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Claudia Patatas and Adam Thomas: Neo-Nazis who named baby after Hitler convicted of National Action membership

Adam Thomas posing with his new-born baby, whilst wearing the hooded white robes of the Ku Klux Klan: PA
Adam Thomas posing with his new-born baby, whilst wearing the hooded white robes of the Ku Klux Klan: PA

A "fanatical" neo-Nazi couple who named their baby son after Hitler have been convicted of being members of terrorist group National Action.

Adam Thomas, 22, and Claudia Patatas, 38, were found guilty of being members of the extreme right-wing organisation National Action, which was banned in 2016.

A jury at Birmingham Crown Court was told the couple, of Waltham Gardens, Banbury, Oxfordshire, had given their child the middle name Adolf, which Thomas said was in "admiration" of Hitler.

Photographs recovered from their home also showed Thomas cradling his newborn son while wearing the hooded white robes of a Ku Klux Klansman.

Former Amazon security guard Thomas, formerly of Erdington in Birmingham, and Patatas, a photographer originally from Portugal, were found guilty after a seven-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

Adam Thomas and his partner Claudia Patatas with their baby (PA)
Adam Thomas and his partner Claudia Patatas with their baby (PA)

A third defendant, Daniel Bogunovic, of Crown Hills Rise, Leicester, was also convicted of being a member.

The warehouse worker was a leading figure in National Action's Midlands chapter.

Jurors were told Bogunovic already had a conviction from earlier this year for stirring up racial hatred after being part of a group that plastered Aston University, in Birmingham, with the group's offensive stickers.

Thomas, a twice-failed Army applicant, was also convicted of having a terrorist manual, which contained instructions on making "viable" bombs.

Darren Fletcher (left) who admitted being a member of National Action, posing with Adam Thomas and his partner Claudia Patatas (PA)
Darren Fletcher (left) who admitted being a member of National Action, posing with Adam Thomas and his partner Claudia Patatas (PA)

Thomas said his racist views were influenced as a child by notorious "white power" skinhead band Skrewdriver.

Giving evidence at his trial on October 26, Thomas told jurors his stepfather had been in the band and had a tattoo of the group's logo on his arm.

Asked by his barrister Frida Hussain when his "support for white nationalism" developed, Thomas said it started when he was just five.

He said: "My stepfather was in the band Skrewdriver."

The band was formed in Poulton, Lancashire, in 1976 and was originally non-racist but became a white supremacist rock band after reuniting in the 1980s.

A reflection of the group's ethos can be found in the opening lyrics to the 1983 single White Power: "I stand and watch my country, going down the drain. We are all at fault, we are all to blame.

"We're letting them take over, we just let 'em come. Once we had an empire, and now we've got a slum."

The Crown's case was that after being banned by the Government in December 2016, National Action simply "shed one skin for another" and "rebranded".

Jurors heard evidence of social media chats involving Thomas, Patatas and Bogunovic, discussing what prosecutors have alleged was the banned group's continuing operation, under a different name.

The jury also heard that Thomas and Patatas plastered National Action stickers in public locations after the ban, while Bogunovic was calling for a "leadership" meeting in a chat group for senior members in April 2017.

Three other men who had been due to stand trial alongside the trio, admitted being National Action members before the trial began.

Thomas's close friend Darren Fletcher, 28, of Kitchen Lane, Wednesfield, West Midlands, Joel Wilmore, 24, of Bramhall Road, Stockport, Greater Manchester, and Nathan Pryke, 26, of Dartford Road, March, Cambridgeshire, will be sentenced later.

Additional reporting by Press Association.