London - A neo-Nazi who called Prince Harry a ‘race traitor’ in a chilling online post was jailed on Wednesday.
Michal Szewczuk created a mock-up of the Duke of Sussex with a gun at his head and a swastika and splattered blood in the background.
A slogan alongside it read: ‘See ya later, race traitor!’
It was posted just a few months after the Duke married mixed-race former actress Meghan Markle.
At the Old Bailey, Szewczuk admitted two charges of encouraging terrorism which related to posts on the Gab social media site, known for its far-Right content.
Szewczuk set up an account for a ‘Sonnenkrieg Division’ in August last year. It is an offshoot of the US Atomwaffen Division, which was created in 2013 and encourages terrorism and worships Adolf Hitler.
Atomwaffen Division’s terrorist objectives include racially-motivated ‘lone wolf’ terror attacks and it has been linked to five murders in the US since 2017.
Szewczuk, 19, a Polish national, posted the images between August and September last year. He also pleaded guilty to five charges relating to the possession of documents likely to be useful to a terrorist.
When tracked down by police, Szewczuk was found to have numerous copies of terrorist material, including ‘The Al Qaeda Manual’ and ‘How to Survive in the West – A Mujahid Guide’ and the ‘White Resistance Manual’.
Szewczuk, who lives in Bramley, Leeds, was arrested during his first year at Portsmouth University.
His friend Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski, 18, had earlier admitted two charges of encouraging terrorism. They related to the Sonnenkrieg@skd account and one which Dunn-Koczorowski ran, called WraithSKD@wraithskd. They were both followers of a group called Siege.
Passing sentence, Judge Rebecca Poulet said: ‘The ideology represented by Siege is neo-Nazism involving violent racist and anti-Semitic themes and attitudes.
‘Both of the groups took their inspiration from Siege which... may well represent the most violent revolutionary and potentially terroristic expression of Right-wing extremism current today. Quotes are used from Nazi leaders and neo-Nazis and, in my judgment, the effect is to overtly encourage and pressurise anyone with these types of precepts or sympathies to carry out lone acts of violence against the public.’
She told Szewczuk his posts were ‘abhorrent’ and said there was ‘ample evidence’ he had ‘terrorist connections and motivations’.
The teen was sentenced to four years and three months in a young offenders’ institute, while Dunn-Koczorowski, from Acton, west London, was given an 18-month detention and training order.
At court, Dunn-Koczorowski appeared to be wearing a spinning sun symbol on a necklace. It was also worn by gunman Brenton Tarrant, who is accused of the neo-Nazi shootings at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March.
Naomi Parsons, prosecuting, told the court how Szewczuk had ‘responded to a query about whether Sonnenkrieg was an “esoteric National Socialist” group and he confirmed it was.’ He shared images of Norwegian far-Right mass murderer Anders Breivik doing a Nazi salute, commenting: ‘One Breivik is a terrorist, one thousand Breiviks is victory.’