A Neo Nazi who had been on the run for over ten years for an unprovoked racially aggravated attack is finally behind bars.
Alan Thompson was sentenced on December 18th at Southend Crown Court to 11 years imprisonment for grievous bodily harm and 4 1/2 years imprisonment for violent disorder, to run concurrently for his part in a violent attack on two teenagers that left one of them fighting for their life back in 2002.
Darren Bagalo and his friend Farman Khan who were 17 and 18 at the time had been on a night out with family and friends in Romford town centre. As they made their way home a gang of men armed with knuckle dusters and knives attacked them, punching, kicking and stabbing both in a sustained attack.
Moments before the attack the assailants were seen by passers-by and CCTV making Nazi salutes.
The two youths were rushed to hospital where they underwent immediate surgery for serious stab wounds. Darren Bagalo’s injuries, which included stab wounds to the abdomen and torso and kicks to the head, were initially life-threatening, while Farman Khan had been stabbed in the arm.
In 2003 Neil Tarrant, Philip Curson, Paul Knight, Gavin Hockley and Alan Lethbridge were all found guilty of violent disorder at Snaresbrook crown court. A sixth man Robert Bell, who had stabbed one of the youths in the shoulder, was found guilty of violent disorder and GBH. The 6 men were sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 1 1/2 years to 7 1/2 years.
The court heard the police found stacks of magazines supporting the Ku Klux Klan and Combat 18 at Gavin Hockley’s home. They also found 150 leaflets with the words Keep Romford White, as well as a photo of Curson,Hockley and Tarrant posing in front of a Nazi flag holding a knuckle duster, cosh and baseball bat.
Hockley had a collage of 150, mostly fascist, photos. In one picture he had cut out Adolf Hitler’s face and replaced it with his own.
Thompson,the seventh and final member of the gang was once a BNP member and was very close to their first councillor Derek Beackon.He was also a founder member with Combat 18 and was a high profile member of their north London unit when it was first established in 1992.
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