An extreme right-wing ‘conspiracy theorist’ who shared Adolf Hitler speeches and kept a pistol hidden in his bedroom has been jailed.

Alan Madden, 65, claimed he would not have used the weapon other than in ‘extreme circumstances’ to protect himself and his wife in the event of a ‘complete breakdown in society’.

Madden, who had lived in South Africa for 49 years, brought the semi-automatic pistol back with him when he returned to the UK.

384 rounds of ammunition, as well as a flick knife and three sets of nunchucks, were also found when his home in Port Sunlight, Wirral, Merseyside, was searched last September.

Two laptops and a mobile phone were seized and searches of the devices found Madden had ‘extreme right-wing views’ and an ‘unhealthy interest in firearms, weapons and proscribed organisations’.

Madden shared videos including speeches from Adolf Hitler and another promoting terror organisation National Action through his BitTube channel.

In an interview with police he said he thought the group, which was banned in 2016, was ‘commendable’.

The manifesto by the man behind the Christchurch terror attacks, and other calls to action, were also found on his devices.

Judge David Aubrey KC said: ‘You repeated you did not envisage needing to use the firearm in the UK but in 2020, in the early stages of the pandemic, you wondered whether social order may break down amidst civil unrest and you were glad you had it in case this led to you or your wife being exposed to the risk of attack.

‘National Action is a neo-Nazi group and you aligned yourself to its beliefs.

‘Such propaganda disseminated by you via social media featured extremely violent imagery and language.’

He said Madden brought the lethal weapon into the country ‘knowingly and with calculation’ and his immersion in firearms and other weapons had to be assessed against the background of his ‘warped ideology’.

Madden’s defence submitted that there was minimal risk of death or serious harm from his ownership of the firearm, adding that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression.

However Judge Aubrey did not accept this submission, adding: ‘In my judgment there was some risk of harm in that you, a complex man with the beliefs you held, were in possession of the weapon and ammunition, albeit that they remained in your home.’

Madden appeared at Liverpool crown court via video link from HMP Liverpool earlier today, where he was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison.

He had pleaded guilty to dissemination of a terrorist publication on the basis he was reckless, possession of a prohibited firearm, possessing prohibited ammunition, two counts of possessing ammunition without a firearms certificate, three counts of possessing an offensive weapon in a private place and possession of a flick knife.

He also pleaded guilty to three counts of stirring up racial hatred but said he did not intend to cause racial hatred, although he accepted it was likely it would have been stirred up by his actions.

Metro

A “neo-Nazi” prison officer from South Yorkshire has been told he faces jail for possessing a terrorist handbook.

Ashley Podsiad-Sharp, 42, who worked at HMP Leeds until his arrest last May, was found guilty on Thursday of possessing a white supremacist handbook including advice on how to kill people.

He was cleared of a second charge of disseminating terrorist material by a Sheffield Crown Court jury on Friday.

But a judge warned him he would be jailed when he is sentenced in July.

Podsiad-Sharp, a father-of-two from the Barnsley area, founded a fitness club for neo-Nazis in 2020.

Prosecutors had alleged he was using White Stag Athletic Club, where he called himself “Sarge”, to train up extremists “like a soldier”.

But jurors cleared him of disseminating terrorist material in relation to rap songs with racist and extreme right-wing lyrics he posted on the group’s Telegram channel.

Podsiad-Sharp had told his trial the songs were “comedic parody,” saying: “It’s how the national socialist sense of humour works.”

He was convicted of possessing terrorist material after a copy of the White Resistance Manual, a far-right terrorist handbook, was found on his laptop in an encrypted “virtual safe”.

Judge Jeremy Richardson KC told Podsiad-Sharp the offence was “very serious” and “there is but one sentence in a case of this kind, and that is a sentence of imprisonment”.

“You had possession of an extremely detailed manual setting out the way in which terrorists could kill people, maim people, and in many respects endeavour to avoid detection,” he added.

Podsiad-Sharp was remanded in custody until a sentencing hearing on 21 July.

