Archive

Tag Archives: Terrorism

A knifeman who slashed a 19-year-old Bulgarian in a Tesco car park after praising the Christchurch terror attacker has admitted attempted murder.

Vincent Fuller, 50, thrust a blade through Dimitar Mihaylov’s car window in Stanwell, Surrey, on 16 March.

Prosecutors said the attack, a day after 51 Muslims were gunned down in New Zealand, was an act of far-right terrorism.

Fuller denies this, but accepts the stabbing was racially motivated.

His earlier guilty pleas to attempted murder and possession of a bladed article, can be reported after he admitted further charges at Kingston Crown Court.

He admitted affray and causing racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress.

Fuller, of Viola Avenue, Stanwell, will be sentenced on 5 September.

BBC News

Today a jury of seven women and five men rejected Davies’ claim that he intended to kill only himself with the gun

Kyle Davies, 19, who has been convicted of attempting to possess a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life following a trial at Gloucester Crown Court

A 19-year-old man who ordered a deadly handgun and ammunition from an American dealer intended to use them to carry out a massacre, a jury at Gloucester Crown Court decided today.

Kyle Davies, of Wotton, Gloucester, wanted the Glock pistol and rounds of ammunition to copy such infamous killers as the 1999 Columbine school gunmen in America and Norwegian Anders Breivik, who shot 69 teenagers dead on a beach in 2011, it was alleged during his two weeks trial.

Today a jury of seven women and five men rejected Davies’ claim that he intended to kill only himself with the gun. They decided that he did have an intent to endanger life with the gun.

Handout photo issued by South West Regional Organised Crime Unit of a Glock pistol and ammunition shown in evidence during the trial of Kyle Davies, 19, who has been convicted of attempting to possess a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life following a trial at Gloucester Crown Court

Jurors unanimously convicted Davies of two charges attempting to import the gun and attempting to import five rounds of ammunition with intent to endanger life in June last year.

Davies’ mother, sitting at the back of the court, buried her head in her hands as the jury foreman announced the guilty verdicts.

Judge Paul Cook told Davies: “Clearly you are looking at a significant period of custody but I need to know more about you before I proceed to sentence.

“I need to know the risk you pose to society. Therefore I am ordering psychiatric and probation reports to be prepared on you.”

Sentence was adjourned to a date to be fixed in about two months time.

During Davies’ trial the jury heard details of the ‘manifesto of death’ that Davies had compiled with detailed lists of weapons, explosives and body armour that would be needed for a successful mass killing.

His laptop, mobile phone and a memory stick were found to contain a mass of detail, including timelines, which the prosecution said proved he was planning a mass killing.

The prosecution said he had made ‘poster boys’ of the Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and also of Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik.

Davies, however, maintained all his research into the infamous murders was carried out merely because he was interested in the mindset of a mass killer.

Interviewed after his arrest by armed police at his Gloucester home in June last year Davies maintained he wanted the gun just to take his own life. He repeated that in evidence to the jury last week.

The court heard that he ordered the £300 pistol and ammunition via the Dark Web.

When it arrived in the UK it was intercepted by police and a dummy package was made up to look like the original, it was then delivered to Davies at his home by an undercover policeman posing as a deliveryman.

Later, armed police surrounded Davies’ home and arrested him.

In the witness box Davies said he had tried to kill himself when he was 15 but was found by police and taken home.

He told the jury he could see no point in being alive and he was depressed and thought about suicide every day.

He denied being obsessed with the Columbine killers and Anders Breivik and said he was just interested in them because they were relevant to his A level psychology studies.

Judge Cook said he will sentence Davies in about two months time, possibly at Taunton Crown Court.

Gloucester Live

Elliott Richards-Good pleaded guilty to 11 offences relating to inciting racial hatred

A teenager has pleaded guilty to 11 offences relating to inciting racial hatred, including painting a Swastika and writing ‘Traitors’ onto the Senedd.

Elliott Richards-Good, 19, appeared at Cardiff Magistrates Court on Friday, July 19, where he admitted causing racially and religiously aggravated criminal damage and possessing material with a view to stir up racial or sexually-orientated hatred.

Richards-Good, from Cirencester Road in Cheltenham, was arrested in September 2018 following an investigation by the Wales Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit (WECTU), supported by South Wales Police, into a series of right-wing graffiti and fly posting incidents in Grangetown in Cardiff.

The teenager admitted to two charges of displaying abusive or insulting material, including posters saying ‘Protect your children from degenerate scum’ and ‘You are the resistance’.

