A 17 year old boy from Nottingham has been sentenced to a twelve-month, High Intensity Referral Order by Nottingham Youth Court.

Following an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing North East, a 17 year old boy from Nottingham pleaded guilty to the following offences in October 2023:

One offence under Section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006 (Direct/indirect encouragement of terrorism to others to the commission, preparation, or instigation of acts of terrorism)
Three offences under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 (Possession of material containing information likely to be useful to a person committing an act of terrorism)

He has today (Wednesday, November 8) been sentenced to a twelve-month, High Intensity Referral Order by Nottingham Youth Court.

The boy was arrested in March 2023 as part of a pre-planned, intelligence led investigation into suspected extreme right-wing social media posts. The investigation confirmed that the 17 year old had created and participated in Telegram groups where he encouraged white supremacist views and shared terrorist material.

The head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley said:

“It is important that family, friends and organisations are aware of the risks that young people face online, including recognising when someone is being drawn into extremism, and knowing where to turn for help and support.”

“Sharing extremist material and encouraging terrorism online are serious offences that can have far reaching consequences in the real world.”

“If you are worried that someone you care about is at risk of radicalisation, trust your instincts and seek advice. Please visit actearly.co.uk to find out what support is available.”

Counter Terror Police

A man has been sentenced for sharing extreme right-wing terrorist material on Telegram.

Alfie Stevens, of Surrey Quays, south-east London, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey in July to three charges of dissemination of a terrorist document.

Judge Sarah Munro gave the 24-year-old a two-year suspended sentence when he appeared at the same court earlier.

She said Stevens had underlying problems and was an “easy target” for radicalisation.

The court heard as a teenager Stevens became involved in the National Front and National Action and travelled to Dover and Liverpool to take part in protests against refugees.

As a result of his behaviour at school he was referred to Prevent, the government-led anti-terrorism programme.

‘Survival training camps’

By January 2021 Stevens was living in his car after the break-up of a long-term relationship and was drinking heavily, the court heard

Judge Munro said having joined two chat groups Stevens posted a quote from Adolf Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess and had suggested going on “survival training camps”.

Stevens also claimed he was ordering a deactivated submachine gun used in World War Two.

On 27 January Stevens uploaded two extreme right-wing publications to Telegram.

One of them, entitled White Resistance Manual, was a 310-page document with chapters dealing with topics such as firearms, explosives, poisons and acquiring funds, Judge Munro said.

A forensic scientist examined the manual and concluded that if the instructions in it were followed, it would be possible to manufacture “viable” and “potentially lethal explosive substances” including pipe bombs.

Swastika armband

In August 2021 Stevens was arrested while driving over the limit in south-east London and in possession of a bladed article, the court heard.

In the car was an armband with a swastika symbol on it, a Nazi flag and a hoodie with Hitler’s face on it.

The court heard a probation officer considered there was a “high risk” Stevens could reoffend and that he was a serious danger to the public.

In mitigation, defence barrister James Hasslacher said reports had found Stevens to have a “childlike” character.

Although Stevens had a long history of association with right-wing ideology, his posts were a “spontaneous, stupid act” by a man of limited intellectual functioning, Mr Hasslacher said.

Judge Munro concluded that in light of the offending being nearly three years ago, his compliance with a community order, and taken together with the mitigation, Stevens’s sentence could be suspended.

BBC News

A fanatical Neo-Nazi who vowed to keep on spreading online race hate as prison ‘made him stronger’ has been jailed again.

However, Darren Fletcher had changed his tune this morning pleading with Judge Jonathan Gosling at Wolverhampton Crown Court to show mercy for his “childish attention seeking”.

Holocaust celebrator Fletcher, from Kitchen Lane, Wednesfield, was being sentenced for breaking a previous criminal and anti-social behaviour order for posting sickening racist and anti-Semetic tropes online.

Sentencing Fletcher to four years, Judge Gosling ripped into the 33-year-old’s character and determination to incite race hatred.

