Ben Raymond: Co-founder of National Action
neo-Nazi terrorist group jailed for 10 years
Judge said Raymond’s propaganda risked grooming young
people into ‘committing acts of extreme racial violence’
Lizzie
Dearden
Security Correspondent
1 hour ago
The
co-founder of the neo-Nazi terrorist groupNational Action has been jailed for
10 years.
Ben
Raymond, 32, had been convicted of remaining a member of the organisation after
it was banned by the government in 2016.
He was also
found guilty of two counts of possessing terrorist documents following a trial
at Bristol Crown Court.
Raymond,
who has a partner and baby daughter, waved from the dock as he was sent down on
Friday.
Judge
Christopher Parker QC said he was the “principal propagandist” for National
Action, both before and after the ban.
The judge
said Raymond sat “at the centre of the web” as the group split into regional
factions under new names, in an attempt to evade the ban.
“In the
shadows of the internet you continued to offer guidance to regional National
Action organisations on tactics, security, organisation but most importantly
propaganda,” he told the defendant.
“From the centre
of that web you intended just as much as other associates that National Action
should survive following proscription.”
Raymond
denied all offences, but refused to give evidence during his trial and was
convicted of membership of National Action and possessing the manifesto written
by Norway shooter Anders Breivik and a manual on making explosive detonators.
He was
sentenced to eight years for membership and two years, run concurrently, for
the two terrorist document offences. After release, he will be subject to
terrorist notification requirements.
Prosecutors
said Raymond had created “sick and disturbing” material, including posters
glorifying terror attacks and Adolf Hitler, from his flat above a dog grooming
salon in Swansea.
He wrote a
book, called Attack, that vowed to “continue the battle for the final victory
of our race”.
“We are
done mincing words, now we need something to fan the flames,” he wrote. “We are
the faithful soldiers of the National Socialist idea.”
Judge
Parker said Raymond’s role as principal propagandist for National Action was
“highly significant”.
He told the
court that Raymond had “encouraged and promoted acts of extreme violence,
pushing others forward to do your will while remaining off stage”.
“It was
intended that the documents produced by you would be used to create instability
within society, hatred between white people and other ethnic groups and
ultimately create racial violence on which National Action could capitalise,”
the judge added.
“You
intended that the material should be used to recruit new members, specifically
new young members … those young people were at risk of being groomed by your
behaviour into committing acts of extreme racial violence.”
The court
heard that Raymond was “an international neo-Nazi terrorist” who coined the
term “white jihad” and forged links with groups including Atomwaffen Division
in the US.
An internal
National Action document detailing the group’s structure shortly before the ban
named Raymond as the third-most senior member, and an
“advisor/diplomat/intermediary”.
It gave him
responsibility for areas including strategy, propaganda and legal issues.
After
National Action was banned as a terrorist group on 16 December 2016, Raymond
remained in online chat groups with his fellow neo-Nazis and attended the
trials of those later prosecuted for continued membership.
The
Independent previously revealed that he had written a guide for far-right
extremists wanting to avoid prosecution, months before he was charged.
In a
lengthy thread published on Twitter in January, Raymond offered advice based on
his own experience “as a survivor” and urged readers to “follow the above steps
as I did”.
He gave a
separate six-page guide “prepared as evidence or criminal defence” to National
Action members in a previous trial. They were all convicted.
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