Richards-Good, who turns 20 on July 31, stuck the posters up in Grange Gardens, Tudor Street, Clare Road and Ferry Road on March 16, 2018.

System Resistance Network graffiti.

He also admitted to five counts of possessing threatening written material, two counts of possessing written material with a view to displaying to stir up racial or sexual-orientation hatred and two counts of racial or religiously aggravated criminal damage.

Richards-Good was committed for sentencing at Cardiff Crown Court on August 2.

He remains on conditional bail, which bans him from entering Wales apart from to attend pre-arranged legal meetings.

He must also report to police in Cheltenham every Tuesday and he is not permitted to travel outside the UK or to attend any military activity including meetings.

Wales Online

Daniel Ward when he applied to join National Action wrote ‘All I have to offer is my thirst for gratuitous violence’

A former member of the Midland branch of a banned far right terrorist organisation who wanted to train an army to fight a “race war” has been jailed for three years

Daniel Ward, who joined National Action, also had an interest in weapons and explosives and took part in a number of the group’s demonstrations.

Ward, 29, of Highmore Drive, Bartley Green, had previously admitted being a member of National Action.

Birmingham Crown Court was told that National Action, formed in 2013, was a small, select and secretive organisation which had a number of cells across the country and which held racist, anti semitic and homophobic views.

It members were a committed group of individuals prepared to flout the law and it was banned by the Home Secretary on December 16 2016.

Ward joined National Action three months prior to the ban describing himself as a “fanatic” and that he was “ready to fight.”

He also said in his application that he was “100% committed ” and “All I have to offer is my thirst for gratuitous violence.” as well as expressing his admiration their military type actions.

Daniel Ward performing Nazi salute in Dudley on October 22, 2016

He attended the organisations demonstrations and regional meetings in Dudley and Nottingham.

His internet searches revealed an interest in explosives and how to make them and also in obtaining weapons.

In December 2016 Ward left National Action after becoming frustrated at what he perceived as a lack of action saying he “needed to fight for my people.”

Naomi Parsons, prosecuting, said however that four months later Ward “came back to the National Action fold” saying he had felt at a loose end.

He then was a “vocal member” in chat groups in which he talked about recruitment, issues of security and training.

Air rifle seized from Ward’s home in police raid

Ward suggested the setting up of a training camp under the guise of a fitness group so that he could “build an SS and prepare for a race war.”

He said he was “desperate for action” and that the goal was to cause conflict between different groups of people, the collapse of society and to become agitators.

Miss Parsons said Ward had made three attempts to join the army, had been successful once but had dropped out.

The defendant was not arrested until September 5 last year and when police searched his home they found evidence of his extreme right wing views as well as recovering an air pistol and ball bearing firing one and two air rifles.

He said “You threw yourself into the membership of National Action heart and soul.

“Others in the organisation looked at you as someone who would be prepared to act.”

Thomas Schofield, defending, said Ward had only been involved for a short period of time and at the time he was isolated and looking for the membership of a group.

“What he was doing was talking and not acting,” he said

Birmingham Mail

A far-right extremist who was engulfed in a ball of flames when he set fire to an historic synagogue on a day commemorating the Holocaust has been locked up in hospital indefinitely.

Hospital X-Ray technician and self-styled folk singer Tristan Morgan, 52, was spotted walking away carrying a petrol can and laughing as smoke spewed from the 18th Century synagogue in Exeter on July 21 last year.

Afterwards, CCTV was recovered showing Morgan being burned as he set light to the synagogue through a smashed window.

The defendant, from Exeter in Devon, admitted arson with intent to endanger life, encouraging terrorism by publishing a song entitled “White Man” to live-streaming website Soundcloud, and having a copy of the White Resistance Manual.

The court heard he was psychotic at the time of the arson attack but had no previous history of violence.

Judge Anthony Leonard QC handed Morgan a hospital order without limit of time, saying most people would feel “anger and revulsion” for what he did.

Tristan Morgan, 52, was engulfed in a ball of flames when he set fire to an historic synagogue. Credit: PA/Devon and Cornwall Police

Outlining the facts, prosecutor Alistair Richardson said Morgan has “deep-rooted anti-Semitic belief, embodied in a desire to do harm to the Jewish community and an obsession with abhorrent anti-Semitic material”.

Morgan made songs “exhorting others to violence” against the Jewish community and had an array of material which “revelled in the degenerate views of Nazi Germany and white supremacists”, Mr Richardson said.

