East Lothian far right fanatic jailed for downloading terror manuals on bomb-making

An East Lothian far right fanatic who downloaded terror manuals on how to make bombs and how to murder people has been jailed.

David Dudgeon collected digital instruction booklets – including the Anarchist Cook Book – describing how to create explosives and how to target major organs in the human body with knives.

Dudgeon, 43, also possessed extreme right wing material on the Holocaust denial conspiracy, anti-semitism, ISIS beheading videos and information on former EDL founder Tommy Robinson.

Among the disturbing collection of right wing material Dudgeon had stored on a hard drive included texts such as Bloody Brazilian Knife Fighting, Prison Killing Techniques and Krav Maga Knife Attacks.

The manuals and videos showed techniques on how to smuggle bombs on planes, the manufacture of black powder explosives and the use of biological weapons.

Dudgeon, from Prestonpans, was caught out with the violent collection when police were contacted by his psychiatrist who had concerns following a conversation between the pair in March this year.

Officers attended at his home with a search warrant there days later and confiscated computer equipment which contained the illegal material.

Dudgeon admitted a charge under the Terrorism Act 2000 when he appeared from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday.

Fiscal depute Emma Mitchell told the court unemployed Dudgeon had prescribed anti-psychotic medication at the time of the offending and he had a history of paranoia.

Ms Mitchell said concerns were raised during a consultation between Dudgeon and his psychiatrist on March 26 this year.

The fiscal said the medic believed there were “concerns he posed a threat to public safety” and the police were called in to investigate.

Following a systematic search of his home police discovered a copy of the Anarchist Cook Book hidden away within a file on a hard drive.

Further examination of the equipment showed Dudgeon had also collected scores of other far right violent material including titles Knife Fighting Techniques From Folsom Prison, Russian Knife Combat and Knife, Blade, Bludgeon and Bomb.

The fiscal added Dudgeon’s internet history showed he had visited websites of “an extreme right wing nature” including Christian fundamentalism, ISIS murder videos and sites about Tommy Robinson.

The terror instruction manuals included instructions on how to manufacture explosives, create biological weapons and how to inflict fatal and non-fatal blows using a knife.

Solicitor Paul Haran, defending, said his client had been “off his medication” at the time but was now considered to be stable.

Mr Haran said most of the material was only viewed once with most viewings in July 2015.

Sheriff Michael O’Grady QC deferred sentence to next month for reports and remanded Dudgeon in custody.

Dudgeon pleaded guilty to possessing material useful to committing or preparing an act of terrorism namely a quantity of texts, manuals, booklets, leaflets, video files relating to the production of chemical and biological weapons and techniques for knife fighting.

He also admitted possessing electronic copies of various terror-related documents at his home address between March 6, 2013 and March 29 this year.

Edinburgh News