Claudia Patatas was this week convicted of being a member of the banned “racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic organisation” National Action following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
Jurors were told how she and partner Adam Thomas, who was also convicted of the same charge, had given their baby son the middle name “Adolf” in honour of the Nazi leader.
Following her arrest in January 2017 by counter-terrorism police, she told officers that while interested in Hitler’s ideology “what he did was horrible”, claiming that she “did not support” Nazism.
However, the jury were shown images of the 38-year-old’s tattoo, a copy of an intricate design found on the marble floor inside a tower of the former SS headquarters at Wewelsburg Castle.
When Patatas, originally from Portugal, was asked about her feelings regarding Hitler and the Nazis, she said she did “not agree with the Nazis’ execution of the Jews and does not support the Nazi Party or Nazism as a whole”.
However, in a Telegram chat group used by herself and other National Action members, she discussed in February last year celebrating Hitler’s birthday.
Patatas said: “Let’s do it. Yes, 20th April.
“I did celebrate his birthday with mates in Lisbon (Portugal). Years ago.
“We had a cake with the Fuhrer’s face. I did struggle to slice his face.”
She added: “Adolf is life.”
A jury at Birmingham Crown Court was told the couple, of Waltham Gardens, Banbury, Oxfordshire, was in “admiration” of Hitler.
Photographs recovered from their home also showed Thomas cradling his newborn son, while wearing the hooded white robes of a Ku Klux Klansman.
Former Amazon security guard Thomas, formerly of Erdington in Birmingham, and Patatas, a photographer, were found guilty after a seven-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
A third defendant, Daniel Bogunovic, of Crown Hills Rise, Leicester, was also convicted of being a member.
The warehouse worker was a leading figure in National Action’s Midlands chapter.
Jurors were told Bogunovic already had a conviction from earlier this year for stirring up racial hatred after being part of a group that plastered Aston University, in Birmingham, with the group’s offensive stickers.
Thomas, a twice-failed Army applicant, was also convicted of having a terrorist manual, namely the Anarchist’s Cookbook, which contained instructions on making “viable” bombs.
The Crown’s case was that after being banned by the Government in December 2016, National Action simply “shed one skin for another” and “rebranded”.
Jurors heard evidence of social media chats involving Thomas, Patatas and Bogunovic, discussing what prosecutors have alleged was the banned group’s continuing operation, under a different name.
The jury also heard that Thomas and Patatas plastered National Action stickers in public locations after the ban, while Bogunovic was calling for a “leadership” meeting in a chat group for senior members in April 2017.
Three other men, who had been due to stand trial alongside the trio, admitted being National Action members before the trial began.