Alice Cutter
© youtubeAlice Cutter 22, leaves Birmingham Crown Court where she is on trial with three others, accused of being members of the banned Neo-Nazi group National Action
A NEO-Nazi terror suspect took part in a "Miss Hitler" beauty contest organised to attract new members for a far-right extremist group, a court heard.

Alice Cutter, 22, went on to win the competition organised by National Action after taking on the nickname Buchenwald Princess in a nod to the Nazi death camp.

The competition has since been branded a 'publicity stunt' to gain new members and to raise the group's profile.

Cutter is standing trial at Birmingham Crown Court with her partner Mark Jones, who is accused of posing for a photograph while giving a Nazi salute in Buchenwald's execution room.

Jones, 24, and Cutter, both from Mulhalls Mill, Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, deny being members of National Action between December 2016 and September 2017.

Prosecutor Barnaby Jameson QC said Jones visited Buchenwald in Germany in 2016.

The jury were shown a picture featuring two men standing in the camp's execution room holding a National Action flag.

Mr Jameson said: "Buchenwald was a Nazi concentration camp that stood out, even by the standards of Nazi concentration camps, for its depravity.

"Like Auschwitz, Buchenwald is a permanent museum to honour the victims and remind the world of the horrors perpetrated in the name of Nazism."

He said Cutter entered the National Action-organised beauty contest in June 2016 - days after the Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered by Nazi-obsessed murderer Thomas Mair.

It is understood on 24 June 2016, National Action launched a beauty contest titled Miss Hitler 2016.

'A PUBLICITY STUNT'

Mr Jameson said: "This was, no doubt, a publicity stunt to raise the group's profile and attract more members.

"One of those who entered and, I think, in fact, won the competition, was Alice Cutter.

"She entered the competition as Buchenwald Princess and she set out her mission statement in a detailed interview.

"The beauty contest was anything but funny. The name Buchenwald Princess was, perhaps, you may think, no coincidence given that Jones had visited the execution room at Buchenwald the previous month."

Mr Jameson said the defendants were seeking to spread terror from "an ideology so warped, so extreme and so twisted, its continued existence will be shocking to many of you, if not all".

He added: "It is the terror of pathological racial prejudice.

"This case is about a fellowship of hate. A hate so fanatical and a fellowship so defiant that the accused would sooner break the law than break their bonds of hate."

The jury was shown a picture alleged to show Cutter wearing a National Action mask, which was posted online.

Garry Jack and Connor Scothern are also accused of being apart of the organisation.

The court alleges all four defendants flouted a ban classing National Action as a terrorist group which came into force on December 16, 2016.