(JTA) — A former neo-Nazi who once defaced buildings with swastikas reportedly has been elected to a local council in south-central England.
Margaret Burke won a seat on the Milton Keynes Council earlier this month after demonstrating her remorse to local Labor Party officials and describing her earlier activities as those of a "brainwashed idiot," the London Jewish Chronicle reported.
During the 1980s, Burke ran a pro-Hitler organization with her husband. She wore Nazi-style uniforms and organized racist leafleting. After the couple divorced, Burke joined the Animal Liberation Front and was jailed for vandalizing a butcher’s shop.
She told the Milton Keynes Citizen that she regretted her actions and had dedicated herself to working for the community to make amends.
The council’s Labor leader, Kevin Wilson, said the candidate selection panel had been aware of Burke’s past and had "questioned her at length." He called her post-Nazi behavior "exemplary" and said it would have been "wholly wrong to deny her the possibility of being a candidate."
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