He said: “You are not to be punished for the turmoil going round in your head. Private thoughts are not illegal but when your perverted hatred of minority groups is exchanged with other people the law takes a very serious view as you should have learned from previous sentences given to you.”

Fletcher previously served a five-year sentence for being a member of the banned extreme right wing neo-Nazi group National Action in 2018.

Judge Gosling added: “Deterrent sentences are required for anyone who tries to create and encourage such hatred and division in a society which endeavours to be inclusive and tolerant.

“There are three reasons why your case is particularly serious, firstly the extreme nature of the material you were posting, secondly the sheer number of occasions you did it in contempt of your court order and thirdly your history over the last ten years of doing exactly what you have done on these occasions.

“I’ve read your letter to myself, you said this was a foolish mistake and childish attention seeking and you promise to keep away from social media in the future. However in my view, these are just empty words said to keep yourself out of jail.

“The pre-sentence report says you have no intention of changing your views in the foreseeable future. And this is the view of the counter-terrorism unit, the specialist counter terrorism probation officer, the national security division.

“Every effort has been made to control your behaviour but you have resisted it.”

He said: “You put it starkly yourself in one of your posts, which I quote back to you: ‘No matter how many times they send me down they will never change me I will just get stronger and more determined’.

“These are chilling words. This is why I am sentencing you to four years imprisonment.”

Express and Star

A man with “extreme and disturbing far-right beliefs” has been found guilty of collecting instructions on how to make explosives and weapons.

Charles Cannon “talked enthusiastically about stabbing asylum seekers”, a jury at Winchester Crown Court was told.

The 22-year-old, of Aldershot, Hampshire, was convicted of seven counts of possessing documents that could be used to prepare acts of terrorism.

He is due to be sentenced on 2 February.

Ben Isaacs, prosecuting, previously said Cannon was stopped at Luton Airport under terrorism regulations in August 2020.

Guides on making explosives and “booby traps,” as well as instructions on “unconventional warfare devices and techniques”, were found on the defendant’s phone and computer, the court heard.

On social media, Cannon talked about stabbing asylum seekers and advocated “racial holy war”, the jury was told.

Mr Isaacs said: “Mr Cannon is a young man with extreme and disturbing political views.

“He holds far-right beliefs, sympathises with Naziism, fascism. He has offensive things to say about black people, Jews, gay people, women generally and anyone who does not fit in with his extreme view of the world.”

The defendant, who is autistic, told the court he originally downloaded the documents in 2014 when he was 13 years old.

He said he was researching illegal drugs and downloaded a cache of files that included information on explosives and other subjects he was not interested in.

Cannon, of Highfield Avenue, admitted he had previously held “vile and disgusting” views but said his politics changed under the influence of his Brazilian wife who he married a year ago.

Counter Terrorism Policing South East said it was pleased with Cannon’s conviction on all of the charges against him.

BBC News

Colin Webster, 61, reposted the footage by National Action – proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK Government.

Colin Webster was convicted after trial of the terror-related charge.

A Fife man who shared a Neo-Nazi group’s propaganda video online has been convicted of distributing a terrorist publication.

Colin Webster, 61, reposted the footage by National Action (NA) – proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK Government – in December 2021 on social media website GAB and on Twitter.

A trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard he had a combined 457 followers on the sites.

The video shows people at a demonstration in Darlington in 2016, dressed in black and carrying flags bearing the National Action logo.

Webster was prosecuted under the Terrorism Acts of 2000 and 2006.

Racist slurs on video

The trial heard Webster was interviewed by counter-terrorism detectives after his home was searched and his mobile phone seized.

Webster told police he did not realise he could not repost the video.

He said he had heard of National Action on the news and was told about their leaders being jailed.

The film in question, shown in court, included historic war footage and racist language used by a man on a megaphone.

The speaker shouts “this used to be a white country – white men, white women, white children, white families, white culture, white values” and if someone did not fit that profile 50 years ago they “did not exist here”.

Other statements include “where is the resistance?” and “why isn’t anyone trying to stop it?”

