Jury told Adam Thomas and Claudia Patatas had ‘extensive’ cache of weapons at home

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

An alleged neo-Nazi terrorist couple accused of being members of the banned group National Action kept an extensive cache of serrated machetes, crossbows and other weapons at home, a court has heard.

Adam Thomas, 22, and Claudia Patatas, 38, also had a greeting card on the sideboard of their living room that featured Ku Klux Klan (KKK) figures and the slogan: “May all your Christmases be white”.

In a kitchen drawer, police officers found a pastry cutter shaped like a swastika and a photograph showing the couple’s infant son in his crib, next to a cushion bearing the Nazi symbol.

Birmingham crown court was previously told Thomas and Patatas gave their child the middle name Adolf, which the prosecution alleged was in honour of Adolf Hitler.

The couple, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, are accused of being members of the far-right organisation National Action, which was banned in December 2016.

Daniel Bogunovic, 27, from Leicester, is also charged with being a member of the group.

Thomas faces a separate charge of having a terrorist document.

On Thursday, jurors heard two machetes – one with a serrated 18in (46cm) blade – was found during police searches of the first-floor bedroom, where their baby son slept.

Barnaby Jameson QC, prosecuting, said an axe was found in a sheath under their bed.

A photo was claimed to show Thomas in camouflage gear and a mask, while brandishing the machete.

The court heard details of a makeshift target range in the back garden, where old clothing was found with holes in, which is alleged to match those made by crossbow bolts.

One of the two crossbows found at their home was also under the couple’s bed.

A Nazi dagger bearing the swastika on its hilt was also removed, while pendants, flags and clothing emblazoned with the symbols of the SS and National Action were found at the property.

Jameson said: “Why, members of the jury, was there such an extensive degree of weaponry in this particular house and in this case, the parental bedroom?

“Why is it these clothes appear to be covered in holes made by crossbow bolts? Why was it necessary for anybody in the garden of the address to be firing a crossbow and crossbow bolts into the clothes you’ve seen?”

The search uncovered a digital copy of the Anarchist Cookbook on a laptop, which contained chapters entitled “making plastic explosive”, “letter bombs” and “Molotov cocktails”, the jury heard.

There were also press cuttings in the lounge relating to the mass murderer Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011.

On Wednesday, jurors were shown a photo alleged to be of Thomas cradling his newborn, wearing the hooded white robes of the KKK.

At Bogunovic’s address, police found a large number of stickers and images relating to National Action, contact details for group members, and a Nazi flag.

Following the group’s ban, the prosecution alleged National Action tried to “shed one skin for another” in order to evade the law, and that the three defendants were part of a successor organisation called the Triple K Mafia.

The group was still National Action in all but name, it is alleged, but went through a “rebranding” exercise to evade scrutiny by authorities.

All three defendants deny wrongdoing, and the trial, set to last for four weeks, continues.