Three far-right extremists who amassed hundreds of weapons and planned to carry out attacks on targets including a mosque have been convicted of terrorism offences.

Brogan Stewart, 25, from West Yorkshire, Christopher Ringrose, 34, from Staffordshire, and Marco Pitzettu, 25, from Derbyshire, were part of an online group who “idolised the Nazi regime”.

Sheffield Crown Court was told how Stewart had detailed torturing a Muslim leader using an “information extraction kit”.

All three were found guilty of terrorism offences at the same court on Wednesday.

BBC News

Pictures show the piles of weapons and riot gear assembled by three extreme right wing men who were yesterday convicted on planning a terror attack.

Brogan Stewart, 25, of Tingley, Marco Pitzettu, 25, of Derby, and Christopher Ringrose, 34, from Cannock, were found guilty of a combined nine offences, following a nine-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court.

The group were arrested on February 20, 2024, by Counter Terrorism Policing North East, following an intelligence-led investigation that discovered the men were intent on carrying out an imminent violent attack.

The men were kept in custody and charged six days later with engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism.

Undercover operations by police and the National Crime Agency found the group were part of an online self-styled “militant” group.

Officers found the group was an echo chamber of extreme right-wing views where they shared horrific racial slurs, glorified mass murderers and encouraged violence against anyone deemed an enemy.

They idolized the Nazi regime, which was evident throughout their messages. The leader, Brogan Stewart, set out uniform, rules and necessary equipment for members. Pitzettu and Ringrose were named as “armourers”.

The trio discussed targets for harassment and attacks, including mosques, Islamic Education centres and synagogues.

The group also prepared for what they believed was an inevitable race war and sourced body armour, rations and a cache of weapons as part of their planning. Over 200 weapons were seized from the home addresses of the subjects, alongside riot gear, body armour and ration packs. The weapons included machetes, hunting knives, swords, and crossbows.

Pitzettu had obtained an illegal stun gun, contrary to the Firearms Act 1968, an offence which he pleaded guilty to prior to trial.

The group had also pursued acquiring a 3D printed firearm, of which Christopher Ringrose was convicted of manufacturing illegally.

Head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley said: “Stewart, Pitzettu and Ringrose have today been rightfully convicted of multiple terrorism offences. They were a group that espoused vile racist views and advocated for violence, all to support their extreme right-wing mindset.

“Some of their defence in court was that it was all fantasy or just part of harmless chat, however all three took real world steps to plan and prepare for carrying out an attack on innocent citizens.

“Due to excellent collaborative work with our partners, we were able to infiltrate the group and arrest them before anyone was harmed.

“Counter Terrorism Policing work around the clock to prevent terrorism reaching our communities and we constantly advance our capabilities so that groups like this cannot hide.

“The public’s support is vital to our mission to keep people safe. If you hear or see anything that doesn’t feel right, trust your instincts and report it in confidence at gov.uk/ACT. You won’t be wasting our time. In an emergency, always call 999.”

See our gallery below of photos from inside the three’s homes released by the NCA showing the horde of weapons and riot gear collected by the trio,

Sheffield Star

The court was told Dias shared his extreme views in WhatsApp messages with people said to be ‘schoolboy friends’

A neo-Nazi cleaner living in North West London who admitted collecting a stash of terrorist manuals from the age of 16, including how to make a home-made submachine gun, has been jailed, the Metropolitan Police said.

Portuguese national Vitor Dias had a fascination with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi creed when he downloaded material from the internet over four years, the Old Bailey previously heard.

Dias, now 22, pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing a document containing information useful for terrorist purposes with a further three similar offences to lie on the court file. On Thursday, Dias was sentenced at the Old Bailey to a total of three years in jail, the force said.

He was also given a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order. Prosecutor Christopher Amis told the court the defendant grew up in Brazil before moving to England with his family in 2020 and working as a cleaner.

Following raids on his home in Willesden Green, police found that between 2019 and 2023, when Dias was aged between 16 and 20, he had collected terrorist material and information demonstrating a extreme mindset. It included information on how to make explosives and ammunition, and building a home-made submachine gun “from scratch” using metal sheets and tubes.

Mr Amis said: “The material in his possession and communications in which he has taken part indicate that Vitor Dias is an adherent of Nazi ideology and far-right political causes, embracing as it does a hatred of Jews, LGBT persons and foreigners.

“What we suggest is that he deliberately accessed, and therefore came into possession of, material from the internet which, if he were a terrorist, would have been useful for his purposes.”

The court was told Dias shared his extreme views in WhatsApp messages with people said to be “schoolboy friends”. Dias continued to access terrorist material even after being warned by police not to in September 2022.

Mr Amis said the evidence showed Dias was “deliberately downloading material from different, specific sites of interest and not merely stumbling across material he wasn’t really interested in and didn’t care to look at”. Police raided Dias’s home as part of an investigation into indecent images of children being posted online earlier in 2022.

Dias was not arrested but two mobile phones were seized and the contents were downloaded and analysed, the force said. A large amount of extreme right-wing terrorist material was recovered, including guides on how to make explosives, firearms and ammunition.

After sentencing, Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “This case demonstrates that we will arrest and prosecute anyone accessing terrorist material. I am grateful to the work of colleagues in the Wembley Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation unit who uncovered Dias’s offending after his phones were seized.

“This case was also a successful example of the use of risk management software installed on the devices of those convicted of sexual offences.