Det Chf Supt James Dunkerley, of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said: “Tackling extremist and instructional material is an essential part of protecting the public and preventing it from potentially influencing or informing the actions of others.

“We will prosecute anyone found to be in possession of such material and will continue work with our partners to remove content of concern from online platforms.”

BBC News

Alan Madden pleaded guilty to a litany of counts including dissemination of a terrorist publication and possession of a firearm

A man who shared videos of a banned far-right group had a gun in his house that he used to shoot “two or three people” in South Africa.

Alan Madden appeared at Liverpool Crown Court this afternoon, Wednesday, May 24 after admitting posting videos online promoting banned far-right group National Action and stirring up racial hatred. The 65-year-old had already pleaded guilty to a number of offences related to firearms and offensive weapons arising from the time of his arrest.

Madden’s home on Boundary Road, Port Sunlight – that he shared with his wife – was raided by officers from Merseyside Police and Counter Terrorism Policing North West on September 15 last year. Counter terrorism officers were investigating the sharing of material on social media and were concerned with what Madden had been posting.

When police raided the house Madden was asked if he knew why, to which he replied “not really”. During the raid police uncovered a number of weapons throughout the house. A Czech-made CZ Model 83, a 9mm pistol, was found in an unlocked box next to his bed. Simon Parry, prosecuting, told the court the gun was a “viable weapon” and prohibited in the UK.

Also in the box was a bag of 9mm bullets and six boxes of 50 rounds each. The officers also found a quantity of prohibited hollow point ammunition, which is made to expand upon impact, and could be used in the CZ 83. In total 385 rounds were found in the house, as well as three nunchucks and a flick knife.

The court heard Madden had owned the gun since 1983 when he lived in South Africa. He moved to the UK in 2017 – and two years later smuggled the gun over with him after a visit back to South Africa.

Mr Parry told the court that Madden had carried the weapon with him in South Africa and in 1984 had used it to defend himself against a robbery. Madden opened fire with the weapon and shot “two or three people dead”. He was arrested for murder but never charged.

Madden, who was described in court as a “survivalist” and “conspiracy theorist”, told officers he wasn’t going to use the gun unless there was a “breakdown in society”. He said he would use the weapon to protect him and his wife as he didn’t believe the government would.

A Samsung mobile phone and two laptops were also seized during the raid – and after originally refusing, Madden handed over the passwords as well. Mr Parry said police also found books by Adolf Hitler and Oswald Moseley in Madden’s house, as well as a copy of a presentation by Madden himself called “Adolf Hitler, the Jew and Holocaust Lies”. It was dated May last year and said it was delivered in Chester.

Investigations into Madden’s social media found he had shared emails with a man called Michael Wright in 2017, where he called National Action “the real deal” for people like themselves.

The court heard Madden, who was interviewed by police 18 times, thought the banned far-right group were “commendable” – and added the group were “youngsters trying to do something about serious issues”. He also knew the group were banned – and admitted to police the sharing of their material was “naughty”.

Between September and December 2020 Madden shared a series of videos on his Bitchute account. He shared a video, labelled as “National Action propaganda” by Mr Parry, which was narrated by Jonathan Bowden talking about the threat posed by ethnic minorities. Bowden was described as a “cult-hero” on the far-right.

He continued to share material that showed speeches by Nazi leader Hitler – where Jewish people were referred to as “liars” and a “satanic power”. Madden, who previously appeared before the Old Bailey on March 31 where he pleaded guilty to dissemination of a terrorist publication and three counts of stirring up racial hatred, said his sharing of material was “reckless”.

Richard Simons, defending, told the court Madden was “of good character” and had no criminal intent to use the gun. Mr Simons added the gun had also previously been lawfully owned, albeit in a different jurisdiction. Madden also claimed he kept the box padlocked – and while he “would not be able to swear by oath”, added the only reason for it being unlocked was because it had just been cleaned.

