A Norwich teenager has been identified as being among far-right activists behind leaflets posted through letterboxes by an extremist group.
An undercover TV film this week exposed Barkley Walsh, 17, as being a leading youth member of white nationalist group Patriotic Alternative.
He was said to have started following the group’s founder Mark Collett, a former leader of the BNP's youth wing, online when he was just 13 and now hosts his own chat show on the group’s YouTube channel.
Hidden camera footage filmed at one of the group’s gatherings showed him boasting how watching online 'troll' videos and memes had “led me to being in a campsite with some of the most notorious neo-Nazis in the country”.
In another clip he was shown making an antisemitic comment about a Jewish teacher who had a tattoo and also recorded making a foul-mouthed slur about Muslims during a livestream.
The Dispatches documentary The Enemy Within, broadcast on Channel 4 on Monday, revealed how Patriotic Alternative was targeting a younger generation calling themselves “Zoomer Nationalists”.
The film showed Mr Collett and other group leaders praising the Norfolk teen, who was also shown saying: “Mark said that if I’m a super good boy when I’m 18 he’ll let me do a speech at the Patriotic Alternative conference”.
An EDP investigation previously exposed how Patriotic Alternative had targeted parts of Norwich with leaflet drops while a report by anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate found it the most organised far-right group in the UK.
Gregory Davis, one of the researchers of the report, also identified Barkley Walsh as playing a major role in the group.
Mr Walsh, then aged 16, was arrested in Norfolk for “malicious communication” in 2020 for distributing some of the group’s pamphlets, though no further action was subsequently taken.
Patriotic Alternative was behind another recent mass drop of leaflets in Norwich, Great Yarmouth and other parts of the county calling for an end to immigration.
Norwich MPs Clive Lewis and Chloe Smith and religious leaders expressed fears the “vile propaganda” could stoke up anti-migrant sentiment.
On its website the Patriotic Alternative said it had put out 35,989 leaflets across the region and identified Mr Walsh among activists who had delivered at least 1,303, granting him entry to its “coveted Hall of Fame”.
“These determined individuals will be given a specially designed gold badge for their hard work,” it added.
Patriotic Alternative and Barkley Walsh have been approached for comment. Norfolk police said it had no active proceedings in relation to the teenager.
But in a response to the documentary posted on the Patriotic Alternative website, Mr Collett said the suggestion it was ‘grooming’ young people by “presenting them with alternative ideas” was “completely outrageous”.
He added: “The production also makes much of a young man – Barkley Walsh – being arrested for delivering leaflets.
“Barkley was released without charge because the leaflets in questions are legal and delivering them to households is simply an example of Patriotic Alternative participating in the legal democratic process.”
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