Teenage white supremacist sentenced to 16 months for covering city in racist, homophobic graffiti
Racist and homophobic literature and graffiti began appearing within weeks of Richards-Good moving to the city (South Wales Police)
A teenage white supremacist has been sentenced to 16 months in a young offender institution after covering the Welsh city of Cardiff in racist and homophobic Nazi graffiti last year.
Elliott Richards-Good, 18, was a member of the alt-right white supremacist group System Resistance Network (SRN). Nazi graffiti started appearing in the city weeks after he arrived to study at Cardiff University.
Richards-Good daubed abusive, racist slurs on several buildings before an anti-racist rally in March 2018. A month later he filmed himself putting up posters to celebrate Hitler’s birthday and spray painting a swastika on a government building.
Officers from the Wales Extremism Counter Terrorism Unit were able to track him down from CCTV footage that showed a cyclist with a camera strapped to his chest.
When arrested he initially answered “no comment” in interviews and refused to hand over passwords to phones and other devices, but police found extreme right-wing books, laptops and a computer tower at his home, as well as handwritten notes with email addresses and passwords linked to SRN.
Richards-Good filmed himself putting up posters to celebrate Hitler’s birthday (South Wales Police)
Richards-Good pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court to 11 charges, including stirring up racial hatred, racially aggravated criminal damage, possession of material likely to stir up racial hatred, and possession of material likely to stir up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.
Richards-Good’s defence lawyer described him as “naive, vulnerable and immature, and suffering from undiagnosed autism”, which he said was “a significant mitigating feature in this case”.
Judge Eleri Rees told him: “You were an enthusiastic and active member of SRN, and you filmed your activities with a view to recruiting others.
“You describe yourself as a fascist, and demonstrate very little insight into the reaction you have caused.”
Detective Superintendent Noel Harris of Wales Extremism Counter Terrorism Unit said that the hateful graffiti had “rightly caused great concern” in the local community.
“Tackling extremism in all its forms is a priority for WECTU and South Wales Police and this case demonstrates that we are committed to working together to both prevent and detect it,” he said.
“Our officers were determined to apprehend the person responsible as quickly as possible, both in order to prevent further offending and to send out a message to the community – and the minority who share Richards-Good’s racist ideologies – that it will not be tolerated.”