Conversations between Mr Simons and the presiding Honour Judge David Aubrey KC noted Madden had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as well as Guillain-Barré syndrome – a condition akin to polio that made the defendant “very unwell” when admitted to HMP Liverpool.

Mr Simons also asked for Madden to be given credit due to his guilty pleas. As well as the counts previously heard at the Old Bailey, Madden also pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm, possession of prohibited ammunition, possession of ammunition without certificate, possession of offensive weapon in private and possession of a gravity knife. Judge Aubrey confirmed Madden, who appeared at court wearing a black jacket and glasses, would be given full credit when it came to sentencing.

Judge Aubrey adjourned final sentencing until Tuesday, May 29.

Liverpool Echo

A teenage neo-Nazi obsessed with death filmed himself assaulting three teenage girls by spraying them with liquid in terrifying random attacks, a court has heard.

The boy was just 14 when he threw a mystery liquid at two girls as they sat enjoying the sunshine in a south-west London park on May 18 last year.

He carried out a similar attack eight days later, targeting a girl as she walked to a study session for her GCSE exams.

The Old Bailey heard the attacks were inspired the boy’s rapid descent into far right extremist ideology, and a dark trend with a group called the “Maniac Murder Club” for random violent attacks on strangers.

Police found videos of the attacks on the boy’s phone and computer, including edited versions with a Swastika added, Russian language commentary, and a death metal soundtrack.

Officers also found a vast amount of far right extremist material, including videos of executions, torture, rape, mutilation, and extreme violence.

He wrote about wanting a race war and the eradication of 60 per cent of the world’s population to leave only white people.

The boy had also collected BB gun parts, Nazi fridge magnets and badges, and a rubber gas mask, and used an alias online which included the Nazi code 1488 – a reference to Adolf Hitler.

Mr Justice Jeremy Baker sentenced the boy, now 15, on Friday to a three-year youth rehabilitation order, putting him under “intense” surveillance and supervision for the rest of his childhood.

The court heard the boy was wearing a blue surgical face mask when he carried out the first random attack on two girls as they sat together on the grass in a park.

He is heard breathing heavily in the 24-second clip he made himself, running up to the victims and spraying a liquid at one of the girls in an attempt to hit her face.

“He started sprinting towards us, and I remember looking at his hands to see if he had a knife”, said one of the girls.

“He approached me as I was still sitting cross-legged. He pushed me with one continous push, I heard a continuous spraying noise, and closed my eyes as I realsied he was spraying me with something.

“My first reaction was it was acid, as I had heard about a lot of attacks on the news.”

The boy – who cannot be named – fled from the girls as they fought back, and the victims were able to wipe away the liquid without any lasting damage.

“I remember thinking it was a pepper spray attack or something similar”, said the second girl. “He was aiming something at her eyes.”

The second attack happened on May 26 last year, when the boy – again masked and filming himself – targeted a 16-year-old girl on her walk to a study session ahead of one of her GCSE exams.

The boy is breathing heavily as he approachs the girl who is walking along a path looking at her phone with earphones in.

“I didn’t say anything, nor did her, and all of a sudden I saw and felt a clear mist-like spray on my face”, she said.

“It sounded like an aerosol, the spray landed on my face and neck, it felt cold, I tried not to breath in and closed my eyes.”

The girl said she ran away screaming, and was helped by passersby who poured water over her head and took her to hospital.

She said her remaining GCSE exams were affected, and she has been left with a lasting fear of being in public alone.

“I am constantly worried that people I come across are him or related to him”, she said.

The court heard of the boy’s deep-seated hatred of homosexuality and non-white races.

In an unsent Telegram message, he said the ideology he most closely identifies with is National Socialism, and he would “prefer to live in a white society”.

“I think most of the people, maybe somewher around 60 per cent, are sh*t and should be dead”, he wrote. “They are stupid and they are all so closed-minded.”

The boy pleaded guilty to three charges of battery, possessing a bomb-making manual, and dissemination of a terrorist publication on the basis of recklessness.

The youth, from Isleworth, south-west London, also admitted having extreme pornography involving animals.

