A knifeman with Adolf Hitler’s signature tattooed on his arm has been jailed for life for the attempted murder of an asylum seeker at a hotel, claiming the attack was a “form of protest” against small boat crossings.
Callum Ulysses Parslow, who wrote his own “terrorist manifesto”, stabbed Nahom Hagos in the chest and hand at the Pear Tree Inn at Hindlip, Worcestershire, in April last year after buying a “specialist” knife online for 1,000 US dollars (£770).
The 32-year-old tried to tweet the manifesto document before his arrest, claiming he “just did my duty to England” by trying to “exterminate” his victim and tagging Tommy Robinson as well as prominent politicians including Sir Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak, Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman, but the message failed to send because he had copied in too many recipients.
Parslow, of Bromyard Terrace, Worcester, was convicted of attempted murder following a three-week trial at Leicester Crown Court last year, and also pleaded guilty to an unconnected sexual offence and two charges of sending electronic communications with intent to cause distress and anxiety.
Mr Justice Dove handed Parslow a life sentence with a minimum term of 22 years and eight months at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday, telling the defendant: “You committed a vicious and unprovoked assault on a complete stranger Nahom Hagos who suffered devastating injuries as a result of your violence.
“He treated you with courtesy, showing you to the toilets, and after you had established that he was from Eritrea you returned his courtesy with cruel violence, brutally stabbing him in the chest and then continuing the ferocious assault upon him when he tried to defend himself.”
The judge said Parslow, whose email address included the phrase “lordadolfreborn”, was “motivated by your adoption of a far-right neo-Nazi mindset which fuelled your warped, violent and racist views”.
“This was undoubtedly a terrorist attack,” he added.
Mr Justice Dove told the court of literature and items found at Parslow’s home which “established beyond doubt your corrosive obsession with the Nazis… white supremacy and the glorification of violence used in pursuit of all these extreme right-wing causes”, including manifestos written by notorious terrorists.
“In parallel with the terrorists whose books you owned you prepared a manifesto seeking to justify the horrifying violence which you intended to perpetrate,” the judge went on.
“The text of the manifesto made plain your intentions. You perceived yourself as exterminating the ‘harmful invasive species’.”
A police search of Parslow’s flat led to the recovery of a second knife in a sheath, an axe, a metal baseball bat, a red armband bearing a swastika, a Nazi-era medallion and copies of Mein Kampf.
In a victim impact statement written earlier this month by Mr Hagos, and read in court by the prosecution, he described the “excruciating pain” he continues to suffer in his hand.
“The pain is unbearable and keeps me awake all night long,” Mr Hagos said.
“The pain feels like an electric shock going through my hand and I now have insomnia.
“I had been living and pursuing a happy life before the incident. This is now a distant memory.
“I prefer to be on my own. I feel lonely and don’t feel safe on the street. My life has been turned upside down.”
In the statement he said he struggled to understand why Parslow attacked him, saying: “I was a law-abiding, good person.”
Parslow told jurors during his trial that he made a four-and-a-half-mile journey to the rural hotel on April 2 last year to carry out the attack because he was “angry and frustrated” at small boat crossings.
He insisted he had intended only to injure his victim’s shoulder after becoming angry that he was due to be evicted, saying: “The reason I chose to do it to one of the Channel migrants was that I was angry and frustrated. They are spending £5.6 billion-a-year housing them.”
He also claimed the Nazi armband found at his bedsit was part of a fancy dress uniform he was putting together, while his Hitler-related tattoo was an attempt to annoy communist sympathisers.
In his manifesto document, jurors heard Parslow railed against what he termed the “evil enemies of nature and of England” who he identified as “the Jews, the Marxists and the Globalists” he said were responsible for demonising Christianity, white people and European culture.
Laurence Fox, Nick Griffin, Donald Trump, Lee Anderson, Liz Truss, Michael Gove, Lord David Cameron, Richard Tice and Boris Johnson also featured in the list of those who Parslow tried to tag in his post to X.
Parslow carried out the attack while he was under investigation for offences of malicious communication and exposure.
Prosecutor Tom Storey KC said that between July and August 2023, the defendant sent “grossly offensive” messages to a woman who was a prominent TV presenter at the time.
The messages were described by the judge as “sexist, racist and deeply offensive” and were sent from various social media accounts set up by Parslow under fake names.
He also sent her a sexually explicit video.
In a victim impact statement, she said she has lost her sense of security and often wakes up from sleep to check all the windows and doors are closed, adding: “This incident has scared me as it has made me realise that there are people like the defendant who are not just keyboard warriors but who will go to extreme lengths to hurt people.”
The prosecutor said Parslow “described himself as being full of anger and resentment and as being not very good at talking to women” in a police interview.
He had been convicted of similar offences in 2018, when he was jailed for seven counts of stalking causing fear of violence and three counts of sending indecent or offensive communications between March and September 2017.
Parslow sent messages to 13 different women from Facebook accounts with false names which were “sexually graphic and extremely violent”.
The defendant was jailed for two years for having a bladed article in a public place, and 18 months each for exposure and the malicious communications offences, to run concurrent with the life sentence.
Bethan David, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Counter Terrorism Division, said: “This attack was carried out to intimidate a section of the public – namely asylum seekers and those providing accommodation to asylum seekers.
“Callum Parslow’s Neo-Nazi views motivated him to viciously attack a man based solely on the colour of his skin and the place he was from, and he sought to spread fear amongst a community.
“This was an act of terrorism, and the CPS will always prosecute crimes like this where the legal test is met.”
