'Obsessive' far-right Sussex man jailed for stirring racial hatred in calling for 'civil war'

‘Pathetic’ Tobias Powell, 33, sent a series of tweets including showing a photo of his Nazi tattoo and and said: ‘Civil war is the only way... at first it will be a blood bath’.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard one image posted online showed his dog with a paw raised alongside text that said: ‘Sieg heil.’

Drug addict Powell shared ‘extreme right-wing language’ and published ‘anti-Islamist and anti-Semitic posts and retweets,’ prosecutor Amy Packham said.

Counter-terror investigators found a mass of far-right material at his home in Bognor Regis in a February 2019 raid.

Investigators found Powell had set up his Apple ID using the name Adolph Hitler, and played the football game Fifa with ‘Nazi’ on the back of a player’s shirt. He named the player using a racist epithet and ‘killer’.

He also shared tweets by former American president Donald Trump and far-right figures including Nick Griffin, Tommy Robinson and American white supremacist David Lane, Ms Packham said.

His posts online also showed support for proscribed far-right group National ACtion.

An email found by police revealed he claimed to have done ‘10 years of research’ and as a ‘white lad’ had now decided to ‘become active in a movement’ committed to ‘furthering the white race’.

‘I have been trying to find a serious and like-minded group of brothers I can join and fight alongside,’ he said.

He added: ‘I have no problem shooting off a kneecap or scalping a radical Imam or removing the penis of one of the (men involved in child abuse in Rotherham).’

Powell, whose barrister suggested he tweeted while in a ‘twisted mind’ high on cocaine and drunk, also posted an image of a tattoo on his right thigh showing the Celtic Cross, Swastika and Iron Cross.

In the tweets posted between July and October in 2018 he also called murdered MP Jo Cox an ‘alleged open traitor and enemy of the people’.

Ms Packham said officers saw Powell had posted online ‘images of the defendant’s dog with his paw raised with “sieg heil” next to it’.

Jailing him for three years, judge Timothy Mousely QC said: ‘This was vile, offensive, abusive and threatening language which intended by you to incite racial hatred.

‘I am quite satisfied that you demonstrated attitudes towards many different ethnic groups, religious groups and people of different sexualities which are abhorrent to most people and you’ve done it over a significant period of time.

‘I am also quite satisfied that your views and the ways you’ve expressed them is particularly worrying, and deeply entrenched, and have been for many years.

‘They’re far-reaching and they’re obsessive.’

Among the material found was an email titled ‘Brexit Stitch Up’ he wrote to then prime minister Theresa May describing her as a ‘snake’.

He also wrote a letter to MP Nick Gibbs about his concerns over Sharia law.

Powell, of Wythering Close, was found guilty of four charges of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour intending thereby to stir up racial hatred.

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He denied the charges but was convicted by district judge Tan Ikram at Worthing Magistrates’ Court last month.

At his trial Powell claimed he was not racist and did not intend to stir up racial hatred.

Pierce Power, mitigating, said: ‘He’s certainly no Tommy Robinson, he’s in no position to influence anyone.

‘He is what he is, which is a rather pathetic individual who holds unattractive views and nothing more serious than that.’

Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, head of the south east’s counter-terror policing unit, previously said: ‘Whilst this was not a terrorism case, the nature of the rhetoric Powell had shared on social media, meant that it was only right for specialist officers from Counter Terrorism Policing to conduct a thorough investigation.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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