Passing sentence, the judge said the boy had expressed views of “wanting as many people as possible to die”, adding that a probation officer had concluded he “continues to be obsessed with death and believ you have been created for a special purpose, namely to purify the world by killing the majority of the population”.

The boy is now taking medication for paranoid schizophrenia and has been in fulltime education while in local authority custody awaiting the outcome of his case.

He was ordered to carry out 180 hours of an extended activity requirement as part of the sentence, and will be under a 9pm to 6am curfew as well as curbs on his use of the internet.

Evening Standard

A prison guard who founded a fitness club for neo-Nazis has been found guilty of possessing a white supremacist “terrorist manual”.

Ashley Podsiad-Sharp, 42, was convicted of possession of a document likely to be useful in preparing an act of terrorism on Thursday.

Podsiad-Sharp was an officer at HMP Leeds before his arrest last May.

A Sheffield Crown Court jury has yet to reach a verdict on a second charge of disseminating terrorist material.

The defendant, from the Barnsley area, told his trial he was a “national socialist” who had founded White Stag Athletic Club to provide a “community” for lonely men who shared his far-right views.

He had denied possession of a document called the White Resistance Manual, which contained advice on how to kill people using various weapons, insisting he had no idea how it came to be on his laptop in an encrypted “virtual safe”.

But he was remanded into custody after jurors unanimously convicted him after 10 hours and 40 minutes of deliberations.

Judge Jeremy Richardson KC said he would accept a majority verdict for the second charge of disseminating terrorist material after the jury told him they could not reach a unanimous decision.

The charge relates to racist spoof rap songs, some of which glorified the Holocaust, which Podsiad-Sharp posted on White Stag Athletic Club’s Telegram channel.

BBC News

Mark Brown (36) was jailed for two months in 2019 for a “vile” racially motivated assault on a taxi driver

A former leader of the National Front in Northern Ireland has been arrested during a protest against asylum seekers in Portrush.

Mark Brown (36) was arrested by police on Sunday after he began to approach a group of counter-protesters.

Protestors held a Union flag during the demonstration alongside a banner displaying the slogans ‘Keep our children safe’ and ‘Close the migrant hotels now’.

A National Front flag was also erected on the fence surrounding a war memorial on Kerr Street during the protest.

The PSNI confirmed Brown had been given a penalty notice for disorder (PND).

“A 36 year old man was arrested on suspicion of disorderly behaviour during protests in the Kerr Street area of Portrush on Sunday afternoon,” said a spokesperson.

“He was subsequently given a Penalty Notice for Disorder (PND).

“Officers were present in the area to ensure the safety of those participating in protest and counter-protest.”

Earlier this month, this newspaper revealed Brown was behind the protest as well as being the administrator of organising Facebook group ‘North Coast Concerned Collective’.

The group had organised the protest against the use of hotels in the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area as accommodation for asylum seekers.

It followed comments from newly-elected TUV councillor Allister Kyle voicing concern that the former Magherabuoy House Hotel was to be used under new ownership to provide accommodation for asylum seekers.

“Naturally, nearby residents have many worries and concerns,” he said last month.

“Has the Council signed up to the government funding scheme to facilitate the housing of asylum seekers? If so, what thought was given to the concerns of local residents?”

A number of posts on the group’s page from an account operated by Brown under an assumed name contain racist, misogynistic and transphobic language.

Brown was jailed for two months in 2019 for a “vile” racially motivated assault on a taxi driver in Co Antrim.

A judge said Brown had gone “beyond the criminal pale” during the incident, for which he was handed a two-month prison sentence.

He punched the taxi driver, originally from the Middle East, on the head, got out without paying the £18.40 fare and then chased the man’s car as he tried to phone the police.

A court was told Brown had been convicted of offences against the taxi driver around a decade beforehand.

The victim said he received a call under a different name and at first was not aware who his passenger was. After he was arrested, Brown made remarks including “Muslim c***” and “low-rent Jihadi b******”.

Deputy District Judge Peter Magill said a suspended sentence dating back to 2015 had only expired when Brown committed the latest crime.