“This case demonstrates that units from across the Met are committed to safeguarding vulnerable victims and specialist resources from counter terrorism will support the excellent work of officers and staff. Their excellent work allowed my officers to uncover the threat Dias posed.”

My London

A 20-year-old man from Devon, who owned and shared “extreme right-wing terrorist” publications, has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison.

Tobias Gleed was found guilty of eight offences and sentenced at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday 17 April.

He was originally arrested in September 2022 as part of an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing South West (CPTSW).

During the investigation, officers seized Gleed’s digital devices, which contained publications of an extreme right-wing terrorist nature.

Investigators saw this as evidence of his interest in extreme content.

Tobias Gleed was found guilty of:

Four offences of possession of a document of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

Two offences of distributing terrorist publications

Two offences of providing a service to others that enabled them to obtain, read or listen to a terrorist publication

Head of CTPSW, Detective Superintendent Sarah Robbins, described Gleed as a “threat to our communities.”

Following the sentencing, she said: “The impact of his offences, including the influence of the content he shared, cannot be underestimated.

“Such offences have a potentially dangerous, radicalising effect and it’s right he’s been convicted for his activity.”

She added: “I am thankful that, through the work of our unit, the evidence against Gleed has resulted in this outcome.”

Gleed was sentenced to five years and six months in prison. He will serve two-thirds of that sentence, with a further year under license.

Gleed was also given a five-year Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO). This means he’ll face various restrictions after leaving prison, which can affect who he can associate with, restrict his travel and may require him to report his financial affairs to the police.

ITV News

A teenager obsessed by murder has admitted wanting to carry out a mass shooting at his own school in Edinburgh.

A court heard how the boy “idolised” the killers behind the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado in the United States in 1999, which saw 12 students and a teacher murdered.

He repeatedly spoke about doing the same at his own secondary school – describing the “Doomsday” when he would “clear it out”.

But, a large-scale police probe was sparked in the summer of 2023 after a social media photo of him at school in full combat gear and carrying an imitation gun caused panic among pupils and parents.

The boy, who also held racist and pro-Nazi views, had already been referred to a UK-wide programme designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

The now 17-year-old appeared in the dock at the High Court in Glasgow.

He pleaded guilty via his defence KC Shelagh McCall to a breach of the peace and a charge under the Terrorism Act.

Military tactical vest

The crimes spanned between June 2022 and July 2023.

The teenager, who cannot be identified due to his age, had his bail revoked by judge Lord Arthurson pending sentencing next month.

Ms McCall KC told the court: “This is a vulnerable young person. He has mental health difficulties.

“He is a transgender person – that would need to be taken into account.”

Prosecutor Greg Farrell told how, on 20 June 2023, the boy had turned up at school wearing cargo trousers and carrying a military tactical vest and helmet.

Mr Farrell: “He was later seen at the school carrying an imitation firearm while wearing the vest and helmet.

“A photograph was circulated on social media. It was taken and published without his knowledge.

“The image provoked a considerable degree of fear and alarm among pupils and parents.

“Police were advised by a parent who saw the image.”

Officers went on to discover that the boy had a TikTok account which had footage of him in black combat clothes as well as a skeleton mask.

Mr Farrell: “One piece of commentary referenced school shootings.”

The teenager was immediately suspended.

Police, however, went on to take statements from other pupils who knew the boy.

Mr Farrell: “They provided information that the boy had exhibited a variety of alarming behaviours over a period of time.

“The greatest concern was the suggestion he had divulged to various people a desire to carry out a school shooting similar to that which had taken place in 1999 at Columbine High School in Colorado in the USA.”

Classmates recalled how the boy “spoke excitedly and with considerable enthusiasm” when he talked about Columbine and other school shootings.

He “sympathised” with the pair behind it – Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris – and would copy how they had dressed.

One girl said he “idolised school shooters in America”.

Mr Farrell said: “In November 2022, he told her how he would go about carrying out a school attack.

“He explained that he would start on the second floor and that he would ‘clear it out’ using guns.

“He would then move downstairs continuing to shoot until police arrived, at which point he would turn the gun on himself.”

‘Fed-up being bullied’

The boy described a possible mass shooting at his school as “Doomsday”.

He was said to be so “interested” in Columbine that he stated he wanted to change his name “in an act of homage” to Klebold.

Mr Farrell said: “One pupil told police that the boy wore the same black trousers, trench coat, cap worn backwards and circular glasses as favoured by one of the Columbine pair.

“He often made comments that he ‘looked like a school shooter’.”

The boy told another classmate that he would “place a bomb in every second classroom”.

He would then shoot people as they fled the building.

The boy told one girl he met online that he wanted to carry out a shooting as he was being bullied and was “fed-up” being there.

The teenager was stopped by police under the Terrorism Act as he returned from holiday with his family on 9 July 2023.

A number of his electronic devices were seized. There were various files on a mobile phone with some about “homemade” firearms and poisons.

The court heard he had 65 videos of Columbine and had added music which appeared to “glamourise” the mass killing.

He had recorded another clip of him at his own school which seemed to “mimic the actions” of the American shooters.

Police also seized a journal in which the boy had made various sinister remarks.

The hearing was told the teenager had twice previously been referred to the Prevent counter-terrorism programme while at school due to concerns but that he had “engaged” with the police.

The court heard a more recent concern was flagged up by the college the boy now attends of him allegedly remarking that he was “annoyed at getting caught”.

Judge Lord Arthurson ruled not to continue bail while sentence was deferred for reports.

The boy is expected to be sent to a secure unit for young people or what was described as a “place of safety”.

BBC News