing the penis of one of the (men involved in child abuse in Rotherham).”

Powell, whose barrister suggested he tweeted while in a ‘twisted mind’ high on cocaine and drunk, also posted an image of a tattoo on his right thigh showing the Celtic Cross, Swastika and Iron Cross.

In the tweets posted between July and October in 2018 he also called murdered MP Jo Cox an ‘alleged open traitor and enemy of the people’.

Ms Packham said officers saw Powell had posted online ‘images of the defendant’s dog with his paw raised with ‘sieg heil’ next to it’.

Jailing him for three years, judge Timothy Mousely QC said: “This was vile, offensive, abusive and threatening language which intended by you to incite racial hatred.

“I am quite satisfied that you demonstrated attitudes towards many different ethnic groups, religious groups and people of different sexualities which are abhorrent to most people and you’ve done it over a significant period of time.

“I am also quite satisfied that your views and the ways you’ve expressed them is particularly worrying, and deeply entrenched, and have been for many years.

“They’re far-reaching and they’re obsessive.”

Among the material found was an email titled ‘Brexit Stitch Up’ he wrote to then prime minister Theresa May describing her as a ‘snake’.

He also wrote a letter to MP Nick Gibbs about his concerns over Sharia law.

Powell, of Wythering Close, was found guilty of four charges of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour intending thereby to stir up racial hatred.

He denied the charges but was convicted by district judge Tan Ikram at Worthing Magistrates’ Court last month.

At his trial Powell claimed he was not racist and did not intend to stir up racial hatred.

Pierce Power, mitigating, said: ‘He’s certainly no Tommy Robinson, he’s in no position to influence anyone.

“He is what he is, which is a rather pathetic individual who holds unattractive views and nothing more serious than that.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, head of the south east’s counter-terror policing unit, previously said: “Whilst this was not a terrorism case, the nature of the rhetoric Powell had shared on social media, meant that it was only right for specialist officers from Counter Terrorism Policing to conduct a thorough investigation.”

Bognor Observer

A RACIST lout is once again back behind bars over his latest bout of “nasty” abuse.

Ryan Breach admitted two racist harassment offences in Hove and Worthing.

The 31-year-old, with distinctive facial tattoos, has been in and out of prison, notably for breaching a court order which bans him from entering Brighton city centre.

He had shown a “wilful and persistent” disregard for court orders with “continuous breaches”.

Last month he appeared at Crawley Magistrates’ Court where he admitted two new offences.

The first was on August 15 last year where Breach racially abused Dr Stephan Weber in Hove.

He used abusive, insulting or threatening behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

Breach also admitted racist abuse towards Vinojan Vijayakmur in Worthing on October 10 last year.

Magistrate Gavin Oclee-Brown noted both crimes were “racially aggravated, nasty offences”.

Breach was jailed for a total of eight weeks and was ordered to pay £100 compensation to the victims.

The money will be deducted from his benefits.

Previously, The Argus reported how Breach was jailed in January for being “non-compliant” with orders designed to curb his antisocial behaviour.

Breach appeared in court on January 12, with magistrates sending him back to prison for 12 weeks.

In April 2019 Breach, now of Brighton Road, Selden, popped out of court for a “cigarette” break, and moments later was left unable to even stand up.

A court guard said: “He has been extremely aggressive and threatening. I think he has taken some sort of substance.

“We tried to carry him down the front stairs, he isn’t capable of walking.

“I think he has taken something while being inside here.

“He has been taken somewhere else. We won’t let him into the building.”

He told his defence solicitor Mark Rogers he was going to take a cigarette break.

Mr Rogers told the court that it was “a long cigarette break”.

When it was revealed that his client was not able to stand up, Mr Rogers said he was not aware of any alcohol problems with Breach, and said his client could be “a bit gobby”.

In July 2019, Breach attacked PC Samuel Bettles in the accident and emergency department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton.

He also attacked PC Chelsie Maskell and PC James Roberts in police custody, and was jailed for 45 weeks.

In January last year he admitted attacking a woman police officer and breaching the order when he was seen in Surrey Street near the station.

On that occasion he was jailed for 20 weeks.

Brighton Argus

Robert Gregory, 24, who fantasised about killing former Prime Minister Theresa May, was jailed for four-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty to terror offences

Robert Gregory pleaded guilty to terror offences and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail after a judge condemned his “clear terrorist motivations” (Image: Dorset Police/Solent News)

An aspiring terrorist who fantasised about killing former Prime Minister Theresa May and blowing himself up in a mosque watched YouTube videos to find out how to make a bomb, a court heard.