He added: “This was a racially aggravated offence. You did admit that you expressed quite abhorrent racist views in respect of this man while denying any assault and making off.

“There is no place in our society for this type of behaviour, no place in this society for racism”.

Sunday World

Luke Skelton carried out hostile reconnaissance at Newcastle police stations after writing that he had to ‘fight’ for white people

Luke Skelton, 19, was convicted of preparing an act of terrorism
(Counter Terrorism Policing North-East)

Luke Skelton, now 19, carried out hostile reconnaissance and wrote a manifesto and “final note” to spread his message after the attack.

He denied preparing acts of terrorism in the year leading up to his arrest in October 2021, but was convicted by a jury at Teesside Crown Court on Tuesday. His plot is among at least 37 foiled in Britain since March 2017, of which over a third were extreme right-wing.

Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley, the head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said Skelton was not just a teenager with strong views “but a terrorist who wanted to cause serious harm”.

“The defendant’s anger towards society, together with his extreme right-wing views, created a dangerous foundation from which his sinister plans were ultimately built,” he added.

“He was strongly motivated by this mindset, which continued to fuel his actions and his later offending, despite repeated attempts to draw him away from it.”

The former student, who is autistic, told jurors his writings were “fantasia” and that he did not want to harm anybody.

But prosecutors said he held racist, sexist, Islamophobic and antisemitic views, “lionised” far-right terror attacks around the world and saw violence as a way to achieve his political objectives.

In his final note, Skelton wrote that he aimed to “accelerate the coming collapse and racial war” in Britain, when people would die “in the thousands”.

It was drafted in January 2021, months after staff at his school had reported him to the government’s Prevent counter-terrorism scheme.

Prosecutor Nicholas de la Poer QC told jurors that teachers at Gateshead College “became concerned” during the first term of his second year, when Skelton was 17.

A referral was made to Prevent in November 2020, but Skelton did not have his first meeting with an “intervention provider” until the following March.

Mr de la Poer said that in the intervening time, the teenager viewed online material “consistent with ideas of white supremacy and fascism”, researched the manufacture of dynamite and wrote the “final note”.

On 8 March 2021, he wrote: “I simply could not bear to look upon my descendants having known I did nothing as to give them an actual homeland or not to fight.”

The teenager attended the first of eight sessions with a Prevent intervention provider 10 days later, and the court heard that he withdrew from the programme in May 2021.

He continued extremist activity during the period, including downloading a video featuring Adolf Hitler, researching how to make napalm and recording himself making a speech about a coming race war.

Jurors were shown messages written by the defendant on Discord under the name “Adolf Hitler” the following summer, where he called non-whites “backward and savage”, and referred to “subhumans”.

Skelton was arrested on 12 June 2021 on suspicion of possessing documents useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism, but no action was taken.

He wrote on Discord that he was “angry” at himself for not “doing anything” before being arrested, adding: “I feel like a disgusting parasite for not doing something earlier and to become the great man of history this is what I must do just as I planned.”

Skelton continued researching explosives and suggested online that he could target a drag queen or grooming gang members.

He wrote: “F*** this f***ng bullshit I wish I had gone through with the attack and not been debating this shite I have done f*** all with my and never will do I should be f***ing dead”.

Skelton told contacts he was using an online platform to obtain the identities of grooming gang members, to “hunt down these f***ers and behead them”.

He also referred to a drag performer as a “f***ing target” and posted a link to their show.

Mr de la Poer said that his writing about grooming gangs and drag queens on Discord “may have been more for shock value or attention than anything else”, but that at the same time he was privately planning to attack police stations.

“Why he chose to focus on police stations is not a question which is answered definitively by the evidence,” the prosecutor added. “It may be the anger which the Prevent intervention and arrest had generated.”

In a previous session with his mentor, Mr Skelton said police buildings needed to be bombed in order to overthrow governments.

The court heard that the teenager was visited by Prevent officers in August 2021 and refused again to engage.