On the evening of Saturday July 21 last year, he tried to burn down the synagogue “with no thought for any lives he might put at risk”, he said.

Mr Richardson told how Zoe Baker and her partner Samual O’Brien were walking through Exeter City Centre when they heard a “loud bang” and saw an “orange glow and smoke” coming from the grade two listed building.

Concerned that someone might be hurt, they stopped and Ms Baker saw the defendant walking from away carrying a green petrol can.

Mr Richardson said: “He appeared to be laughing, while trying to flatten his hair which she described as looking like it had been ‘whooshed up’.

Morgan appeared “cocky” as he drove off in a Mercedes Vito van, according to the eyewitness account.

Mr O’Brien and an employee of a nearby Mecca bingo tackled the blaze with fire extinguishers before the fire brigade arrived.

Firefighters found a “severe” fire in a room containing a gas boiler, which could have exploded.

Morgan’s van was identified on CCTV as well as footage of the defendant using a small axe to break a window of the synagogue.

The court was shown video of Morgan pouring liquid from his green petrol can through the window before he is engulfed in a ball of flames.

Police arrested him at his home in Alexander Terrace in Exeter.

As he opened the door to officers, the defendant, who smelt of petrol and burning, exclaimed: “That didn’t take long”.

He had burns to his hands, forehead and hair, the court heard.

In his pockets, he was carrying two lock knives and two lighters.

As he was put in a police van, Morgan said: “Please tell me that synagogue is burning to the ground, if not, it’s poor preparation.”

Later, as his burns were being treated in hospital, he told staff “it was like a bomb going off”.

The attack on the synagogue was described as “devastating” for the whole Jewish community.

The court heard the attack coincided with a Jewish feast day commemorating disasters, including the Holocaust.

The Exeter Synagogue, built in 1763, is the third oldest in Britain and remains a focal point for the Jewish community in the South West.

It underwent reconstruction in the 1990s and a £100,000 restoration project was completed in 2013.

The cost of repairing the fire damage was said to total more than £23,000.

The court heard how Morgan performed his song “White Man” under the alias of Arland Bran.

His song calling for “White Man” to “kill your enemy” was played 53 times, “liked” twice and shared once.

ITV News

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

Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski, left, and Michal Szewczuk were members of British neo-Nazi group Sonnenkrieg Division which was exposed by the BBC

Two teenage neo-Nazis, who encouraged an attack on Prince Harry for marrying a woman of mixed race, have been jailed for terrorism offences.

Michal Szewczuk, 19, from Leeds, and Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski, 18, from west London, were part of a group called the Sonnenkrieg Division.

An Old Bailey judge said their online propaganda was abhorrent and criminal.

Dunn-Koczorowski was given an 18-month detention and training order. Szewczuk was jailed for just over four years.

The defendants, who appeared by video link from HMP Belmarsh, in south-east London, did not react.

The court heard the teenagers used pseudonyms to run personal accounts on the Gab social media site, as well as sharing control of the Sonnenkrieg Division’s own page, on which they posted self-designed propaganda that encouraged terrorist attacks.

Among other things, the imagery suggested the Duke of Sussex was a “race traitor” who should be shot, glorified the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, and said white women who date non-white men should be hung.

The material was “uniformly violent and threatening” and “the nature of the violence includes rape and execution”, judge Rebecca Poulet said.

Suggested targets included non-white and Jewish people, and the effect was to overtly encourage lone acts of violence against members of the public, the judge added.

She said the men had promoted both Sonnenkrieg and the American Atomwaffen Division, which were extreme right-wing groups inspired by a book called Siege written by the veteran American neo-Nazi James Mason in the 1980s.


‘Intent on action’

Their ideology is violently racist and anti-Semitic neo-Nazism and its tactics involve political violence through acting alone or small-cell terrorism, she added.

She condemned an “additional feature” of the ideology by referencing a blog run by Szewczuk that encouraged the rape of female adults and babies.

Sonnenkrieg’s activities were exposed last year by a BBC investigation.

Prosecutor Naomi Parsons, opening the case earlier in the hearing, told the court: “This isn’t a keyboard organisation. It is intent on action.”

She read from the group’s mission statement, which declared: “Will you rise up and take the chance or will you sit back and do nothing… Hail victory, and Heil Hitler!”

In April, Szewczuk admitted two counts of encouraging terrorism and five of possessing documents useful to a terrorist.

