Satanist neo-Nazi jailed for 38 months after admitting string of fresh crimes

A convicted Satanist neo-Nazi who was spared jail as a teenager has now been imprisoned for three years and two months after admitting a string of fresh crimes.

Harry Vaughan, from Twickenham, south-west London, was 18 when he admitted 14 terror offences and two of possessing indecent images of children.

He developed an interest in right-wing extremism, Satanism, the occult, and violence after disappearing “down a rabbit hole of the internet” from the age of 14, the Old Bailey heard previously.

In November 2020, Mr Justice Sweeney handed Vaughan a two-year suspended sentence along with a 60-day rehabilitation order and a terrorist notification order for 10 years.

The court previously heard that the defendant was arrested at his family home on June 19 2019 in a counter-terror probe into Fascist Forge – an online forum used by extreme, right-wing militants.

In an application to join the System Resistance Network – an alias of the banned neo-Nazi group National Action – in March 2018, he wrote: “I could handle myself in a fight. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to further the cause.”

Police found 4,200 images and 302 files, including an extreme, right-wing terrorist book and documents relating to Satanism, neo-Nazism and antisemitism, on his computer and other devices.

Vaughan had originally pleaded guilty to one count of encouragement of terrorism, one count of disseminating a terrorist publication, 12 counts of possessing a document containing information of a kind likely to be of use to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism, and two counts of making an indecent photograph of a child.

In June this year, 21-year-old Vaughan, who now goes by the name of Harry Blake, returned to the Old Bailey and pleaded guilty to making an indecent photograph of a child in September 2022.

He also admitted three charges of possessing extreme pornographic videos, three counts of failing to comply with a Serious Crime Prevention Order and three breaches of his notification order.

The breaches, which began just a month after his original sentence, related to failing to tell authorities about an email address and details of cryptocurrency accounts.

Now in relation to the newer offences, Vaughan has been jailed for 38 months and was handed a serious crime prevention order of five years at the Old Bailey on Thursday.

After the sentencing, Detective Chief Superintendent Gareth Rees, of the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Blake had been convicted of offences relating to sharing extremist content online, so restrictions were imposed to curb his access to computer systems.

“His breach of these conditions was extremely serious. Not only had he breached the conditions, but we uncovered that he had also been storing child abuse images.

“I hope this case sends the message that we closely monitor people who are under terrorism notification and crime prevention orders, and that we will bring them back to court where we’ve found they’ve broken those conditions.”