Days later, he created a new document called “The reactionary British manifesto”, which said he wanted “Britain to become again” and listed policies including restoring the British empire, ensuring “native British” people were at least 93 per cent of the population, outlawing Islam, and abolishing women’s right to vote and gay marriage.

On 10 August 2021, the teenager wrote a note on his phone entitled “brief overview of plan”, including finishing his final note and manifesto, quitting his job and “building bomb to attack police stations”.

The following month, he researched police stations in Newcastle, taking screenshots of aerial views of three premises – Byker, Etal Lane and Forth Banks.

He then carried out “hostile reconnaissance” by taking photos of Forth Banks police station and nearby CCTV cameras.

“He did so because he wanted to attack one or more police stations and he was gathering information,” Mr De La Poer said. “He was preparing for a later attack.”

The teenager was arrested for the second time on 28 October 2021 and charged with preparing acts of terrorism.

His first trial ended when a jury was unable to reach a verdict in May last year, and Skelton was convicted after a retrial on the same charge. Skelton, of Oxclose in Washington, will be sentenced on 19 June.
The Independent

A white supremacist has admitted stirring up hatred by sharing extremist content online 130 times.

Richard Osborne posted content targeting Jews and other groups 120 times on the VK social media platform, Birmingham Crown Court heard.

A further 10 posts likely to stir up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation were shared by the 53-year-old, the court was told.

On Friday, he also pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon.

At the hearing it was revealed that Osborne, of Marston Green, Solihull, used social media to share material likely to stir up racial hatred between 16 February last year and 9 January 2023.

From 24 September 2021 to 1 December the following year, he posted content to incite hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, the court was told.

A moving image of a flag of the banned far-right group National Action, on 4 September 2021, was also shared by the 53-year-old.

He also pleaded guilty to possessing a shotgun without a licence in Meadow Drive, Hampton-in-Arden, near Solihull, after a weapon was found in a Fiat Seicento on 12 January.

Osborne appeared via video link from HMP Wandsworth in south London.

He is due to be sentenced on 9 June.

BBC News

Vaughn Dolphin told police: ‘I’m not a terrorist, OK? I have an interest in chemicals and military memorabilia, that’s all.’ Photograph: West Midlands police/PA

A far-right extremist who experimented with explosives at home and built a crude gun has been detained for eight and a half years.

Vaughn Dolphin, 20, from Walsall, filmed himself in a gas mask surrounded by smoke after blowing up his kitchen in an attempt to mix explosives.

He was convicted last month of two charges of possessing explosives as well as several terrorism offences.

Dolphin was told he would be detained at a young offenders institution.

A sentencing hearing at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday was told Dolphin was “a member of extreme right-wing groups holding extreme racist ideas”.

Dolphin’s trial the month before had heard that he claimed minorities “should be shot” and he had sought out extremist conversations online, engaging with chat boards.

A raid on his home uncovered a host of Nazi-related material and a “viable” gun made from a piece of aluminium tube.

He bragged about causing an “awesome fireball” in a series of selfie videos he posted to extremist chatrooms, communicating with white supremacists, jurors were told.

“Next time I’ll do this outside, but, ah well, you live and learn,” he said on one of them.

He also posted to chatrooms about creating a hand-held “cannon” and talked about mixing gunpowder.

Dolphin, from the Aldridge area of Walsall borough, additionally shared footage of terrorist incidents from around the world including a gun attack in Buffalo, New York, in which 10 people were killed by a white supremacists in May last year.

Sentencing on Thursday, Judge Melbourne Inman KC told him: “It’s an aggravating factor that you were in contact with a number of extremists” and had dealt in content featuring “an horrific recording of multiple murders”.

Paraphernalia found at Dolphin’s property “related to making items that could be used to kill or seriously injure people”, the judge added.

The offences were committed over a three-month period, the hearing was told.

Dolphin was convicted of six offences of possessing terrorist information, two of recklessly disseminating a terrorist publication, two of having an explosive substance and one of possessing a firearm without a licence.

