Teenager pleads guilty to daubing Port Talbot mural with Nazi symbols

A 17-year-old youth has pleaded guilty to terrorism and criminal damage offences after daubing a mural in Port Talbot with Nazi symbols.

The teenager appeared before Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged with five terrorism offences related to investigations into his online activity.

Those included three counts of disseminating terrorist material and two counts of possessing material likely to be of use to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

He also faced two counts of racially aggravated criminal damage related to graffiti that appeared on a mural in Port Talbot which celebrates the town’s Caribbean community, and one count of homophobically aggravated criminal damage in Cardiff city centre.

Shaken

Community members including the art group ARTwalk were left shaken in October after a number of swastikas, the phrase “Nazi zone”, white supremacist symbol “1488” and a racial slur were painted on the mural hours after it was completed.

The mural depicts Donna Campbell, a much-loved nurse and daughter of the Windrush generation who died during the pandemic, and her mother Lydia – known as Mrs Campbell in her community – along with a merged image of a Welsh dragon and the Jamaican flag.

South Wales Police at the time called it a “despicable hate crime” and people rallied to paint over the graffiti, with those behind the project vowing not to be intimidated by the incident.

The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been bailed to allow for a pre-sentence report to be carried out and will be sentenced on August 21.