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Yesterday, a jury at the Central Criminal Court unanimously found Alfie Coleman guilty of the offence of preparing to commit a terrorist act, contrary to section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.
It was alleged by the prosecution that Mr Coleman had, over the course of a two-year period, developed extreme right-wing views leading to him to decide to commit a terrorist attack. Preparatory steps taken by Mr Coleman in furtherance of his intention to commit that attack were alleged to include the collection of terrorist publications, the identification of potential targets for an attack, the writing of a manifesto, the accumulation of weapons and the acquisition of a gun with two hundred rounds of ammunition.
Such was the authorities’ concern about the risk that Mr Coleman posed that, unbeknownst to him, in the period leading up to his arrest he had been communicating with a number of Undercover Operatives from Counter Terrorism Policing and the Security Service. He was also the subject of extensive physical surveillance.
The operation surrounding Mr Coleman came to a head when he made repeated efforts to acquire automatic firearms from the Undercover Operatives, culminating in an MI5 officer agreeing to his request to buy a gun and two hundred bullets for £3,500. Mr Coleman attended the agreed location for the purchase and picked up the items, which had been made safe, before he was then arrested.
The prosecution’s case was Mr Coleman was driven by a white supremist / neo-Nazi ideology and believed a race war was coming, the coming of which war Mr Coleman wanted to accelerate by carrying out a mass casualty attack which he hoped would inspire others to follow suit.
Mr Coleman was convicted of this offence following a trial which lasted four weeks.
Nick de la Poer KC led Naomi Parsons, of Red Lion chambers, for the prosecution and was instructed by Birgitte Hagem of the CPS Counter-Terrorism Division.
Reporting and press releases related to the verdict can be found:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4145vexypo
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/alfie-coleman-neo-nazi-trial-b2968026.html
https://news.sky.com/video/edited-supermarket-terror-13538439
https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/extreme-right-wing-terrorist-convicted-planning-gun-attack
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