A Hitler-obsessed pervert jailed for right wing terrorism offences will serve no extra time in prison for making child abuse images.
When Luke Hunter's home was raided, disturbing material was found including Nazi memorabilia, white supremacist texts and recordings of him expressing his deeply disturbing views. He was previously jailed for 50 months for those offences.
An examination of his devices also revealed him to be in possession of child abuse images, for which he has now been dealt with another prison sentence at Newcastle Crown Court but was told it will run alongside the one he is already serving.
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Anne Richardson, prosecuting, said police executed a warrant at his home in High Callerton, in October 2019, where he was living alone. Indecent images were found in a chat featuring 35 people on the Kik platform, during which 90 messages were exchanged, with 21 attachments.
Abuse images and videos were also on his hard drive. In total there were 22 of the most serious, category A images, 11 category B and 39 category C. Referring to the images, Miss Richardson said: "Material was put around one child's neck in which she appears to be being strangled while being sexually abused."
Hunter, 24, pleaded guilty to three offences of making indecent images. He was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment but was told that will run concurrently to the sentence he is already serving. He will also have to sign the sex offenders register and be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for ten years.
Joe Culley, defending, said Hunter had been diagnosed with autism and was "led astray by other people to some extent" with regards to the terrorism offences and that his autism had played a role in both sets of offences. He added that there had been an "unexplained delay" in the prosecution of the images offences.
Hunter had previously admitted seven charges of encouraging terrorism and disseminating terrorist publications and was sentenced in December 2020 to four years and two months prison, with an extended licence of an extra year, at Leeds Crown Court.
We reported at the time how he was arrested as part of an investigation into Right Wing Terrorism, led by Counter Terrorism Policing North East. Searches of Hunter’s home address revealed an obsession with Hitler and neo-Nazism and resulted in the seizure of a large number of white supremacist texts, military training manuals and guides on surveillance, guerrilla warfare, weapons and explosives.
Officers also recovered Nazi memorabilia and a machete from his bedroom. Hunter’s media devices were found to contain thousands of documents, videos and audio files of an extreme right wing nature, in addition to the manifestos of previous mass murderers and recordings of Hunter himself, expressing his deeply disturbing views.
Officers said he was "persistent and prolific" in his efforts to promote right wing terrorism, utilising a variety of platforms and accounts to spread his hateful ideology and encourage others to do the same. He also created content and established his own website through which to disseminate his vile white supremacist, anti-Semitic and homophobic views.
Through this site he avidly promoted violent right wing propaganda, terrorist handbooks and instructional material. Hunter had a significant online reach, particularly among young people, with his Telegram channel alone having more than 1,200 subscribers.
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