Port Talbot: Teen in court over Nazi graffiti on mural
- Published
The artwork in Port Talbot was part of celebrations of the town's Caribbean community
A teenager who daubed a Windrush mural with Nazi symbols could face jail, a judge has said.
The 17-year-old from south Wales, who cannot legally be named, is charged with five terror offences.
He possessed a banned publication describing bombmaking, derailing trains, kidnapping police officers and glorifying mass murderers.
A judge at Cardiff Youth Court said he "was not persuaded" that a prison sentence could be ruled out.
The manual the boy had included "pro-violence, pro-anti semitism, misogynist, homophobic ideologies" which he disseminated to another teenager, the court was told on Monday.
The boy, described as "intelligent" and "intellectual" with a desire to go to university, also possessed and shared another manual with "step-by-step" instructions on gun-making.
He also faces two counts of racially aggravated criminal damage relating to graffiti that appeared on a mural in Port Talbot on 27 October and 5 November last year.
The artwork celebrates the town's Caribbean community, and local residents were shaken after several swastikas, the phrase "Nazi zone", white supremacist symbol "1488" and a racial slur were painted on it hours after it was completed.
The mural depicts Donna Campbell, a much-loved nurse of the Windrush generation who died during the pandemic and her mother Lydia, known as Mrs Campbell in her community, as well as a merged image of a Welsh dragon and the Jamaican flag.
The teenager also faces one further charge of criminal damage after he damaged a floor at The Queer Emporium in Cardiff on 31 October last year.
He admitted all eight charges at an earlier hearing in June.
His barrister David Elias KC asked for him to be spared prison and instead be given a youth referral order, which would mandate certain activities to address his behaviour.
Mr Elias said his client was "vulnerable", autistic and had a personality disorder, and spent "increasingly long hours online" during the pandemic.
He added: "He often feels he doesn't fit in with his peers, which has a huge impact on his self-esteem, and very much wants to have friends and positive aspirations for the future."
The defendant told chief magistrate Paul Goldspring the arguments in the videos he watched were "not very deep" and "very banal", adding: "They are not what I truly believe, they are not what I believe now."
The judge said the teenager's behaviour was "abhorrent and extremely serious" and that "the custody threshold has been crossed".
"If you were in an adult court we would be talking about years, not months in custody," he said.
"I am not persuaded that I ought to pass a youth referral order and that I can completely rule out a custodial sentence of more than 12 months."
He sent the case to the Old Bailey for sentencing on 4 September.
- Published29 October 2022
- Published7 June 2023