Part of the clip contains an antisemitic slur that: “The Briton has been trampled underfoot by hook-nosed bankers”.

In her closing submissions, prosecutor Nhabeela Rahmatullah highlighted a call to action at the end of the video and the phrase “we cannot do it alone”.

Legal debate

Sheriff Susan Duff found Webster guilty of distributing or circulating terrorist publications of a proscribed organisation on social media website GAB on December 1 2021.

The charge says he intended the effect to be direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, or the provision of assistance in the commission or preparation of such acts, or that he was reckless as to whether his conduct had this effect.

Defence lawyer Pete Robertson had argued there would need to be a finding of fact that a reasonable person would view the video as a terrorist publication beyond reasonable doubt.

He said it was an “abhorrent, racist video” but makes no mention of what it is asking people to do.

The solicitor said examples (of terrorist publications) might be videos glorifying beheading or about how to make bombs.

He said it would be speculative to infer from language such as “where is the resistance?” that this was a call for terrorist action.

The lawyer said the only reference to violence in the clip was pictures of the First World War.

Mr Robertson said a reasonable person would not know NA was a proscribed organisation and argued his client did not endorse any of the conduct in the video as it was a repost without any comment.

‘Endorsement’ proved

Sheriff Duff pointed out Webster accepted distributing the 105-second video and knew at the time NA was a proscribed organisation because he “got ‘telt their leaders were jailed”.

The sheriff highlighted statements made in the video and said they meet the reasonable person test in law and that it is a terrorist publication.

Sheriff Duff said Webster’s response to being asked by police what he hoped to achieve by posting it was: “Nothing – just people that follow me are maybe wanting to see it”.

The sheriff said: “That’s endorsement”.

Sentencing on first offender Webster, of Station Road, Kelty, was deferred to December 18 to obtain background reports.

‘Virulently racist, antisemitic, homophobic’

The UK Government describes National Action as a racist neo-Nazi group established in 2013.

It says the group is “virulently racist, antisemitic and homophobic” with an ideology that Britain will inevitably see a violent “race war”, of which the group claims it will be an active part.

Members of the group celebrated the actions of murderer and neo-Nazi Thomas Mair, who killed MP Jo Cox in June 2016.

The organisation was proscribed in December 2016 – the first extreme right wing group to be banned in the UK.

Its co-founder, Alex Davies, 28, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years in June 2022 for being a member.

At the time, the Crown Prosecution Service called his organisation: “A small and secretive right-wing group which espoused hateful violent rhetoric.

The Courier

Nathan Worrell – who went to prison for terrorism offences in 2008 and 2019 – has been jailed for a further six years for breaching rules around his mobile phone

A Grimsby far-right extremist who was jailed for terrorism offences has been jailed for a further six years for breaching rules around the use of his mobile phone.

Nathan Worrell, 50, appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, where he was sentenced to six years imprisonment and one year on licence.

He was arrested and charged with breaching his notification requirements in December last year after he failed to disclose his use of a phone, sim card and email addresses to police.

In July, he pleaded guilty to five breaches of his notification requirements and two charges of possessing racially inflammatory material intended or likely to stir up racial hatred.

Back in 2019, Worrell was jailed for two years and six months for spreading neo-Nazi material around Grimsby and Hull.

As previously reported by Grimsby Live, Worrell’s home in Scott Close, Willows, was raided by police, who discovered far-right images of Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Shirts and boxer shorts bearing Nazi swastikas and emblems were also found.

Eleven years previously, he was sentenced to seven years and three months for possession of material for terrorist purposes and racially aggravated harassment.

Head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Dunkerley, said: “Those subject to notification requirements are stringently monitored. Breaches of any kind are taken very seriously and will be prosecuted.

“Worrell knew the risks of failing to adhere to his notification requirements. Despite this, he believed he could withhold information from our officers. His attempt to do so was quickly identified and ultimately resulted in his return to prison.”