Robert Gregory admitted watching two videos about how to construct explosives – one called ‘How to make a mini bomb’ and the other entitled ‘How to make a simple time bomb DIY’.

A court heard that when Gregory was asked about why he wanted to commit these violent attacks, he said: “I want to stand up for my people.”

The 24-year-old was caught when police discovered the online searches on his phone and seized his diary.

He pleaded guilty to terror offences and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail after a judge condemned his “clear terrorist motivations”.

Winchester Crown Court heard that Gregory, from Bournemouth, committed the offences just eight days after being released on licence from prison, where he had been serving time for stabbing a homeless person when he was just 16.

In diary entries read to the court, Gregory wrote that he wanted to “stab” the then Prime Minister Theresa May and “kill as many MPs on road to Downing Street”.

He also wrote that he would like to “kill a news reporter live on TV” and “blow myself up in a mosque”.

Prosecutor Julia Faure Walker also revealed that he had searched “How to justify killing a Muslim” and “Where can I buy a gun in Bournemouth?” online.

Another diary entry from Gregory said that “not enough” people were killed in the Christchurch Mosque shootings in 2019 in which 51 people were shot dead by a white supremacist.

The diary entry read: “‘Got news of terror attack in New Zealand finally we are taking a stand.

“Why do Muslims continue to condemn attacks on their own people not the ones on us?”

Other diary entries involved Gregory asking if an attack is still a terror attack if the attacker is not Muslim and Gregory’s plans to recruit “troops” that he would radicalise over a period of time.

Another entry detailed plans to get in touch with ISIS to learn how to make a suicide vest.

It read: “Try to get hold of ISIS terrorist group once out of prison although I am not a Muslim so I can learn to make suicide vest.”

Gregory went on to suggest he could use the suicide vest at a gay pride event.

Ms Faure Walker told the court that one of the videos he watched in April 2019 showed how to make a bomb using card and fireworks and the other showed how to make a time bomb using household items including an analogue clock and a mouse trap.

When interviewed by police about the diary entries, Gregory denied he wrote them and claimed he got along with Muslims, the court heard.

Defending, Paul Wakerley told the court that the videos Gregory watched were easily accessed on YouTube – with the one about the time bomb having 845,237 views and the other one having 388,000 views.

“There was no specialist skill required to find these videos, they were found on YouTube,” he said.

Mr Wakerley said that Gregory’s views were not underpinned by extremism but rather by more general feelings of violence.

He said: “Many of the diary entries that are referred to are extremely difficult to to listen to but they are diary entries of a man in prison over the course of two years and they are not part of the offence that he is convicted with for his plea.”

Gregory pleaded guilty to two charges of collecting terrorist information.

Sentencing, Judge Jane Miller QC told him: “You had clear terrorist motivations. I assess that you present a very high risk of harm to the public.”

Gregory was also subjected to a terrorism notification order, which means he will be closely monitored for a period of 30 years.

Daily Mirror

The 22-year-old had denied all the offences

A Met Police officer who was convicted of being part of a banned neo-Nazi terrorist group has been jailed.

Benjamin Hannam, of Enfield, north London, was found guilty on 1 April of membership of the far-right extremist group National Action.

The 22-year-old was also convicted of fraud over lies on his police application and possessing documents useful to a terrorist.

He was jailed at the Old Bailey for four years and four months.

Hannam was the first serving British officer to be convicted of a terrorism offence.

Jurors found Hannam guilty of two counts of possessing documents useful to a terrorist and two counts of fraud.

The fraud involved over £66,000 he earned from the Met after joining in 2018, while the documents related to a knife-fighting guide and a manual written by Anders Behring Breivik – the man responsible for murdering 77 people in Norway in 2011.

Officers found a National Action business card and badges in Hannam’s bedroom

Judge Anthony Leonard QC said the offences were so serious that only a custodial term was appropriate.

He said the nature of anti-Semitic material held by Hannam was “horrible and deeply troubling”.

Timeline

Benjamin Hannam (second right) with other NA members

2016 – Joins NA and regularly attends meetings before the group was banned in December

2017 – Becomes a part of NA’s successor version called NS131 – which was also outlawed in September. His application to the Met is made in the summer, only days after he had attended an NS131 event

2018 – Enrols with Met Police and is passed out in front of Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick the following year

2020 – Arrested by police and subsequently charged

Judge Leonard told Hannam that he had “no doubt that your autism played a part in your offending”.

He said that, in committing fraud, the defendant had “abused the trust” of the police and public.

“You have harmed public trust in the police by your deceit,” he said.

Hannam remained in National Action from the time it was banned in December 2016 until September 2017.