Dunn-Koczorowski pleaded guilty while still a youth in December to two counts of encouraging terrorism.

The court heard Sonnenkrieg was influenced by the US-based group Atomwaffen Division, which is linked to five murders, and Mason, whose writings “may well represent the most violent, revolutionary and potentially terroristic expression of right-wing extremism current today”.

Sonnenkrieg promoted the idea that people should completely “drop out” of society and engage in a “total attack” on the system, Ms Parsons told the court.

She said Szewczuk also maintained an “extremely violent and aggressively misogynistic” blog that encouraged the rape, torture and murder of women and babies.

“You must become a machine of terror,” Szewczuk had advised his readers.

In online comments, Dunn-Koczorowski suggested that decapitating babies would be acceptable to stop them becoming “leftist politicians” and proclaimed “terror is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death”.

The pair were arrested the morning after the BBC investigation was broadcast in December.

Detectives found Szewczuk – then a computer science student at the University of Portsmouth – in possession of bomb-making instructions, documents describing how to conduct Islamist terror attacks and a “white resistance” manual.

Hitler imagined as avatar of a god

By Daniel De Simone, BBC home affairs producer

Sonnenkrieg Division, which police say has the most radical ideology on the UK extreme right, is the latest neo-Nazi group to emerge following the proscription of National Action under anti-terror laws three years ago.

Created by a small number of people, Sonnenkrieg used the internet to exaggerate its size and capabilities, with members seeking direct action from those accessing its propaganda.

Terrorism and criminality were encouraged, as was the transgression of what it caricatured as slavish morality, with sexual violence and paedophilia both advocated.

Their bizarre supernatural belief system imagined Hitler to be an avatar of a god, lionised the Moors Murderer Ian Brady and cult leader Charles Manson, and blended violent Satanism, a berserk misogyny, and admiration for radical Islamism.

The aim? To undermine and collapse civilization, which the group deemed a necessary forerunner to the creation of a Nazi warrior society.

BBC News

Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski, left, and Michal Szewczuk were members of British neo-Nazi group Sonnenkrieg Division which was exposed by the BBC

Two teenage neo-Nazis, who encouraged an attack on Prince Harry for marrying a woman of mixed race, have been jailed for terrorism offences.

Michal Szewczuk, 19, from Leeds, and Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski, 18, from west London, were part of a group called the Sonnenkrieg Division.

An Old Bailey judge said their online propaganda was abhorrent and criminal.

Dunn-Koczorowski was given an 18-month Detention and Training Order. Szewczuk was jailed for just over four years.

The defendants, who appeared by video link from HMP Belmarsh, in south-east London, did not react.

The court heard the teenagers used pseudonyms to run personal accounts on the Gab social media site, as well as sharing control of the Sonnenkrieg Division’s own page, on which they posted self-designed propaganda that encouraged terrorist attacks.

Among other things, the imagery suggested the Duke of Sussex was a “race traitor” who should be shot, glorified the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, and said white women who date non-white men should be hung.

The material was “uniformly violent and threatening” and “the nature of the violence includes rape and execution”, judge Rebecca Poulet said.

Hitler imagined as avatar of a god

By Daniel De Simone, BBC home affairs producer

Sonnenkrieg Division, which police say has the most radical ideology on the UK extreme right, is the latest neo-Nazi group to emerge following the proscription of National Action under anti-terror laws three years ago.

Created by a small number of people, Sonnenkrieg used the internet to exaggerate its size and capabilities, with members seeking direct action from those accessing its propaganda.

Terrorism and criminality were encouraged, as was the transgression of what it caricatured as slavish morality, with sexual violence and paedophilia both advocated.

Their bizarre supernatural belief system imagined Hitler to be an avatar of a god, lionised the Moors Murderer Ian Brady and cult leader Charles Manson, and blended violent Satanism, a berserk misogyny, and admiration for radical Islamism.

The aim? To undermine and collapse civilization, which the group deemed a necessary forerunner to the creation of a Nazi warrior society.

The pair sentenced on Tuesday will have time to reflect whether this was all really such a good idea.

BBC News

Hearing at the Old Bailey reveals how Tristan Morgan, 52, broke into the rear of the 18th century shul by smashing a window and poured accelerant in

A homeless white nationalist in Devon has admitted setting fire to an historic Exeter synagogue in an arson attack in July last year.

At a hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday, Judge Anthony Leonard QC was told that prosecutors have accepted 52-year old Tristan Morgan’s guilty pleas to a series of charges, as he lifted reporting restrictions.