Grimsby Telegraph

James Costello was worldwide leader of group which had ‘army of fanatics capable of deadly violence’

A delivery driver lived a double life as the worldwide leader of a racist church which called for a “holy race war”.

James Costello was identified as the self-styled “high priest” of the Creativity Movement, which “unashamedly promoted white supremacy and neo-Nazi ideology” and boasted an army of “fanatics capable of very serious and deadly violence”. The city’s top judge today described him as an “enthusiastic evangelist” for the group’s propaganda, which he distributed online and was “dripping with hate”.

A trial at Liverpool Crown Court heard that the 38-year-old, of Old Rough Lane in Kirkby, posted written materials and audiobooks, which he personally narrated, for download on creativitymovement.net – a website which he “controlled and managed”. Hal Watson, prosecuting, described how his propaganda “called for the subjugation and elimination of non-white persons and the establishment of a white master race”.

He told jurors: “This is a call to arms and it is disturbing and distressing, and you may find that much of what you see and hear has absolutely no place in modern society. It is, put bluntly, awful and frightening and intended to disturb and disrupt our society.”

Much of the content of these materials cannot be repeated due to its highly offensive nature. But the ECHO can reveal that contained within the numerous documents spread by Costello were abhorrent references to Jewish people and people of colour.

The e-books and audio files sought a “racial holy war”. One – entitled RAHOWA, an abbreviation of “racial holy war” – stated that “RAHOWA is inevitable” and “the ultimate and only solution”.

Police raided Costello’s home in August 2021 after receiving numerous complaints when stickers “promoting” the group’s activities were left in public places around Merseyside over the previous months. They seized flags and banners bearing its messages from his house after linking him to the website’s IP address.

Officers also found a roll of stickers matching those posted on lampposts in the area bearing the domain, which has since been taken down, as well as others containing an email address connected to the defendant. Their search uncovered Creativity Movement “postcards” and leaflets with titles such as “Mobilize Nature’s Finest” and “Become a White Racial Loyalist”.

The seized materials contained “imagery with strong Nazist and white supremacist overtones”, all in the colours of red, white and black to “replicate Nazi imagery”. Costello meanwhile stated in his evidence from the witness box that he had been the “worldwide leader of the Creativity Movement” since at least 2017.

Detectives also found a “ministerial certificate”, ordaining him into a role with the aim of “spreading the word and recruiting persons to the church”, within his property. He was referred to as both “Reverend Costello” and “Pontifex Maximus”, or high priest, of the organisation – which was previously known as the World Church of the Creator and was founded in the USA in the 1970s.

Costello has no previous convictions, but was ordered to serve 300 hours of community service after going absent without leave between September 2006 and March 2012 while serving in the army. Dr Christopher Wood, defending, told the court this afternoon, Thursday, that his client worked for his brother as a warehouse operative and delivery driver and was also a “supporter of his local boxing club”.

He added: “The defendant’s education was significantly impaired. He left school at 13 with no qualifications whatsoever, primary due to an unstable lifestyle with issues around his mother’s alcohol and gambling addictions.

“From the age of 19, he joined the army. He was there for approximately two years until he went AWOL due to suffering a back injury.

“He did not return. However his absence was not missed by the army, and there were no concerns over his absence for five years until he was going on holiday to Tenerife and the army stopped him at the airport.

“He felt he was becoming a burden to them. With a heavy heart, he left for that reason.

“He has never been subject to a custodial setting. This will be of considerable concern to him.

“The defendant genuinely believed that what he was doing was lawful in expressing opinions and views that he had, but he accepts and take on board fully the jury’s verdicts and that what he was doing was not lawful. He is regretful of that.

“He does not want anyone to face abuse through their race. He said ‘I regret and apologise if my actions have caused any hurt to anyone’.

“Aged 13, the defendant ended up working for his father. He became exposed to extremist views, and clearly those have set in and stayed.

“The defendant is a family man and a hard worker. He can hopefully make amends.”

Costello was found guilty of 19 counts of stirring up racial hatred by publishing materials. He was jailed for five years.

