‘Miss Hitler’ beauty queen to be released from prison early
Parole Board says it has ‘directed the release’ of Alice Cutter
A convicted extreme right-wing terrorist and “Miss Hitler” beauty pageant contestant who joked about gassing synagogues is to be freed early from jail.
The Parole Board said after an oral hearing on Monday that it had “directed the release” of Alice Cutter, who was jailed for three years in June 2020 after her conviction for being a member of banned group National Action.
Cutter is reportedly being held at HMP New Hall in West Yorkshire, where serial killer Rosemary West was an inmate.
At Cutter’s trial, prosecutors said the 26-year-old former waitress entered the beauty contest as Miss Buchenwald – a reference to a Second World War Nazi death camp.
Jailing her, Judge Paul Farrer KC said that although she “never held an organisational or leadership role” she was a “trusted confidante” of one the group’s leaders, boyfriend Mark Jones.
Jones was tried alongside Cutter and was jailed for five and a half years.
The right-wing group, labelled “racist, antisemitic and homophobic” by then-home secretary Amber Rudd, was outlawed in December 2016 after a series of rallies and incidents, including praise for the murder of MP Jo Cox.
Cutter, who attended the group’s rallies, which featured banners reading “Hitler was right”, denied being a group member after the ban.
But evidence at her trial showed she continued to be an active member.
Jurors were also shown messages in which Cutter joked about gassing synagogues, using a Jew’s head as a football and remarking “Rot in hell, bitch” after discussing Ms Cox’s murder.
Cutter also made an attempt to recruit a 15-year-old girl.
Two other men, Garry Jack, of Heathland Avenue, Birmingham, and Connor Scothern, of Bagnall Avenue, Nottingham, were also jailed in June 2020, having been convicted of membership alongside Cutter and Jones.
Jack was jailed for four and a half years, and Scothern was 18 months’ detention.
Director of public prosecutions Max Hill KC described NA members as “diehards” who “hark back to the days of not just antisemitism, but the Holocaust, the Third Reich in Germany”.
A Parole Board spokesman said: “We can confirm that a panel of the Parole Board has directed the release of Alice Cutter following an oral hearing.
“Decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.
“A panel will carefully examine a huge range of evidence, including details of the original crime, and any evidence of behaviour change, as well as explore the harm done and impact the crime has had on the victims.
“Members read and digest hundreds of pages of evidence and reports in the lead-up to an oral hearing.”
They adde: “Evidence from witnesses such as probation officers, psychiatrists and psychologists, officials supervising the offender in prison as well as victim personal statements may be given at the hearing.
“It is standard for the prisoner and witnesses to be questioned at length during the hearing which often lasts a full day or more. Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care. Protecting the public is our number one priority.”