Young neo-Nazi from Essex found guilty of planning mass gun attack after MI5 sting
A young neo-Nazi has been found guilty of planning a mass gun attack after being snared by MI5 in an undercover sting.
Alfie Coleman, 21, from Great Notley in Essex, was convicted of preparing for terrorist acts on Thursday after an Old Bailey retrial.
From the age of 14, Coleman began to trawl the internet for extreme right-wing material including a neo-Nazi text which he downloaded on his iPad, the court was told.
The former part-time Tesco worker went on to compile a hate list of colleagues and customers he branded with racial slurs or as "race traitors".
He penned a "manifesto" in a diary and identified potential targets, including the Mayor of London and a mosque.
At his retrial, the court was told that he was caught after undercover officers from MI5 engaged with him in encrypted chat as he sought to buy a gun and 200 rounds of ammunition.
Authorities first became concerned in the summer of 2023 when Coleman became increasingly active on online extreme right-wing groups.
In September 2023, he arranged to buy a Skorpion automatic weapon, an AK47 rifle and bullets in France - having identified a local mosque as his target - but abandoned the plan.
Instead, MI5's operation culminated in a Morrisons car park in Stratford, London, on September 29 2023.
That day Coleman, then aged 19, had arranged with an undercover officer to buy a Makarov pistol, five magazines and 200 rounds of ammunition.
Jurors saw video of Coleman dropping £3,500 in a Land Rover Discovery and picking up a holdall containing the handgun and ammunition from the boot.
But before he had gone 30 yards, Coleman was confronted by armed counter-terrorism police and forced to the ground.
Shoppers bore witness to the “shocking scene” when three men pointed stun guns at Coleman as he walked across the car park carrying a bag, the Old Bailey heard.
A search of the home he shared with his parents and sibling revealed the extent of Coleman's murderous ideology, including idolising Thomas Mair, the extremist who killed MP Jo Cox.
Police found £2,500 in savings and a device to detect bugs and secret cameras in his bedside drawer, a rock with a Swastika on a table, a Black Sun flag associated with neo-Nazism on the wall, and various extreme right wing books.
An analysis of his electronic devices revealed that Coleman had emailed the far-right white-supremacist organisation Patriotic Alternative saying he "would like to start participating in activism".
He went on to write down plans for potential terrorist attacks such as hijacking a plane and targeting the home of the Lord Mayor of London.
He was "seething with hatred" as he created a list of people at work who had "upset" him, prosecutor Nicholas De La Poer KC had said.
Coleman said he was "captivated" by an extreme right wing book which commemorated public hangings of "white race traitors".
Giving evidence, Coleman described being lonely and suffering with his mental health during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
He had admitted attempting to possess both a firearm and ammunition but denied he was preparing for a terrorist attack.
He'd pleaded guilty to possessing 10 documents with information likely to be useful to terrorists such as texts on weaponry and bomb-making instructions.
Det Chief Supt Helen Flanagan, head of operations for the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said: "Alfie Coleman is a really dangerous individual, and through our work, we were able to thwart any attack and manage that risk to the public.
"Securing the evidence of Coleman physically exchanging the money for firearms provided the prosecution team with the evidence that shows Coleman was fully prepared and committed to carry out an attack way beyond simply typing out ideas of fantasy on his computer.
"The fact he's seeking out automatic weapons shows that his intention wasn't to identify one individual and attack one individual.
"Clearly he had grievance towards specific individuals but his intention seemed to be more towards a mass attack and planning that and creating that sort of race war. That was his mindset."
Ms Flanagan said Coleman's was an "acute" example of a growing trend of children becoming radicalised online and drawn into terrorism.
"Sadly in this case, it's ultimately led to him developing a plan and desire to go out and kill innocent people," she said.
"Whilst this is rare and shocking, unfortunately we're starting to see this more and more in our casework, so this is not unique."
She added that it was "vital" parents take an interest in what their children are doing online and if necessary initiate "difficult conversations".
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