National Action: Ben Raymond jailed for eight years

The co-founder of a neo-Nazi group has been sentenced to eight years in jail.

Ben Raymond was found guilty of being a member of banned terrorist organisation National Action following a trial at Bristol Crown Court.

The 32-year-old, from Swindon, helped to found the group which sought to start a race war in Britain.

He was also convicted of possessing a manifesto by Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik and a guide to homemade detonators.

Judge Christopher Parker QC sentenced him earlier to an eight-year prison sentence with a two-year extended period on licence.

He told Raymond he would serve five years and four months' imprisonment before he could be considered for parole.

Passing sentence, the judge said Raymond was in effect "grooming" young people, through his role as the group's propaganda chief.

"You intended that the material should be used in order to recruit new members, and specifically new young members," he said.

"In effect these young people were at risk of being groomed by your material to commit acts of extreme racial violence [with] which National Action no doubt had sympathy."

The graduate, of Beechcroft Road in Swindon, is the 17th person to be convicted of membership of the white supremacist group after a jury convicted him on Tuesday.

His trial heard National Action, founded in 2013, was "unapologetically racist" and promoted ethnic cleansing, as well as attacks on LGBTQ people and liberals.

It was banned under terror legislation in December 2016, becoming the first far-right group to be proscribed since the British Union of Fascists in 1940.

After the move by the Home Office, Raymond helped National Action morph into a new group called NS131 - National Socialist Anti-Capitalist Action.

Raymond helped create the organisation and coined the term "white jihad", Bristol Crown Court previously heard.

He was also likened to the Third Reich's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

The group was later proscribed after its social media channels glorified the murder of the MP Jo Cox by white supremacist terrorist Thomas Mair in 2016.

Barra McGrory QC, defending, sought to differentiate between National Action and other terrorist groups.

"The views of the organisation are undoubtedly repugnant to many people in the UK," he said.

"This is an extremely small group of individuals which is not one that is actually engaged in violent terrorist activity.

"Neither is it one that has a structure in terms of being organised into cells in militaristic guerrilla warfare, such as al Qaida or the Irish Republican Army."

Mr McGrory said that since Raymond was first arrested four years ago the defendant's "view of the world" had changed, having formed a relationship and become a father.

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