Tim BuglerA neo-Nazi who amassed an “armoury” at his home in Falkirk has been jailed for 10 years.
Alan Edward, 54, who had nearly 28,000 followers on social media, had discussed an attack on a local LBGT group.
He denied all the offences, but a jury found him guilty of charges under the Terrorism Act, racism, anti-semitism, holocaust denial and breach of the peace.
Edward will also be supervised for five years following his release, and monitored for 30 years under the terms of the Terrorism Act.
Edward was arrested after armed police surrounded his end-terrace house in Redding, Falkirk, in September 2022 and broke down his front door.
A trial heard that Edward wrote the “the quickest way to someone’s heart is with a high power 7.62mm round”.
Police found weapons and equipment including a crossbow, 14 knives including some with Nazi and SS insignia, machetes, a tomahawk, a samurai sword, knuckledusters, a catapult, an extendable baton and a stun gun.
They also found an air pistol, an SS-style skull mask, goggles and a respirator, fighting gloves with hardened knuckles, pellets, ball bearings, and hunting tips for crossbow arrows.
Prosecutors said it amounted to “an armoury” of weapons.
Edward also had an indoor cannabis plantation that he was growing to sell.
The court heard he possessed and expressed “a set of ideals with a neo-Nazi outlook, incorporating notions of white supremacy, the notion of racial purity of whites, racism, anti-semitism, and hatred of homosexuals and transgender people”.
A document found on his computer referred to Norweigian neo-Nazi mass murderer Anders Breivik as “Saint Anders”.
Checks on his WhatsApp account found he had been messaging an associate in nearby Grangemouth about the proposed attack on an LBGT group.
In a series of exchanges described by the prosecution as “incredibly sinister”, he said: “They have been pushing their luck for years, now they will pay in blood.”
He added: “We should get masked up and go do a few of them in at their little gay club.”
Other messages targeted communists and Jewish people.
The court also heard that Edward had two accounts on Gab, a social media platform popular with the far right.
He came to the attention of counter-terrorism investigators after posting a video of a National Action rally held in 2016 – shortly before it became the first far-right group to be proscribed in the UK under the Terrorism Act.
Prosecutor Paul Kearney KC said Edward was “a man who with clear neo-Nazi ideals – preparing for an act of terrorism which would include an ideologically-driven incident of serious violence”.
