A Catholic priest who admitted discussing bombing mosques and shooting Black people in the head in neo-Nazi online chatrooms has been sentenced to a 12-month community order.
Father Mark Rowles, 57, used the name “skinheadlad1488” in a chatroom called Aryan Reich Killers where grotesquely offensive messages about Muslims were written.
On Thursday, Rowles, of St John Lloyd Catholic Church in Cardiff, admitted three counts of sending menacing or offensive messages using the Telegram app in May and June 2024. He will complete 150 hours of community service, pay £199 in costs, and be subject to a Criminal Behaviour Order for three years. The Catholic Church in Wales will conduct its own review.
The court was told he described himself in an online profile as a 16-year-old skinhead neo-Nazi and a loner. His profile picture showed a young white man with a face covering, alongside a German flag and the words “right hand path always.”
He’s probably happy to accept the sentence and get all this shoved behind him. I bet if the police had looked deeper at other online activities and his pc his term would be much longer.