Swansea co-founder of neo-Nazi group claimed ban was start of ‘exciting times’, court told

The co-founder of a neo-Nazi group accused of continuing to be a member after it was banned told his counterparts that the prohibition was the start of “exciting times”, a court has heard.

Alex Davies, 27, is on trial accused of being a member of proscribed organisation National Action (NA) between December 17, 2016, and September 27, 2017.

Barnaby Jameson QC, prosecuting, has told Winchester Crown Court that the UK Government banned the group after it had “terrorised” towns across the country with its call for an “all-out race war”.

The move was also made after the group had “celebrated” the murder of MP Jo Cox in June 2016.

Members of the group had amassed an arsenal of weapons and would dress as paramilitaries for demonstrations which would feature antisemitic speeches and calls for “traitors to be gassed”, Mr Jameson said.

The defendant, from Swansea, is accused of setting up a “continuity” group called NS131 and continuing to help run NA under the new name following the ban, including travelling across the country for meetings with fellow members.

On December 12, 2016, – the day the ban was announced – Davies wrote to fellow members: “Make sure they understand the SUBSTANCE of NA is the people, our talents, the bonds between us, our ideas and our sustained force of will.

“All of that will continue into the future. We are just shedding one skin for another.

“All genuinely revolutionary movements in the past have needed to exist partly underground. These are exciting times.”

He also wrote to a sympathiser: “I’m sure we’ll come up with some creative way to overcome the obstacles put in front of us. Regards, Alex”

‘Poxy’

The court has heard that Davies helped set up NA in 2013 while studying at Warwick University.

Mr Jameson said: “It became increasingly violent and confrontational.

“By 2016 masked men, for the most part, dressed as paramilitaries were terrorising towns and cities up and down the country.”

He added: “It is perhaps no surprise National Action became the first fascist group to being banned as a terrorist group since 1940.

“It is chilling in the extreme to see how much ammunition and firepower the group had, in fact, amassed by the time arrests happened the following year.”

Mr Jameson continued: “Why should a group violently opposed to the democratic order give two hoots about some poxy banning order brought in by the very system it was trying to dismantle?

“The group’s response was simply to regard the ban as an obstacle on its path to violent revolution.”

Mr Jameson explained that different regional sections of NA went on to form off-shoot groups with the aim of continuing their organisation but these were also subsequently banned by the Government.

Davies denies membership of a proscribed organisation and the trial continues.