National Action trial: Accused 'had Nazi women's badge'

Alice Cutter and Mark Jones deny being part of banned neo-Nazi group National Action

A Nazi badge was found at the home of a far-right terror suspect who took part in a "Miss Hitler" beauty contest, a court has heard.

Alice Cutter denies being a member of banned neo-Nazi organisation, National Action.

Birmingham Crown Court was shown a picture of a Deutsches Frauenwerk women's association badge said to belong to her.

The court heard Ms Cutter entered the beauty pageant in June 2016.

The court was told that, in an "interview" accompanying a webpage about the pageant, Ms Cutter wrote: "It is important to me that there's a balance of feminine to masculine in the movement - without feminine involvement, what would a movement be?

"Women are the most important figures when it comes to teaching and raising the next generation to be strong and proud."

'Buchenwald Princess'

Ms Cutter, 22, and her 24-year-old partner Mark Jones, both of Mulhalls Mill, Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, deny being members of National Action after it was banned by the Government in December 2016.

They are standing trial alongside Garry Jack, 23, from Heathland Avenue, Birmingham, and 18-year-old Connor Scothern, of Bagnall Avenue, Nottingham, who have denied the same charge.

The jury was told there was no dispute that Ms Cutter had entered the beauty contest under the name "Buchenwald Princess" - a reference to a Nazi-era death camp at which tens of thousands of people were killed or starved.

Prosecutor Barnaby Jameson QC asked witness Professor Matthew Feldman - an expert on the radical right - whether it was right to say that women had played an important role within Nazism.

Mr Feldman replied: "I think in some accounts they were the majority of voters and certainly the heads of an important auxiliary organisation."

He then agreed with a suggestion by Mr Jameson that the "interview" posted by Cutter was an "echo of Nazi Germany" in its reference to "raising the next generation to be strong".

The trial continues.