A neo-Nazi who had “a plan and intention to kill members of the public” has been found guilty of preparing terrorist acts and attempting to purchase a firearm.
Alfie Coleman, 21, from Essex, who had reportedly been obsessed with the “extreme far-right" since the age of 14 and had spent the Covid lockdown seeking to purchase weapons online, was tricked in September 2023 by MI5 agents posing as arms dealers.
Coleman was arrested as he walked off with the gun and ammunition after exchanging £3,500 in a car park in Stratford, east London.
The court heard he was a “militant accelerationist” who believed in fighting a race war.
Prosecutors told the court that, throughout lockdown, Coleman had thrown himself into “an extreme right-wing world while looking to arm himself with weapons openly advertised on the internet, such as knives”.
He also had downloaded a manual called The Anarchist Cookbook – a banned instructional which includes lessons on how to make explosives.
The court heard that, when police raided his home, they found several items, including knives, an axe, an air rifle, a flyer on target shooting, a device for detecting bugs, a rock with a swastika, a Black Sun flag associated with neo-Nazism on the wall, and several extreme right-wing books.
Coleman had written down plans to target the home of London Mayor Sadiq Khan and other potential terrorist attacks, such as hijacking an aeroplane and putting explosives in ATMs.
He had also created a document of potential targets, which he had called “race traitors”.
Prosecutor Nicholas de la Poer KC said that Coleman’s ideas were “seething with hatred”.
The court also heard Coleman say that he was lonely throughout lockdown and had suffered with his mental health. He also described the race traitors document as being "a list of people who, where I worked, were very rude to me”, and said that he had become “pretty desensitised”.
He added that “talking about it doesn't mean the thing is going to happen”.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of the Met Police's Counter-Terrorism Command, said: “Coleman was an extremely dangerous individual who was planning a lethal terrorist attack.
“Were it not for the incredible work of our officers, in close liaison with our colleagues from MI5, this could have had a very different outcome."
She added Coleman had developed “a plan and intention to kill members of the public”.
He remains in custody and will be sentenced on July 8.
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.