Neo-Nazi Andrew Dymock jailed for terror and hate crimes

A neo-Nazi student who created two extremist groups and promoted a "distorted and wicked cause" has been jailed.

Andrew Dymock, 24, from Bath, led the outlawed groups System Resistance Network (SRN) and Sonnenkrieg Division.

A judge said Dymock was "driven by an extremist mindset" and had taken the path of "total hatred and bigotry".

He was convicted of 15 offences and jailed for seven years, with a further three years on extended licence.

Dymock's trial in June heard he used the SRN website and a Twitter account to state that Jewish people should be exterminated and encourage lone actor terror attacks.

He advocated for societal collapse and a race war, and called for gay people to be "purged" from society.

Judge Mark Dennis QC, sitting at The Old Bailey, said he believed Dymock was dangerous and posed a "significant risk of serious harm" to the public.

"It is clear you were a leader and not a follower," he said.

He added Dymock was an "intelligent, well-read" person but also "wholly misguided".

The court had heard Dymock wrote an online article stating a "racial holy war is inevitable" and that "every stabbing, bombing, shooting further plays into our hands".

He was expelled from SRN in late February 2018 and arrested in June of that year at Gatwick Airport, as he tried to board a flight to the US.

In his luggage police found extreme right-wing literature including Siege, an anthology of pro-Nazi essays written by James Mason, and Mein Kampf, along with clothing bearing neo-Nazi logos.

Judge Dennis said: "Despite all the advantages of a good education and family upbringing you chose, at the age of 20, to take the path of dreadful bigotry, intolerance and hatred towards other members of our society solely on the basis of their race, creed or sexual orientation.

"In setting up and running the website and Twitter account for your extremist cause, you were prepared to inflame such vile prejudices in others and to promote and encourage hatred and violence towards other human beings in furtherance of your distorted and wicked cause."

The former student had been supported throughout his trial by his parents, Stella and Dr David Dymock, a professor of dentistry at Bristol University, who he lived with.

The court heard they had written to the judge asking for leniency ahead of the sentencing.

Defence lawyer Andrew Morris said they were "extremely worried" about the impact of jail on their son.

Dymock, who at the time was studying politics at Aberystwyth University in Wales, denied being behind the SRN accounts, claiming he was set up by an ex-girlfriend, who had failed to recruit him to join banned terrorist group National Action (NA).

He denied being a neo-Nazi and told police: "In fact, I am bisexual but lean towards being homosexual, in direct conflict with Nazism."

He was found guilty of five charges of encouraging terrorism, two of fundraising for terrorism, four counts of disseminating terrorist publications, possessing a terrorist document, stirring up racial hatred and hatred based on sexual orientation, and possessing racially inflammatory material.

Det Chf Supt Martin Snowden, head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, which led the investigation into Dymock, said: "Dymock represented a threat to our society, not simply because of his mindset but because of the considerable efforts he exerted spreading his ideology and misusing his abilities."