Ex-RAF cadet who daubed Windrush mural in Nazi symbols sentenced and named for first time

September 22, 2023

A teenager who daubed a Windrush mural in Nazi symbols has been named and sentenced.

Aristedes Miles Haynes, 17, was one of two teenage boys - the other aged 15 - who carried out "several offences of racially and homophobically aggravated criminal damage".

One of the incidents saw Nazi symbols daubed on a Windrush mural in Port Talbot.

The mural features a merged image of the Welsh dragon and the Jamaican flag and depicts Donna Campbell, a nurse and daughter of the Windrush generation who died during the pandemic, along with her mother Lydia.

Haynes, a former RAF cadet from Port Talbot, can be identified after an application to remove his anonymity post-sentencing was approved.

The order would have expired on Sunday when Haynes turned 18.

He appeared before Westminster Magistrates Court on 7 June and pleaded guilty to three hate crime offences and five terrorism offences.

Haynes appeared before the Old Bailey on Thursday and was detained for one year and seven months, and also handed a year on extended licence and three years' community behavioural order.

Counter terrorism police in Wales last year began investigating the two youths in connection with "several offences of racially and homophobically aggravated criminal damage".

A smoke bomb was also rolled into The Queer Emporium, an LGBTQ+ business in Cardiff city centre.

The 15-year-old, from Tonyrefail, appeared at Cardiff Youth Court and pleaded guilty on 15 August to one charge of criminal damage and four charges of racially aggravated criminal damage.

He was given a referral order for a year, a criminal behaviour order for two years and ordered to pay £100 compensation to The Queer Emporium.

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Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Williams from Counter Terrorism Policing Wales said the investigation was "extremely detailed" and involved examining the boys' "online behaviour" in addition to their "overt activities".

"For the older boy in particular, it became evident that he was also involved in the online distribution of extreme right-wing material, which clearly fell into the space governed by terrorism legislation," he said.

"The offences were particularly abhorrent in nature and understandably caused upset to many people, both within the communities the boys targeted, and beyond.

"The sentencing today concludes the investigation and enables professionals to work intensively with them in the hope that they can lead far more productive lives in their respective futures".

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