Former RAF cadet and “Hitler’s strongest soldier” sentenced
A former Royal Air Force cadet, who was responsible for far-right graffiti, was sentenced in court on Thursday.
Aristedes Haynes, 17, of Cwmavon in Wales, was sentenced at the Old Bailey to one year and 220 days’ imprisonment in youth custody with a further one year on licence.
Mr Haynes previously pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing a terrorist document, three charges of distributing a terrorist document and three charges of criminal damage in June. Earlier this month, the teenager admitted to 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.”
My Haynes was previously revealed to have a 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 online search history of extreme far-right material.
A video had also been shown to the court in which the teenager posed with an air rifle and called himself, “Hitler’s strongest soldier”.
Mr Haynes 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.
Following his arrest, police found knives, a gasmask, a KKK flag, a swastika flag and an air rifle among Mr Haynes’ possessions. Police also found a diary belonging to Mr Haynes in which he expressed his desire for a “race war” as well as a to-do list with 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”.
Mr Haynes had previously remained anonymous to the public; it was determined, however, by Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, that it was within the public interest to identify the defendant.
Mr Justice Baker also remarked that the defendant’s “parents and others were naive in their approach to the views they had witnessed”.
Campaign Against Antisemitism closely monitors the far-right, which remains a dangerous threat to the Jewish community and other minority groups.
Image credit: South Wales Police
