Neo-Nazi group membership trial: Judge to accept majority verdict
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The jury in the trial of the founder of neo-Nazi group National Action (NA), accused of continuing to be a member after the organisation was banned, has been told that a majority verdict would now be acceptable.
Alex Davies, 27, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of being a member of the proscribed organisation after it was banned on December 16, 2016.
Judge Mark Dennis QC told the jury made up of six men and six women that, following 12 hours and 21 minutes of deliberations, he would accept a majority verdict where 12 of the jurors were in agreement.
Barnaby Jameson QC, prosecuting, has told the trial that the UK Government banned the group after it had “terrorised” towns across the country with its call for an “all-out race war”.
Davies is accused of setting up NS131, which stood for National Socialist Anti-Capitalist Action and which itself was later banned by the Government, as a continuity group.
Davies has told the court that NS131 was not set up as a continuation of NA and had different aims and processes.
He said that, after the ban, he was involved in “advancing the cause of national socialism not the cause of a continuity NA”.
He added: “After proscription, all I am interested in is pursuing legal political activities.”
Davies, from Swansea, denies membership of a proscribed organisation between December 17 2016, and September 27 2017, and the trial continues.