The prosecution could not say that Hannam was preparing to make explosives or employ the knife-fighting techniques.

Hannam pleaded guilty to one count of possessing prohibited images of children – details of which were read out during the sentencing.

When his home was searched by detectives last year, his computer was found to contain a folder of “anime cartoons” of children and young people.

Prosecutor Dan Pawson-Pounds said: “Although most of the files in this folder did not show any sexual acts, there was a series of 12 drawings of the same hand-drawn girl, who appeared to be eight or nine years old, engaged in acts of intercourse.”

Some of the images showed the child, in a state of distress, being raped by an adult male.

Mr Pawson-Pounds said that aggravating features in relation to the prohibited images included the age of the child depicted, the “shock and upset” discernible on her face in some images, and the fact she was wearing a school uniform.

BBC News

He claimed he “fainted a bit” when finally brought to justice for his sick crimes

John Merritt denied any wrongdoing but was found guilty of raping two boys when he was a teenager (Image: Liverpool Echo)

John Merritt, 60, of Leathers Lane, Halewood, denied sexually abusing the children more than four decades ago.

But at the age of 14 or 15, when going by the name Walter Merritt, he raped his victims in Belle Vale and Netherley.

Merritt offered chocolate to Boy A, before inviting him into his house and raping him in a bathroom and a nearby field.

He also raped Boy B in the bathroom, pouncing after his mum invited the disadvantaged little boy in for tea and cake.

Boy B described how the abuse “destroyed” his life and even landed him in jail, after he stole to buy drugs to block out the horror.

Liverpool Crown Court heard the now dad-of-four carried out the attacks in the 1970s.

Stephen McNally, prosecuting, said they came to light when Boy A made a formal complaint to the police in 2016.

He previously told his sister about the abuse 30 years earlier and also mentioned it in a letter to police in 2014, but hadn’t taken it further at that stage.

When interviewed, Boy A told police he believed it happened to others and mentioned Boy B, who was traced by officers and interviewed in 2018.

Mr McNally said Boy B wasn’t told who provided his name, but both men “independently provided accounts which bore a number of similarities”.

Boy A said Merritt passed him in the street, offered him chocolate and invited him into his home, before raping him in the bathroom. He said Merritt also raped him at another location and in a field in Netherley.

Boy B said he went to Merritt’s home because Merritt’s mum was nice to him and fed him, when times were hard in his family and he was “largely left to fend for himself”.

Mr McNally said: “He said that Mrs Merritt offered him tea, biscuits and cake, which he didn’t get at home.”

The court heard Merritt followed him into the bathroom, locked the door and raped him on two occasions.

Merritt was convicted of three counts of a sexual offence which would now be classed as rape after a trial in March.

In a victim statement, Boy A – who attended the sentencing – said the abuse “destroyed his life”.

Mr McNally said: “He describes how he turned to drugs because he ‘needed not to remember’.”

Boy A didn’t wish to make a victim statement, but in evidence described how the abuse affected his “personal relationships” and he also turned to drugs.

The trial heard Merritt was convicted of wounding aged 15 in 1976, when he threw a bike cog at a girl’s face, leading to him being put in care. His family later moved to Speke.

Mr McNally said in 1980 he was convicted of possessing a weapon, “a stick with a chain” when “part of a Teddy Boy outfit”.

Merritt was most recently convicted of a racially aggravated public order offence in 2015.

The court heard he had character references from his wife, adult son and two adult daughters.

Louise McCloskey, defending, said her client “acknowledged” the jury’s verdict, but maintained his innocence.

She said Merritt was “only a child” at the time and expert evidence, including an intermediary’s report, detailed his “educational difficulties and learning difficulties, as well as significant physical difficulties”.

The judge, Recorder Ian Harris, accepted there had to be a significant reduction in the sentence, because of Merritt’s age at the time and his “characteristics”.

Ms McCloskey said Merritt was assessed as being “a low risk of re-offending” and hadn’t committed any crimes since.

She said: “The man before the court, 60 years of age, is a very different one from the teenager that committed these offences.”

Ms McCloskey said the Probation Service recommended a community-based sentence, so Merritt could undergo work to rehabilitate him.

She said his family thought “very highly of him” and he was a “great support” to his wife and 12-year-old son, who has health difficulties.

Ms McCloskey said: “The defendant was convicted of these offences – not his family. Since this case was first publicised, his family have been subject to the most despicable abuse and general intimidation.”

She added: “His family are guilty of nothing and should not be treated as such.

“They themselves perhaps your honour could be considered victims of the offences.”

