National Action trial: Man trained daughter to do Nazi salute

A far-right extremist trained his toddler daughter to perform a Nazi salute for the camera, a court heard.

After filming the video, Darren Fletcher then told another member of neo-Nazi group National Action: "Finally got her to do it".

Fletcher is set to be jailed at Birmingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to membership of the group, which was banned by the home secretary.

He is one of six people being sentenced in a two-day hearing.

Barnaby Jameson QC, for the prosecution, told Judge Melbourne Inman QC the video was an "aggravating factor" which could affect Fletcher's sentencing.

In a brief clip played in court, the toddler was shown raising her right arm above her head, towards the camera, and then turning to walk off.

Mr Jameson said Fletcher, who had voluntarily decided not to appear in court on Friday, then sent a message four minutes after the child was recorded which read: "Finally got her to do it."

Mr Jameson said: "What Fletcher had succeeded in doing, we say, was getting his daughter to give a Nazi salute."

Also among the six being sentenced are "fanatical" neo-Nazi couple Adam Thomas, 22, and Claudia Patatas, 38, who jurors were told at their trial had named their baby "Adolf" in "admiration" of Hitler.

Searches by counter-terrorism police of their home in Waltham Gardens, Banbury, Oxfordshire, also discovered Swastika scatter cushions and a pastry-cutter shaped like the Nazi party symbol.

Daniel Bogunovic, 27, of Crown Hills Rise, Leicester, who was described in court on Friday as a "committed National Action leader, propagandist and strategist", will also be sentenced in the hearing which is concluding next week.

He had stood trial alongside Thomas and Patatas, while three other men including Fletcher, 28, of Kitchen Lane, Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, had admitted membership beforehand.

The two other men, cyber security worker and the Midlands' National Action cell's "banker" Joel Wilmore, 24, and van driver Nathan Pryke, 26, described as the group's "security enforcer", will also be sentenced.

Fletcher, Pryke, of Dartford Road, March, Cambridgeshire, and Wilmore, of Bramhall Road, Stockport, Greater Manchester, and the other defendants face up to 10 years in jail.