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 just 14, Coleman began to trawl the internet for extreme right wing material including a neo-Nazi text which he downloaded on his iPad.
Coleman paid £3,500 for a pistol and around 200 rounds of ammunition before being arrested by police in September 2023.
The 21-year-old venerated Nazi dictator Hitler and Thomas Mair, a loner obsessed with the Nazis who murdered lawmaker Jo Cox in a frenzied street attack in 2016, prosecutors said.
Manifestos written by Dylann Roof, who killed nine Black people at a South Carolina church in 2015, and Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 Muslim worshippers at mosques in Christchurch, were found on Coleman’s devices when he was arrested.
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 Lord Mayor of London and a mosque.
He was caught after undercover officers from MI5 engaged with Coleman in encrypted chat as he sought to buy weapons.
Authorities first became concerned in the summer of 2023 when Coleman became increasingly active on online extreme right wing groups.
In early 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 quickly abandoned the plan.
Instead, MI5’s “highly sophisticated operation” culminated in a Morrisons car park in Stratford, east London, on the morning of 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 dramatic video of Coleman dropping £3,500 in a Land Rover Discovery and picking up a holdall containing the handgun and ammunition from the boot.
Before he had gone 30 yards, Coleman, who was carrying his Tesco employee card, was confronted by armed counter-terrorism police and forced to the ground.
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.
Police also seized a collection of knives from his bedside drawer and on top of his chest of drawers, a small stone axe, an air rifle and a flyer about target shooting.
An analysis of his electronic devices revealed that in July 2021, 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.
They involved putting explosives in a cash machine as well as the use of knives and crossbows, the court was told.
He was “seething with hatred” as he created an list of people at work who had “upset” him in September 2022, prosecutor Nicholas De La Poer KC had said.
Among those he singled out was a white female co-worker who was married to a man of mixed Indian and Seychellois heritage.
Coleman said he was “captivated” by an extreme right wing book which commemorated public hangings of “white race traitors”.
The defendant’s “manifesto” drew inspiration from several extremist mass killers who he regarded as “warriors”.
Six days before his arrest, Coleman posted a picture of a man armed with an automatic gun and wearing a balaclava, and commented: “Coming soon here my man.”
Two days before he was due to pick up the Makarov in Stratford, he wrote: “Just something has gotta be done, how long can we sit here and talk over the internet.”
The same day, Coleman ordered a Gerber Strong Arm knife with a 4.8 inch blade online.
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 had pleaded guilty to possessing 10 documents with information likely to be useful to terrorists such as texts on weaponry and bomb-making instructions.
Following the verdict, Coleman was remanded into custody to be sentenced on July 8.
Detective Chief Superintendent Helen Flanagan, head of operations for the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said “The verdict shows the success of counter terrorism policing and MI5 working together and that’s what we do day in day out.
“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”.