BBC News

Teen’s ‘Pancake Recipe’ was in fact manual to make grenades and cyanide

A teenager collected manuals on how to make homemade grenades and cyanide and set up an online extremist group called “Tesco Waffen”.

Nicholas Street was aged only 16 when he created the “extreme right wing” channel on encrypted messaging platform Telegram and downloaded guides with apparently innocent names such as “Pancake Recipe”, but which were in fact instructions for the production of explosives, deadly chemicals, automatic firearms and silencers. The now 20-year-old – of Stockbridge Street in Everton – also praised the murderous actions of Brenton Tarrant, who carried out the Christchurch terrorist attacks.

Liverpool Crown Court was told today, Tuesday, that his home was raided by counter terrorism police on December 2, 2019. Street, who was described as having a “deep-rooted mindset” and “terrorist connections or motivations”, was found to have established the Telegram channel Tesco Waffen – an internet forum on which he and others with “the same mindset” shared a host of disturbing materials, including videos of the mass shootings in New Zealand.

When officers examined his laptop and phone, they discovered a seven-page document entitled “Pancake Recipe”. This was downloaded from messaging service Discord in June 2019, and gave instructions on how to make cyanide and ricin.

Another named “Poor Man’s Armourer”, which contained information on how to produce a silencer and “improvised hand grenades”, had been obtained via the internet in October of the same year and was subsequently distributed onwards by Street. A third file, “The Lightning Link”, meanwhile detailed how to manufacture a part which would enable an AR15 rifle to be converted into a fully automatic weapon.

A trial previously heard that the defendant “believed that it was only his fascist beliefs which were preventing him from taking his own life”, that there was a “white genocide taking place” and the “white race was being attacked and killed off” by a “Jewish elite who were controlling the government, media and banks”. Street was also said to believe that the Holocaust “did not happen and had been made up”.

Matthew Brook, prosecuting, told jurors that among the videos which were posted to the group was one entitled “Atom Waffen” – which featured American neo-Nazi James Mason and showed flags displaying Nazi symbols such as the swastika and the black sun. He also shared a clip of Adolf Hitler on a site called BitChute alongside the lyrics “I’m a believer”.

Street meanwhile kept a copy of Tarrant’s “manifesto”. He was said to “hold many of the same beliefs” as the terrorist, who shot and killed 51 people during attacks at two mosques in March 2019.

In one video on Tesco Waffen, the teenager praised the killer and painted him as an “extreme right wing warrior”. Street, who had a picture of the fascist leader Sir Oswald Moseley as his computer’s screensaver, posted a series of messages “calling for action” – including ones reading “tomorrow will arise another day of war”, “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” and “the time for talk has long since passed”.

The now “reformed Baptist”, who has no previous convictions, was seen holding his head in his hands in the dock during this morning’s hearing. Ruth Zentler-Munro, defending, told the court that her client had been diagnosed with ADHD and displayed “autistic traits” and added: “He has ceased his activity in relation to the online forum in which he was participating.”

Street was found guilty of encouraging terrorism by the jury, while he previously admitted three counts of possession of a document containing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. He was handed 30 months in a young offenders’ institute, and will be required to serve at least two thirds of this term behind bars before becoming eligible for release on licence.

Sentencing, Judge David Aubrey KC said: “The common theme was of death and destruction. Much of it was abhorrent and despicable in the extreme.

“You had an obsession with extreme right wing ideologies. You are, in my judgement, a complex and challenging young man.

“There is no doubt you did have obsessive tendencies. It is of concern that you show little or no remorse or insight into your offences or the consequences.

“On the other hand, you have not committed any offence since the commission of these offences, and the court is mindful of the delay in this case. The court accepts you no longer have such interests and have now become a reformed baptist.

“Your disorders and maturity are factors in your offending, but they do not exculpate it. I am satisfied you no longer represent a risk of causing serious harm to members of the public by the commission of further offences.

“Your mindset at the time was deep-rooted. You have now, it would appear, put such obsessions behind you.”

Liverpool Echo