Teenager who defaced Windrush mural with Nazi symbols named
Former RAF cadet from South Wales sentenced at the Old Bailey
Last updated 21st Sep 2023
A 17-year-old who daubed a Windrush mural with Nazi symbols can be named as Aristedes Haynes after an order granting him anonymity was lifted following his sentencing.
The former RAF cadet from South Wales, who the court heard fantasised about making a gun and killing a schoolboy, admitted a string of terror offences and criminal damage in June.
He was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Thursday to one year and seven months' detention and one year's extended licence.
He was also made the subject of a Criminal Behaviour Order for three years.
Mr Justice Jeremy Baker said Haynes "essentially became self-radicalised" and held "entrenched" racist, antisemitic and homophobic views.
A court order granting him anonymity under Section 45 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 was lifted post-sentencing following an application from the press.
The anonymity order would have expired on Sunday when Haynes turns 18.
The teenager faced eight charges - two of possessing a terrorist document, three of distributing a terrorist document and three charges of criminal damage.
At a previous hearing, the court heard how Haynes was referred to the Prevent de-radicalisation programme last spring by the Royal Air Force Air Cadets.
Last September, he was expelled from the group after he sent images to other cadets bare chested with a Swastika painted on his chest and was banned from Instagram for posting racist and Nazi images.
The youth, then aged 16, went on to paint graffiti on a Windrush mural in Port Talbot, which celebrates the town's Caribbean community, on two occasions in October and November.
Community members were shaken and disgusted after several swastikas, the phrase "Nazi zone", white supremacist symbol "1488" and a racial slur appeared on the mural hours after it was completed.
The mural depicts Donna Campbell, a much-loved nurse and daughter of the Windrush generation who died during the pandemic, and her mother Lydia, known as Mrs Campbell in her community, with a merged image of a Welsh dragon and the Jamaican flag.
In October last year, Haynes was involved in setting off a smoke bomb at The Queer Emporium in Cardiff, which damaged the floor.
The emporium was targeted because it is a centre for the local LGBT+ community, the court was told.