Sentencing, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC said: “You have been convicted by the jury on overwhelming evidence of 19 offences involving the possession, publication and distribution of abusive and insulting material, intending to stir up racial hatred. I have no doubt that that was precisely your intention.

“This was a website unashamedly promoting white supremacy and neo-Nazi ideology. Creativity and the newer incarnation, the Creativity Movement, originated in the United States, and has been in existence for a number of years, since the early 1970s.

“In your evidence, you confirmed that, from 2017 at the very latest, you have been the leader of the Creativity Movement, not just in the UK but worldwide. Quite how big this movement is here or abroad is impossible to say, but sadly recent events – particularly in London – demonstrate that there is a worrying appetite for the sort of material that you were making available.

“It is not an offence to hold these views, however ridiculous they might be, or to seek to promote them in a temperate way, but that is not what you were doing. You were an enthusiastic evangelist for this material, every page of which was dripping with hate.

“The texts do not simply promote white supremacy – entirely gratuitously, they contain outrageously offensive language that would shock and appal any right-thinking person. The ultimate aim, as set out frequently, was the destruction of the Jewish race and all people of colour, achieved by means of a racial holy war.

“It may be that you did not write these words yourself or much of the other material, but this message was never disavowed by you. On the contrary, it was promoted actively by your efforts to make the website and its contents known widely, using marketing materials such as stickers, flags and banners.

“It may be that you yourself would not have used violence or directly discriminated against your perceived enemies, but the mischief of these offences is not confined to causing deep offence. It is the racial hatred that is stirred up and the direct action that is taken by extremists as a consequence.

“This is not an idle, unrealistic fear. The history of the Creativity Movement shows that its fanatics are capable of very serious and deadly violence.

“Hate crimes like this have a tendency to undermine communities and societies – making people feel like they do not belong, making communities fearful and untrusting of others. You say that, as a result of these proceedings, you realise that the material on the website was abusive and might cause hurt, something you did not intend and something you regret.

“Frankly, I doubt that very much. The highly racist and anti-semitic nature of the material you wanted the world to see and embrace was blindingly obvious.”

Liverpool Echo

An ex-soldier who admired Adolf Hitler and planned to burn down a left-wing bookshop has been found guilty of preparing a terrorist act.

A court heard William Howitt, 27, wrote a detailed guide on his phone to carry out the arson attack on the Five Leaves Bookshop in Nottingham.

The plan included painting a swastika and “white lives matter” on the wall.

He was remanded in custody for sentencing at Birmingham Crown Court on 14 December.

The court heard the guide for burning down the bookshop was written on 7 September 2020.

It referenced smashing the windows of the bookshop and dousing books and upholstery with petrol.

On the same day, Howitt bought a hammer to break glass and tarpaulin – both items mentioned in the plan.

On 5 January, Howitt, of West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, was stopped at East Midlands Airport.

Counter-terrorism police found the plan on his phone along with other antisemitic, anti-communist and pro-Nazi messages, videos and photographs.

Analysis of his phone data found Howitt had researched the bookshop and took screenshots of the interior and exterior.

He had looked up white nationalist groups, bought an Adolf Hitler T-shirt and exchanged homophobic, transphobic and antisemitic messages with other people.

Police found Howitt had also asked a contact for a firearm for a “politically driven” act.

‘He was angry’

Giving evidence earlier this month, Howitt, who became a crane operator after leaving the Army, denied having racist views.

He said he had issues with his mental health and would say things he did not mean when abusing cocaine and alcohol.

Prosecutor Emma Gargitter said: “He was someone who held entrenched racist, white supremacist, far right views.

“Whilst drink might have given him the confidence to express those views more freely than when he was sober, they didn’t only arise when he drank.

“He was angry, increasingly so over the summer of 2020 and into 2021.

“His plan was fuelled by those views and by that anger.”

BBC News

A far-right YouTube activist live streamed a “racist and misogynistic” foul-mouthed rant aimed at a Jewish anti-hate campaigner who was left “humiliated and scared”.

