Welsh teenager who daubed swastikas and “Nazi zone” on mural pleads guilty to criminal damage and terror offences

A Welsh teenager has pleaded guilty to multiple charges of criminal damage and terror offences after he was arrested for defacing a mural.

The seventeen-year-old defaced the mural in Port Talbot with numerous swastikas, the words “Nazi zone”, and the number 1488. 

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.”

Following the arrest, police began an investigation into online activities.

Appearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this week, the boy pleaded guilty to three counts of disseminating terrorist material and two counts of possessing material likely to be of use to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, as well as to two counts of racially aggravated criminal damage to Port Talbot’s Windrush mural and one of homophobically aggravated criminal damage in Cardiff centre.

The boy was released on bail to allow for a pre-sentence report to be completed and is due to be sentenced in August.

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

Image credit: Jalisa Phoenix-Roberts