ITV’s The Walk-In – a five-part series starring Stephen Graham – asks the question: how and why do people get lured into joining violent far-right groups?
The series, written by Jeff Pope, draws on the true-life case of Matthew Collins (Graham), a former member of fascist groups like the National Front and the BNP, who has now reformed and is an activist working for the civil rights group, Hope Not Hate.
In 2017, Collins was contacted by Robbie Mullen (played by Andrew Ellis), a whistleblower from the banned far-right group, National Action, who claimed that one of their members was planning to murder a British MP. The assassination was thwarted, and the perpetrator sentenced to life in prison. The case makes up much of The Walk-In, and this is the true story behind Mullen.
Who is Robbie Mullen?
Mullen grew up in Widnes, and fell into trouble at school. His father died when Mullen was about 16, and according to The New Yorker he became “even more angry and sullen, and began spending much of his time alone, playing video games in darkened rooms.” He had various low paying jobs, and became motivated by the fact that towns and cities like Bradford and Blackburn were being “taken over.”
Mullen increasingly began searching online for far-right sites and in 2015, he attended a white supremacist march in Wigan. There, he met a National Action activist, Christopher Lythgoe, who invited him to join the members at the pub, and later the group. He quickly formed bonds with the other members, who communicated through encrypted messaging services like Telegram, and Mullen, previously a social outsider, told The New Yorker: “You believe you’re going to change the world with them. You’d die for them.”
When the MP Jo Cox was murdered by a white supremacist in 2016 – her killer, Thomas Mair yelled “Britain First” before stabbing and shooting her – the National Action group were “ecstatic” but Mullen felt uneasy and began to think about leaving the hate-fuelled organisation. However, he realised, you can’t just walk away unscathed.
He eventually sent an email under the pseudonym Lucas Harrison to the Hope Not Hate website, and it was Collins who answered. Mullen began to work as an informant for Hope Not Hate, with a view to escaping the group. However, things intensified in 2017 when another member of the NA group, Jack Renshaw, spoke in explicit detail, over two or three hours, about how he planned to murder an MP, Rosie Cooper, and a policewoman with a machete. Mullen felt he had no choice but to stop an imminent killing. The line had been crossed, with Mullen telling The Observer: “I didn’t want to move or leave my job but had to drop everything and everyone I knew. It has totally ruined my life.”
Mullen was offered limited immunity by the police for cooperating in the case against Renshaw, but he refused witness protection as he didn’t want to change his name, or move away and leave behind his remaining family and his dog, Milly.
He was put up in hotels for weeks and police informed him that he had been issued an Osman warning – that is, a very real death threat had been put out on him. Mullen eventually testified for three days in the Renshaw court case, but there was a retrial when the jurors were unable to reach a decision on Renshaw’s membership in the NA. Renshaw was sentenced to life in prison, in the 2019 retrial, and afterwards, it was revealed he was also a convicted paedophile.
Mullen went on to write a book about his experiences with Collins in 2019, Nazi Terrorist: The Story of National Action, although he told The New Yorker he lives “day by day” now, and is fearful there are still people out there who want to hurt him.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror, Mullen encouraged other people involved in fascist movements to change, and get out: “I don’t have those views any more. But it’s easy to believe one side of an argument when it is all you know. I’d like to help young people understand the effects of going into the far-right. It can get serious pretty quick. Go to Hope not Hate. They can get you out.”
The Walk-In continues on ITV on Mondays at 9pm.