Alan Leggett, known as Active Patriot to his social media followers, targeted Ambrosine Chetrit in an 18-minute video he posted online while in Dover in September 2020 protesting about the migrant crossings.

Canterbury Crown Court heard today that just over a minute into the footage he turned his attention to Ms Chetrit, subjecting her to an outpouring of expletives and highly derogatory remarks.

These included branding her a “dirty little s**g” and “a Nazi c********r”.

Ms Chetrit, said to be involved at the time in an organisation that “identified and challenged” people who posted anti-semitic views on the Internet, later told police that Leggett’s abusive tirade was both an attack on her and the Jewish race.

Leggett, 44, initially denied a charge of sending a letter, communication or article conveying an indecent or offensive message with racist or religious aggravation but then pleaded guilty while awaiting trial.

As he sat in the dock for his sentencing wearing two poppies, he was told by Judge Simon Taylor KC that he was a racist who held deeply entrenched views that were “far from patriotic”.

He even questioned “what side of the line” he would have taken during the recent demonstrations in London.

Leggett had himself posted on the X platform – formerly known as Twitter – four hours ahead of his court appearance, telling his 100,000 followers: “Today is judgment day, I have been told to prepare for the worst which is 12 months in jail.

“I have been on strict bail conditions for over three years not to speak about the case, after 12.30 today all will become clear.

“I apologise to everyone I have let down, I don’t know what else to say other than drop me a line.”

Prosecutor Bridget Todd told the court Ms Chetrit was alerted by a friend to the live feed on September 22, 2020, on an online forum called Telegram.

She was already aware he called himself Active Patriot and posted clips on YouTube often about his views on immigration and migrants arriving in Dover, added Ms Todd.

But Ms Chetrit was horrified when, just one minute and 20 seconds into the video, Leggett began to abuse her.

“She said she felt humiliated, scared and offended by these comments. She was embarrassed and that it was not just an attack on her for being Jewish but also the use of the derogatory terms were to intimidate her,” Ms Todd said.

“She also felt it attacked the entire Jewish community.”

Leggett, who lives alone at his home in Brereton Avenue, Cleethorpes, and is on benefits, was arrested and interviewed.

“He stated he was making a joke and she had taken it out of context,” continued the prosecutor. “He said the complainant had attacked him online.

“When asked specifically about how he thought his comments would have made her feel, he simply replied ‘No comment’.”

The court heard Leggett has 18 previous convictions for 56 offences, including two for racially or religiously aggravated public order offences in 2015 and earlier this year.

He was also said to suffer from a number of health conditions including PTSD, anxiety and depression.

Tom Stern, defending, said at the time of the video Leggett was reporting on “the shortcomings in the system in terms of intercepting boats” coming across the Channel.

“This wasn’t a live stream set up with the purpose of abusing the complainant. It appears to have been a spontaneous reaction to comments,” he told the court, adding that his client had now “squarely acknowledged” his own shortcomings and was both remorseful and regretful.

But the judge interjected, branding Leggett a racist and, in doing so, attracting gasps from several of Leggett’s supporters sitting in the public gallery.

“It does seem I’m dealing with a racist here. That’s the reality. There’s a conviction in 2015, there’s a conviction this year, and then this offence which is racially and religiously motivated and misogynistic,” remarked Judge Taylor.

“This is someone who seems to me to deep down harbour racist beliefs. One wonders what side of the line he would have been at the weekend.

“I find it difficult that someone who describes themselves as a patriot and cares about the country can use phrases such as someone is ‘a dirty little s**g that sleeps with f****** Nazis’.

“I cannot reconcile that with someone being at Dover to try and improve society. What we are dealing with here is someone with fundamentally racist tendencies.”

Judge Taylor said however that he could spare him an immediate prison sentence in light of the three-year delay in legal proceedings and the fact he had an “identifiable problem” that the probation service could work with.

He added that he was also “slightly more impressed” by the references handed to the court on his behalf, in particular highlighting the work Leggett does to help homeless veterans.

