A Scottish mother and her daughter have been sentenced to 16 and 20 months in prison for spreading neo-Nazi, racist, and antisemitic content online over several years. The pair pleaded guilty to racially and religiously aggravated hate crimes before Edinburgh’s Crown Court.
Shirley Craughwell, 51, posted numerous messages asserting that non-white people belonged to a “different species.” She repeatedly glorified Adolf Hitler, writing that “Hitler tried to save us” and that “the need for a new Holocaust has never been more urgent.” She routinely used neo-Nazi symbols and emojis, shared extremist propaganda, and filmed a video in which a young boy was encouraged to perform a Nazi salute.
Her daughter, Hannah Craughwell, 27, who used the online alias “Anna Hitler,” shared antisemitic content describing Jews as “children of the devil.” She circulated racist videos, Holocaust denial material, conspiracy theories, and posters promoting neo-Nazi films. According to prosecutors, she linked Jewish people and Israel to events like the 9/11 attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The offenses occurred between 2021 and 2024. Both women admitted their actions in court last November.
In delivering the sentences, Sheriff Charles Wells described their hatred as “deeply disturbing,” emphasizing that the remarks were not only offensive but “violent and threatening toward the Jewish community.” The court viewed the inclusion of a child in one of the hate-filled videos as a “major aggravating factor.”
The Scottish judiciary stressed the seriousness and duration of the offenses, affirming that prison sentences were necessary to address the growing threat of online hate speech and extremist ideologies.
