25 May 2021

Nazi sympathiser who hoarded ‘repulsive and toxic’ memorabilia jailed

25 May 2021

A Nazi sympathiser whose stash of extremist material was likened to “an undergraduate degree” in the far right has been jailed for four years.

Nicholas Brock, 53, decorated his bedroom with SS memorabilia and covered his upper body in tattoos of the “death’s head” skulls associated with the paramilitary group as well as swastikas and other symbols of Hitler’s Germany.

He collected Nazi-era daggers, downloaded terrorism manuals and even had a framed “certificate of recognition” from the Ku Klux Klan in his own name hanging on his wall.

Police raided the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead Berkshire, in January 2018, and found a hoard of extremist literature, including a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf manifesto.

Nicholas Brock court case (PA Media)

The collection included racist memes, a copy of a livestreamed video of a white supremacist’s attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, and a news clip of the banned terrorist group National Action.

Officers also found photographs of Brock wearing a Make America Great Again hat, posing in a balaclava while holding firearms, and with others making Nazi salutes.

He told police he was just “a normal person who likes collecting stuff” and that he had an interest in weapons and ammunition stemming from his love of Action Man figures as a child.

But he was found guilty in March of three counts of possession of materials likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism following a trial.

The charges related to three documents found on a hard drive – The Anarchist Cookbook, Knife Fighting Techniques From Folsom Prison, and Kill Or Get Killed – which included instructions on how to make explosives, and how to kill quickly and efficiently with a blade.

Nicholas Brock court case (PA Media)

Judge Peter Lodder QC jailed Brock for four years on Tuesday, with another year on licence, telling him: “All three were stored on your external hard drive in a careful and deliberate filing of material in a folder called ‘Army-Military-Manuals’ with other similar manuals. They had come from your laptop computer.

“You also had pieces of paper with instructions for the preparation of homemade bombs.

“It is clear from the wide range of other material found on your computer and your hard drive that you are a right-wing extremist.

“Your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic, racist, Islamophobic and white supremacist iconography which you have stored and appear to share with others of similar views.”

Edward Butler, defending, said his client had hoarded the material over many years, but added: “There is no evidence of membership of a proscribed or terrorist organisation, intention to carry out or assist or participate in any form of terrorist activity, or any preparation for such activity.”

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