Calls grow for ban on Nazi-Satanist group

Order of Nine Angles linked to murders and ritualised violence

Danyal Hussein in police custody. Reuters

An extremist Nazi-Satanist organisation linked to several murders should be immediately banned by the British government, politicians have told The National.

Calls to ban the Order of Nine Angles (ONA), which has been linked to extremist ideology and acts of murder, have so far fallen on deaf ears at the Home Office, which has powers to proscribe the group - making it a criminal offence for meetings and other activities. It still remains able to operate without restriction.

“The Order of Nine Angles advocate sexual violence that is really pretty brutal and misogynistic,” Stephanie Peacock, MP, told The National. “There's a lot of evidence that this is a very bad group that is pushing a really terrible ideology.”

Forensic police examine the scene after MP Jo Cox was murdered in 2016. Getty Images

Investigations have previously found that a teenager convicted of randomly murdering sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in a London park last year was linked ONA. Material and a handwritten Satanic pact were found with Danyal Hussein, 19, who was convicted of the murders in July.

The ONA praises the Nazi era and rejects ethics, urging followers to violent acts to apparently open a gateway for evil energies. It has also praised extremist Islamist acts of mass murder.

The group has been active in Britain since the late 1960s but it appears that Covid-19 lockdowns have allowed its malign influence to prey online on vulnerable young men stuck at home.

A 16-year-old boy became the youngest person ever convicted of planning a terror attack in Britain last year with his actions swayed by ONA literature, the prosecution said.

There are growing concerns that the group has also established international foothold with cells in Germany, Sweden and more recently in America, where at least two serving soldiers have been convicted of violent acts in connection with the group.

“I can understand that the bar needs to be high when proscribing an organisation because you're effectively taking away someone's civil liberties,” Ms Peacock, the Barnsley East Labour MP said. “But the government has not given a reason why the organisation has not been proscribed. They seem to treat proscription like an endpoint not a beginning point but the whole point is, it's meant to be preventive.

“It’s hugely important that we tackle the Order of Nine Angles and I call on the government to take action and proscribe this organisation.”

The Home Secretary can use the law to proscribe a group if she believes it is involved in terror, that includes “promotions or encouragement of terrorism” but investigations are secretive.

“The Government does not routinely comment on whether an organisation is, or is not, being considered for proscription,” a Home Office spokesman said.

“The Order of Nine Angles advocate sexual violence that is really pretty brutal and misogynistic,” said Stephanie Peacock, MP. Photo: UK Parliament

Ms Peacock, who has been joined Yvette Cooper, MP in seeking an ONA ban, was speaking after a Labour conference fringe event on “The Threat of the International Far Right” hosted by the Hope Not Hate campaign.

Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered by a far right extremist in 2016.

Far right conspiracy forums “exploded” during the pandemic with the spread of the QAnon conspiracy theory of Satanist cults that has had a significant impact in America, said Joe Mulhall of Hope Not Hate.

“While this is shrinking as the lockdown has ended what we are seeing is the radicalisation of people and super conspiracies,” he said.

Populist politics, with figureheads such as Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, was “resurgent, growing and becoming more established” allowing Far Right groups to become more established, he warned.