Members of banned neo-Nazi group pictured for the first time

The full group of eight people convicted of being members of banned neo-Nazi group National Action have been pictured for the first time.

Reporting restrictions meant that the identities of two of the men, British Army veteran Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen, 34, and 24-year-old Alexander Deakin, could not be named.

But after six members of the banned group National Action were convicted, the restrictions were lifted.

Daniel Bogunovic, 27 from Leicester, Adam Thomas, aged 22, and 38-year-old Claudia Patatas – both from Oxfordshire – were all found guilty this morning.

Joel Wilmore, 24, from Stockport, Darren Fletcher, 28, from Wolverhampton and Nathan Pryke, 27, from Cambridge, had all previously admitted their membership.

White supremacist and self-confessed racist Corporal Vehvilainen, 34, was convicted in March of being a member of National Action, and was jailed for eight years.

The Royal Anglian Regiment soldier believed in a coming ‘race war’ and wanted to help establish an all-white stronghold in a Welsh village.

He had a banned CS gas canister at his home in Powys, along with knives, crossbows and a ‘war hammer’, some of which were kept at a separate property, along with guns, which were licenced.

Prosecutors said at his trial that he was working within the Army as a ‘recruiter’ for the banned organisation.

It was revealed he was connected to three other soldiers, one of whom was thrown out of the Army and the other two were disciplined, though one has since left.

Private Mark Barrett, was also accused of membership of the banned group, but was acquitted.  but jurors heard that he had a cardboard swastika openly displayed on his windowsill at Alexander Barracks in Cyprus.

National Action regional commander Alexander Deakin was arrested while cowering in an airing cupboard after bragging that ‘incompetent’ counter-terrorism officers would never catch up with him.

The student, who styled himself a ‘prisoner of conscience’, joked that he would need to buy large quantities of dangerous chemicals to catch the attention of counter-terrorism unit (CTU) officers.

But his role as Midlands regional organiser and senior National Action member was uncovered when he was caught on CCTV, along with others, putting up racially offensive stickers on Aston University campus.

Deakin was sentenced to 12 months for inciting racial hatred with the stickers, which had slogans including ‘White Zone’ and ‘Britain is ours – the rest must go’.

He was also among the first people to be convicted after a trial earlier this year of being members of National Action, which was banned in December 2016.

He was jailed for eight years on April 13, with Judge Melbourne Inman QC telling Deakin he was ‘deeply committed to the most extreme racist views’.

In rants on encrypted chat app Telegram, Deakin told fellow NA members that in a future ‘race war’, the organisation would have a ‘KKK (Ku Klux Klan)-themed death squad’.

He was jailed alongside Vehvilainen.

Their trial heard of Deakin’s contempt for UK counter-terrorism officers.

It is understood that Vehvilainen and Barrett have since been thrown out of the Army.

Two other soldiers, both of whom knew Vehvilainen, faced criminal charges but were internally disciplined and remained in the Army.

Vehvilainen had been a key part of National Action’s strategy of attempting to grow its membership within the armed forces.

Vehvilainen, a married father-of-three, lived at Sennybridge Camp in Powys, but was renovating a home he had bought in the village of Llansilin, in efforts to build a whites-only stronghold.

It was in that house police found a photograph showing him giving a Nazi-style salute at a 1917 memorial to his native Finland’s independence.

In a Skype conversation at the end of 2015, he told one activist: ‘CTU are incompetent to fuck anyway.’

‘I’d have to start buying up large quantities of ammonium nitrate to draw their attention.

‘In fact I doubt they even know I’m part of National Action.’

He later bragged about evading the authorities by using encrypted emails and chat messengers services.

But Deakin, who ran his operations from his bedroom at his parents’ house, was found by West Midlands CTU officers hiding in a cupboard.

And the former University of Aberystwyth and University of Coventry student was reduced to telling comrades that electronic devices full of incriminating messages, images and material had fallen into the police’s hands.

Today, a couple who gave their child the middle name ‘Adolf’ were also convicted of being members of National Action.

Adam Thomas and his girlfriend Claudia Patatas were part of the proscribed right-wing group and intended to wage a ‘holy war’ against black people, Jews, Asians and homosexuals

The pair also stockpiled an arsenal of deadly weapons such as crossbows, machetes and axes at their home which was decorated in Nazi and Ku Klux Klan memorabilia.

Thomas and Patatas had attended meetings of the far-right group, formed in 2013, prior to its ban in December 2016.

Thomas, an Amazon security guard, described as a ‘vehement Nazi,’ was also convicted of having a copy of a document likely to be of use to a terrorist, namely the Anarchist’s Cookbook.

Portuguese Patatas, a wedding photographer, used the chat platform to message another ‘vehement Nazi’ Darren Fletcher, 28, saying ‘all Jews must be put to death’.

Patatas, who has a black sun SS symbol tattooed on her back, also revealed she once celebrated Hitler’s birthday by eating a cake with a ‘Fuhrer face’ decorated on it.

She wrote: ‘I did struggle to slice his face. Adolf is life.’

Police found the message from the chat group ‘TripleK Mafia’ on a mobile phone seized from National Action Midlands leader Alex Deakin, 23, from Birmingham.

Jurors were shown a photo of Thomas in a white gown and hood cradling his baby. In another snap he and Patatas, from Oxfordshire, posed with their son alongside a Nazi flag inside their home.

A third defendant, a leading member in National Action’s Midlands’ chapter, Daniel Bogunovic, 27, of Leicester, was also convicted of being a member.

Claudia Patatas was seen leaving Birmingham Crown Court earlier today following her conviction, after she was granted bail ahead of her sentencing hearing next month.

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