Recorder Harris said Merritt, when 14 or 15, raped Boy A up to five times, when the child was nine or 10, and raped Boy B twice, when the victim was eight or nine.

He said Merritt “befriended” then groomed and isolated the boys, which involved “significant planning”.

Referring to Boy A, Recorder Harris said: “It’s quite clear there has been a lifelong impact upon him.”

The judge said Boy B, who screamed and shouted out during the rapes, was left with “lifelong psychological harm”.

He said Boy B told the court: “I needed not to remember what this man did to me as a kid, so I took drugs, which made me not think about what had been done to me by him.

“He ruined my whole life. All my relationships failed with me being insecure with what happened to me. I stole to fund my drug habit, which put me in jail… one big, vicious cycle.”

Recorder Harris said a pre-sentence report referred to Merritt’s “dysfunctional sexual interests” as a teen and how the rapes allowed him to “exert power and control over the victims”.

The judge noted his learning difficulties and said Merritt suffered from physical problems, including abnormally short arms, as a result of his mum receiving thalidomide treatment when pregnant, which Merritt said led to him and his family being “marginalised and verbally abused” when living in Netherley.

He said the report suggested “optimistically and unrealistically” that he could be spared jail, but if Merritt had been an adult at the time of the abuse, he would have faced more than 16 years in prison.

Recorder Harris jailed him for eight years, at which point Merritt collapsed, hitting a wooden rail as he fell.

When helped up by a dock officer, he claimed “I just fainted a bit”, then muttered: “It’s my back as well.”

He will serve at least six years in prison, before he is released on licence.

Merritt, who must sign the Sex Offenders Register for life, waved to his crying wife and adult son as he was sent down.

Speaking after the case, Detective Constable Julia Jennings said: “The actions of Merritt have clearly had a long lasting and devastating impact on his victims, who have been forced to relive their ordeals through his trial.

“I would like to pay tribute to their courage and strength in coming forward to speak up against Merritt and I hope that today’s sentencing will finally give them the closure they have waited so long for.

“Time is never a barrier to investigating a crime and bringing someone to justice and I would encourage anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse to come forward. We have specially trained officers who can support you through the investigation process.”

Liverpool Echo

Former Cambridge student and neo-nazi sympathiser Oliver Bel has been found guilty of a terror offence, after being caught in possession of a bomb-making manual.

Former Cambridge University student Oliver Bel was today found guilty at Manchester Crown Court after being caught in possession of the notorious Anarchist Cookbook, which includes bomb-making designs.

The court heard how Bel was in contact with the now banned nazi-terror group National Action, and several high profile activists from the group attended his trial.

Bel’s prosecution came about following the publication of two HOPE not hate blogs in November 2019, which revealed his true political views, especially his extreme and vulgar hatred of Jews.

We revealed that Bel, writing under his own name on the Iron March nazi forum, said:

“Jews are parasites, well known for nepotism and financial corruption… Extermination is the best option for them.”

The second blog focused on Bel’s apparent desire to do something ‘spectacular’ – even stream himself on some kind of ‘killing spree’.

These blogs were referenced several times during the trial and even read out in court in one instance.

Furious with our blog, Bel contacted us after we published, claiming that our reporting could possibly stop the mathematics graduate getting a good job. Our response was that anything alerting future employers to his hatred was a good thing.

Our initial articles alerted the authorities, and Bel was soon raided by counter-terrorism officers. He was found to be in possession of (among other things) the Anarchist Cookbook, a favourite for DIY terrorists tinkering with the idea of making bombs.

Bel drew support from the same sort of sycophants that had also supported and rallied around the convicted Nazi terrorist and paedophile Jack Renshaw. Bel wrote to us twice and repeatedly tried to ring us, but his threats of legal action unsurprisingly came to nothing.

He seemed rather pleased and preoccupied with the idea that articles about him had been removed by Google, whom he described as a “notoriously left wing company”.

During the trial at Manchester Crown Court it was revealed that Bel had also been in touch with Alex Davies, the founder of the terror group National Action and who is, amazingly, still at liberty. Davies even turned up in the evidence given last month in the court case against Benjamin Hannam, the police officer convicted of membership of the terror group.

Bel, of Eccles Road, Salford, denied possessing a document containing information useful to terrorism, but the jury did not buy his defence.

He had also originally refused to wear a mask in court, claiming he was exempt due to what he described as his “Asperger’s”. After the judge threatened to revoke his bail, the hardline nazi complied.

HOPE not hate had initially traced Bel from the notorious ‘Iron March’ forum which was home to a number of far-right terrorists, including “Daddy Terror” Ben Raymond, who, like Davies, remains at liberty.

Hope not Hate