A former contestant of a neo-Nazi beauty pageant who joked about gassing Jews has been found guilty of belonging to banned far-right group National Action.

‘Miss Hitler’ contestant Alice Cutter, 23, and her ex-boyfriend Mark Jones, 25, were found guilty by a jury at Birmingham Crown Court, who deliberated for nine hours after a 10-week retrial.

Cutter initially denied being part of the group – which became the first far-right neo-Nazi group to be banned under terror laws in the UK in 2016 – until footage emerged showing her standing with other members giving the Nazi salute behind a banner that read “Hitler Was Right”.

Both described themselves in court as national socialists and denied any wrong-doing.

Cutter appeared in the Nazi beauty pageant as Miss Buchenwald – a reference to the Nazi concentration camp. She also joked about gassing Jews and synagogues, and using a Jew’s head as a football.

Jones, 25, a former member of the BNP's youth wing and National Action’s regional organiser for London, told jurors he had “feelings of admiration” for Hitler.

He also posing making a Nazi salute for a photograph in Buchenwald’s execution room on a trip to Germany in 2016.

Garry Jack, 24, and Connor Scothern, 19, were also convicted of the same offence.

Jack denied taking a photograph found on his phone of graffiti reading “gas the Jews”, despite using antisemitic slurs in messages with other members.

Judge Paul Farrer QC, said: “You have all been convicted of a serious terrorist offence.”

Detective Chief Superintendent of the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit Kenny Bell said: “Being convicted of membership of this extreme right terrorist group is the same as belonging to other terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda or Daesh.

“They share a real toxic extreme ideology which is a danger to the public.”