Andrew Dymock: 'Malicious users' created terror group text chat

Andrew Dymock denies 15 offences relating to terrorism and hatred

An alleged neo-Nazi has told a court that a text conversation found on his phone was planted by "malicious users".

Andrew Dymock, 24, from Bath, is on trial at the Old Bailey charged with 15 terrorism and public order offences.

Giving evidence, he denied being a neo-Nazi or having any involvement in the group System Resistance Network (SRN).

Mr Dymock, who denies all the charges, alleged that an ex-girlfriend was in fact responsible for the text conversation.

'Fruity loops'

He is accused of using the SRN site to upload racist and homophobic propaganda, but told the jury "I've never run any website".

He said payments in his name to a web hosting company - which prosecutors allege were for the site - were for a "video creation thing" and "fruity loops", which he said was a music application.

"I've never had anything to do with any SRN activity", he told jurors.

He also denied creating an SRN Twitter account with his mobile number.

Asked by his barrister about an August 2017 text conversation relating to the banned terror group National Action, Mr Dymock said: "I think it has been created by malicious users."

He named an ex-girlfriend, whom he met in 2018, and said it was certainly connected to her.

Mobile data

The defendant also claimed three members of National Action had fabricated an online account, which was allegedly his, on a neo-Nazi web forum.

Mr Dymock told the court some online payments, allegedly linked to extremist activity, actually related to an online community involving "Napoleonic war video games".

He also denied visiting Southampton on a specific evening in August 2017 to plaster homophobic propaganda in various public places, activities he allegedly chronicled in an online SRN video.

Prosecutors say Mr Dymock paid for a rail ticket to the city from Bath and that mobile phone data showed he was there for several hours.

But the defendant denied going to Southampton at all, and said he was in Guildford at a party.

Flag collecting

Asked why the mobile data showed him to be in Southampton, he said that phones have "long ranges".

He said that he was also on a "hook up" with a trans girl on a separate date.

Explaining why he owned the flag of the banned neo-Nazi terror group Atomwaffen Division, he said it was because it was "rare".

"I was studying Atomwaffen for my dissertation by collecting flags," he added.

Mr Dymock also said he owned various neo-Nazi books for his university studies and that he possessed Nazi Satanist texts as it was an "interesting topic to look into".

The trial continues.