Morgan, of no fixed abode, admitted arson, encouraging terrorism by publishing a song called ‘White Man’ to a live-streaming website, and collecting information for terrorist purposes in relation to a book called ‘White Resistance Manual.’ He will be sentenced on 1 July.

He was arrested after breaking a window at the rear of the 18th century building – Britain’s third oldest synagogue – before pouring fuel inside and using a match to ignite it. He admitted to recklessly endangering life.

The Community Security Trust (CST) said it had worked closely with Exeter Synagogue and with Devon & Cornwall Police since it happened.

In a statement, the CST said it had been “an appalling attack by somebody who had engaged with far right extremism” which made it “a very disturbing incident”.

It added: “The damage to the synagogue would have been much worse had it not been for the quick thinking and actions of local residents, and we are grateful to the wider community for the support they offered to Exeter Synagogue in the days following this attack.”

Speaking to Jewish News, Brian Nathan, the security officer at the shul, said: “We had a phenomenal and heart-warming response from the Exeter authorities – civil, police, fire. From what could have been a disaster, a lot of good came out.”

The building was saved because two passing bingo workers noticed the flames and put the fire out using nearby fire extinguishers before alerting authorities. They both received awards for their heroism and quick thinking, and were invited to the synagogue’s reopening.

Speaking last year, Superintendent Matthew Lawler said there had been a “really good, positive response from both the public and faith groups in Exeter in support of the Jewish community”.

Jewish News

Renshaw, pictured at a National Action rally, was also jailed for 16 months in 2018 for four counts of grooming adolescent boys

A neo-Nazi who planned to murder Labour MP Rosie Cooper has been jailed for life.

Jack Renshaw, 23, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, must serve at least 20 years in prison.

A judge at the Old Bailey said Renshaw, who earlier admitted preparing an act of terrorism, wanted to “replicate” the murder of Jo Cox.

Renshaw made a Nazi salute towards supporters as he was led to the cells from the dock.

He pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial to buying a machete to kill the West Lancashire MP and making threats to kill police officer Det Con Victoria Henderson.

A jury twice failed to reach a verdict on charges relating to his membership of banned neo-Nazi group National Action.

Sentencing him, Judge Justice McGowan said Renshaw’s “perverted view of history and current politics” led him to “an attempt to damage our entire system of democracy”.

She said: “You praised the murder of Jo Cox in tweets and posts in June 2017. In some bizarre way you saw this as a commendable act and set out to replicate that behaviour.”

The judge added Renshaw had made “detailed arrangements” and studied Ms Cooper’s itinerary.

The knife Renshaw bought was described by the online seller as offering “19 inches of unprecedented piercing and slashing power at a bargain price”

Giving evidence during his first National Action trial last summer, he said he wanted to murder the MP “to send the state a message”.

He got as far as buying a 19in (48cm) Gladius knife and told members of National Action about his plan during a meeting in a Warrington pub in July 2017.

The plot was foiled by whistleblower and former National Action member, Robbie Mullen, who was secretly passing information to anti-racism charity Hope not Hate, which informed police.

Police arrested Renshaw and found the machete hidden in an airing cupboard at his uncle’s house.

In a victim impact statement, Ms Cooper said it was “like something out of a horror movie”.

Friends and family had encouraged her to stand down from Parliament but she refused because “that would allow tyranny to prevail”.

After the sentencing, Ms Cooper said “justice has been served”.

Jack Renshaw wearing a mask at a National Action rally in Liverpool in 2016

Renshaw was also jailed for 16 months in June 2018 for four counts of grooming adolescent boys.

Det Con Henderson, who was investigating the child sex offences, said she “had sleepless nights” until he was arrested.

“I am not prepared to let Jack Renshaw ruin my everyday life,” she said.

The judge praised the two women and told Renshaw: “You have not defeated them.”

She said he had acted in a polite manner towards Det Con Henderson while planning to kill her in an act of revenge.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it presented evidence that persuaded Renshaw to plead guilty, including online research on cutting the jugular artery and how long it would take someone to die from the wound.

Jenny Hopkins, CPS head of counter terror, said: “Jack Renshaw was prepared to act on his white supremacist world view and plotted to kill a Member of Parliament – a plan reminiscent of the abhorrent murder of Jo Cox MP.”

Renshaw was also jailed for three years in 2018 for stirring up racial hatred in two anti-Semitic speeches in 2016.

BBC News