Neo-Nazi mother and daughter sentenced at Edinburgh Sheriff Court

Shirley Craughwell, 51, posted material describing non-white people as “a different species” and wrote comments including “Hitler was trying to save us” and “the need for a new Holocaust is never more urgent than now”. She used neo-Nazi symbols and emojis, circulated extremist publications, and repeatedly employed racist slurs. She also filmed and shared footage of a young child being encouraged to perform Nazi salutes.

Her daughter, Hannah Craughwell, who used the online alias “Hannah Hitler”, referred to Jewish people as “the devil’s children”, shared racist and transphobic videos, and distributed posters promoting a neo-Nazi propaganda film in her local area. She also shared Holocaust-denying and conspiracy content linking Jews and Israel to events including 9/11 and Covid.

Both women pleaded guilty to racially and religiously aggravated hate crime offences committed between 2021 and 2024 when they appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in November.

Sentencing them this week, Sheriff Charles Walls said the hatred expressed by Shirley Craughwell was “deeply disturbing”, adding that her messages were not only offensive but “violent and threatening in relation to people of the Jewish faith”, and that involving a child was a “significant aggravation”. She was jailed for 20 months.

Hannah Craughwell, 27, was sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment after Sheriff Walls noted she continued to minimise her conduct and had distributed “highly inflammatory” material.