A neo-Nazi has been jailed for planning a mass gun attack as a teenager, after being snared by MI5 in an undercover sting. Alfie Coleman, who was arrested when he was 19, was found guilty of preparing for terrorist acts after an Old Bailey retrial. Previously, the court had heard how Coleman was 14 when he first began to trawl the internet for extreme right-wing material including a neo-Nazi text which he downloaded on his iPad. On Wednesday Coleman, now 22, was jailed at the same court for 13 and a half years, with a further five years on extended licence. Judge Richard Marks KC said Coleman must be treated as a “dangerous offender” as he sentenced him, describing the views the defendant had expressed as “virulently racist”. He told Coleman: “(Giving evidence) You maintained that much of what you had said and the virulently racist views which you expressed were no more than intrusive thoughts and did not represent what you believed in real life. “It was in effect, although you did not use these words, hyperbole, bravado, fantasy, and you never had any intention to carry out an attack.” The 22-year-old appeared tearful in the dock and wiped his eyes with a tissue as the judge made his remarks. Coleman’s trial heard he penned a “manifesto” in a diary and identified potential targets, including the Lord Mayor of London and a mosque. The former part-time Tesco worker went on to compile a hate list of colleagues and customers he branded with racial slurs or as “race traitors”. At his retrial, the court was told that he was caught after undercover officers from MI5 engaged with him in encrypted chat as he sought to buy a gun and ammunition. Authorities first became concerned in the summer of 2023 when Coleman became increasingly active on online extreme right-wing groups. In September 2023, he arranged to buy a Skorpion automatic weapon, an AK47 rifle and bullets in France, having identified a local mosque as his target – but abandoned the plan. Instead, MI5’s operation culminated in a Morrisons car park in Stratford, London, on 29 September 2023. That day Coleman had arranged with an undercover officer to buy a Makarov pistol, five magazines and 200 rounds of ammunition. Jurors saw video of Coleman dropping £3,500 in a Land Rover Discovery and picking up a holdall containing the handgun and ammunition from the boot. But before he had gone 30 yards, Coleman, who was carrying his Tesco employee card, was confronted by armed counter-terrorism police and forced to the ground. Shoppers witnessed three men pointing stun guns at Coleman as he walked across the car park carrying a bag, the Old Bailey heard. A search of the home he shared with his parents and sibling revealed the extent of Coleman’s murderous ideology, including idolising Thomas Mair, who killed MP Jo Cox. Police found £2,500 in savings and a device to detect bugs and secret cameras in his bedside drawer; a rock with a Swastika on a table; a Black Sun flag associated with neo-Nazism on the wall; and various extreme right-wing books.
via itv: Neo-Nazi from Essex jailed for more than 13 years for planning mass gun attack as a teenager