National Action member given parole hearing could be freed from jail

Member of National Action could be freed from jail as he is granted parole hearing – as fellow far-right extremist beauty queen Alice Cutter is set for release

  • National Action member could join Miss Hitler beauty queen in winning freedom 
  • Garry Jack, 27, was given four-and-a-half years but has parole hearing next week
  • MailOnline revealed Alice Cutter, 25, was granted release from prison on licence 
  • The neo-Nazi beauty queen had served just 26-months of a three year sentence 

A key member of the same group of far-right National Action supporters as Miss Hitler beauty queen Alice Cutter has a parole hearing next week and could join her in winning freedom.

Extremist Garry Jack, now 27, admitted with another man they were ‘committed and unapologetic’ members of National Action, which was banned in December 2016.

However, he claimed to have quit the organisation before it was proscribed but was found guilty in March 2020 and later sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.

Extremist Garry Jack, now 27, admitted with another man they were ‘committed and unapologetic’ members of National Action

Jack, then 24, of Birmingham, had attended almost every meeting of NA’s Midlands sub-group, it emerged during the trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

He also had a previous conviction, from before the group was banned for plastering Birmingham’s Aston University campus with NA’s racially charged stickers, some reading ‘Britain is ours, the rest must go.’

If the Parole Board decides to release him, Jack will be freed alongside Cutter, 25, who MailOnline revealed this week had been granted release from prison on licence.

Neo-Nazi had served just 26-months of a three year sentence imposed in June 2020 along with other ‘diehard’ colleagues

If the Parole Board decides to release him, Garry Jack will be freed alongside Cutter, 25, who MailOnline revealed this week had been granted release from prison on licence

The neo-Nazi beauty queen had served just 26-months of a three year sentence imposed in June 2020 along with other ‘diehard’ colleagues – her ex-partner Mark Jones, Jack and Connor Scothern.

MailOnline can also reveal that Scothern, now 22, who got 18-months, had been turned down for parole after a hearing in October 2020. He is eligible for a further appeal in the near future, but has not been listed yet.

The Parole Board also refused to endorse a move to an open prison for Scothern.

A spokesperson for the Parole Board said: ‘An oral hearing has been listed for the parole review of Garry Jack and is scheduled to take place in October 2022.

‘Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.

The Parole Board also refused to endorse a move to an open prison for Connor Scothern

‘A panel will carefully examine a huge range of evidence, including details of the original crime, and any evidence of behaviour change, as well as explore the harm done and impact the crime has had on the victims.

‘Members read and digest hundreds of pages of evidence and reports in the lead up to an oral hearing. Evidence from witnesses including probation officers, psychiatrists and psychologists, officials supervising the offender in prison as well as victim personal statements are then given at the hearing.

‘The prisoner and witnesses are then questioned at length during the hearing which often lasts a full day or more.

‘Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care. Protecting the public is our number one priority.’

At his trial, Scothern, from Nottingham, was referred to as ‘one of the most active members of the group’ who was ‘considered future leadership material’

The spokesperson added: ‘We can confirm that a panel of the Parole Board refused the release of Connor Scothern following a paper hearing in October 2020. The panel also refused to recommend a move to open prison.’

At his trial, Scothern, from Nottingham, was referred to as ‘one of the most active members of the group’ who was ‘considered future leadership material’.

Self-confessed Nazi Jack was described as a foot soldier in the group, having joined six months before the ban.

Jack, from Birmingham, appeared at his sentencing via a video-link. He wrote a letter to judge Paul Farrer QC stating:’I have turned my back on the far right.’

Max Hill QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the group were ‘diehards in the way that they think’.

‘They hark back to the days of not just anti-Semitism but the Holocaust, the Third Reich in Germany, and they take their mindset from those extreme Nazi groups and latterly neo-Nazi groups in Germany,’ he said.

Det Ch Supt Kenny Bell, of the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit said after the trial: ‘Being convicted of membership of this extreme right terrorist group is the same as belonging to other terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda or Daesh.

‘They share a real toxic extreme ideology which is a danger to the public, the same ideology that we have seen manifested in the tragic attack in New Zealand, the murder of Jo Cox MP and the attack at Finsbury Park mosque in 2017.

Cutter’s Nazi-admiring former partner Mark Jones was convicted of membership of a terrorist group and got five-and-a-half years

‘This group was amassing weapons and recipes for bomb-making. They communicated through secret channels to recruit others to their cause. Left unchecked they presented a real threat to the public.’

Cutter’s Nazi-admiring former partner Mark Jones was convicted of membership of a terrorist group and got five-and-a-half years.

He is eligible for a parole hearing but has not yet been listed.

National Action, founded in 2013, was outlawed under anti-terror legislation three years later after it celebrated the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox.

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