Imposing a 10-month jail term suspended for two years, with a six-month tagged curfew between 8pm and 3am, 150 hours of unpaid work, and 15 rehabilitation activity requirements, the judge told Leggett this was an opportunity to put his “negative and criminal tendencies” behind him.

“You humiliated and caused pain to your victim. I don’t see anything patriotic in that. What I see is disgraceful conduct, not only racist and misogynistic but also cowardly and it undermines British values and British society – things you claim to hold dear,” he said.

“There is nothing to be proud of in your conduct.”

Leggett was also handed a 15-year restraining order in respect of Ms Chetrit and ordered to pay £250 towards the prosecution costs.

On X, Leggett describes himself as a “citizen journalist reporting on the illegal invasion of the UK #MigrantHunter We should house our homeless first. #StopTheBoats Groom dogs not children”.

Updating his account post-sentencing he included a photo of himself outside the court and thanked those who had supported him, vowed to continue his activities, and acknowledged he had been called racist.

He wrote: “I’ve been sentenced today for a malicious communication from over three years ago over a YouTube live video in Dover.

“10-month prison suspended for 2 years, 15-year restraint order, 150 hours community service over 12 months, tagging 6 months 8pm -3am, 15 days probation appointment days, £250 costs paid within 12 months and a surcharge £156.

“Thank you everyone for your support reading your messages this morning gave me hope. Big shout out to everyone who came to court to support me I love and respect you all.

“Thank you for the references received from PTSD Camp Bath PAG UK ‘Parents Against Grooming uk’ Veteran Nobby 2 nurses that have been helping me with the homeless outreach.

“Your kind words touched my heart. And to everyone DON’T think for one minute this will stop me, we live to FIGHT another day.

“Also the judge made a comment that he knows what side I would have been on at the weekend and that I’m a racist”

Kent Online

A teenage right-wing supremacist has been sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment after he was convicted of planning to disguise himself as an armed police officer and kill Muslims worshipping at nearby mosques.

Joe Metcalfe, 17, researched how to carry out the attack in imitation of the mass shootings in Christchurch New Zealand in 2019 and Buffalo in 2022.

He was arrested on June 21 2022 and charged seven days later.

He was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court today to a prison term of 10 years with an extended licence period of six years after being found guilty after trial of preparing to commit an act of terrorism, having already pleaded guilty to encouraging others to commit terrorism, disseminating terrorist publications, and possessing a bladed article. He has already served 500 days in custody.

He was also sentenced today following a separate trial for charges of multiple rape, and coercive / controlling behaviour against a teenage girl.

Nick Price, head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: “Although he spent time watching and sharing violent, racist, homophobic and antisemitic videos, these were not idle fantasies. He made a detailed plan to murder Muslims at a nearby mosque while disguised as an armed police officer, record the killings and escape.

“He stole his father’s car to carry out a reconnaissance mission, contacted a gun seller to try and secretly ship a weapon to the UK, and but for apprehension intended to carry out the attack.

“Despite his young age his beliefs and willingness to take violent action to propagate them are a threat to our society, and it is right that he has been sentenced today for those crimes.”

The CPS worked closely with Counter Terrorism Policing North-East, whose officers investigated the case before the CPS authorised charges and brought the prosecution.

Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing North- East, said: “We are satisfied that this individual acted in isolation and our quick response prevented this escalating further.

“We have successfully worked alongside partners to ensure that this individual has been brought to justice.

“I hope this provides yet another example of how robustly we will deal with this type of behaviour and these actions. It will not be tolerated.”
Notes to editors

Joe Metcalfe [25/09/2006] of Bradford was found guilty after trial of preparing to commit an act of terrorism on or before 21 June 2022.
He admitted:
4 x disseminating a terrorist publication on dates between March 2022 and June 2022 Possession of a bladed article
Encouragement of terrorism
He was also sentenced for separate charges of multiple rape, and coercive controlling behaviour which he was found guilty of at trial.
Each of the sentences will run concurrently.
The Court lifted his anonymity today as it sentenced him.

CPS