Seventeen-year-old teenager from Rugby linked to neo-Nazi groups found guilty of preparing terrorist acts

A seventeen-year-old from Rugby linked to neo-Nazi groups has been found guilty of preparing for acts of neo-Nazi terrorism.

Jurors deliberated for fifteen hours over four days before unanimously deciding to convict at Birmingham Crown Court. The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had pleaded not guilty.

It is believed that he is alleged to have joined the neo-Nazi Feuerkrieg Division group, which the Home Office plans to proscribe.

The court had been told that the defendant had to pass a test to prove his hatred of Jews and that he had “graphic” video footage of a terrorist attack on his telephone and had searched the internet for information about guns, including how to convert a gun that fires blanks into a live weapon.

He had also apparently praised the terrorist who carried out the mass shooting last year in Christchurch, New Zealand, describing such perpetrators as “saints”.

Jurors were told that he had adopted the “twisted ideology” of Nazis and white supremacists and had participated in far-right chat groups online, where he shared the information about firearms that he had learned.

In one of the messages, the defendant said that he was an administrator of a group called ‘League of Nationalists’, and also said: “Whatever happens I’m going to have a local unit. I’m working on the propaganda and the weapons. I need men.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years and continues to support the authorities following suit.