Former RAF cadet and “Hitler’s strongest soldier” admits to far-right graffiti

A former RAF (Royal Air Force) cadet admitted in court on Friday that he was responsible for far-right graffiti.

An unnamed seventeen-year-old boy appeared in court at the Old Bailey and admitted two separate acts of vandalism in 2022 on a Windrush memorial in Port Talbot. The graffiti consisted of a swastika, text that read, “Nazi zone” and “1488”, and a racial slur. 

1488 is often used as a coded reference to the neo-Nazi fourteen-word oath, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children,” a slogan initially devised by David Lane, a member of the white supremacist terrorist group “The Order”, which was responsible for the murder of Jewish radio host Alan Berg. The number 88 refers to the eighth letter of the alphabet, H, and is intended as a code for “Heil Hitler.”

The Court heard about the teenager’s troubling history of engagement with far-right ideology, which included: Being banned from Instagram for posting Nazi content; owning a copy of Mein Kampf, which was bought for him by his mother; and having an internet history of extreme far-right material. 

According to the prosecution, police also found knives, a gasmask, a KKK flag, a swastika flag and an air rifle among the defendant’s possessions. 

A video was shown in Court where the teenager posed with the air rifle and called himself, “Hitler’s strongest soldier”. Another video showed him wearing a swastika necklace and talking about “white power”.

It was also found that the defendant wrote “check my art out” on Telegram after the mural was vandalised. 

The Court heard that the defendant was referred to the Government’s Prevent programme last year by his RAF cadet group. He was later expelled from the group when he shared an image of himself with a swastika on his chest with other cadets. 

Lucy Jones, prosecuting, also presented content from the defendant’s diary, which included an entry that expressed desire for a “race war”. 

Another entry included a to-do list that detailed items such as “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 teenager previously pled guilty to two charges of possessing a terrorist document, three charges of distributing a terrorist document and three charges of criminal damage in June. 

The defendant is due to be sentenced in September and will remain on unconditional bail until then. 

Campaign Against Antisemitism closely monitors the far-right, which remains a dangerous threat to the Jewish community and other minority groups.