The 22-year-old appeared tearful and wiped his eyes with a tissue as the judge sentenced him
A young neo-Nazi who planned a mass gun attack, which included an attack on the Lord Mayor, has been jailed for 13-and-a-half years after he was snared by MI5 in an undercover sting. Alfie Coleman, 22, was found guilty of preparing for terrorist acts after an Old Bailey retrial.
Previously, the court had heard how Coleman was aged 14 when he first began to trawl the internet for extreme right-wing material including a neo-Nazi text which he downloaded on his iPad. On Wednesday, he was jailed at the same court for 13 and a half years, with a further five years on extended licence.
Judge Richard Marks KC said Coleman must be treated as a “dangerous offender” as he sentenced him, describing the views the defendant had expressed as “virulently racist”. He told Coleman: “(Giving evidence) You maintained that much of what you had said and the virulently racist views which you expressed were no more than intrusive thoughts and did not represent what you believed in real life.
“It was in effect, although you did not use these words, hyperbole, bravado, fantasy, and you never had any intention to carry out an attack.”
The 22-year-old, who wore a white shirt and grey trousers in the dock, appeared tearful and wiped his eyes with a tissue as the judge made his remarks. Coleman’s trial heard he penned a “manifesto” in a diary and identified potential targets, including the Lord Mayor of London and a mosque.
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 was caught after undercover officers from MI5 engaged with Coleman in an encrypted chat as he sought to buy weapons.
Authorities first became concerned in the summer of 2023 when Coleman, from Great Notley in Essex, became increasingly active on online extreme right-wing groups.
Coleman, then aged 19, arranged with an undercover officer to buy a Makarov pistol, five magazines and 200 rounds of ammunition, in a Morrisons car park in Stratford, east London, on the morning of September 29 2023.
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.
Officers 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 a 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”.
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.
Mr De La Poer told the court probation officers assessed Coleman as “posing a high risk of serious harm to the public”, and they deemed it unlikely “his feelings which were evidently quite deeply rooted would change completely”.
Giving evidence, Coleman described being lonely and suffering with his mental health during the Covid-19 lockdowns, and the court heard he has traits of autism spectrum disorder.
Mitigating, Martin Rutherford KC told the judge: “Alfie Coleman is not a young man without potential.
“Intelligent, articulate and polite, all of those things apply to him – but the reality is his obsessive personality took a horribly wrong turn back in 2020 and we are all dealing with the consequences of that now.”
Sparing Coleman a life sentence, Judge Marks told the defendant: “Your age, immaturity, autistic spectrum disorder traits, anxiety, vulnerability, lack of previous convictions and the absence of actual physical harm caused by you all in my judgment weigh heavily against a discretionary life sentence.”
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said: “It is extremely concerning that such a young person was planning to murder innocent members of the public as part of an extreme right-wing terrorist plot.
“But thankfully Counter Terrorism Policing, working with our colleagues in MI5, were able to intervene and arrest him before he was able to harm anyone, and I have little doubt that the brilliant work of all involved has prevented what could have been a real tragedy.
“What is particularly concerning is that Coleman was radicalised online from when he was just 14-years-old, and sadly we’re seeing more and more examples of young people and children being drawn into violent extremism and terrorism this way.
“This is why I’m urging parents and carers to make sure that you are aware of what your children are doing online.
“While it may be difficult, it is vital that you have conversations with them, and if you are still concerned, then act early and get in touch, so that they can be steered down a different path before it is too late.”
Coleman 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.
The court heard Coleman will serve two-thirds of his jail sentence, less the more than 1,000 days he has already spent in custody, before being eligible for parole.
The judge also ordered a list of items be seized under a forfeiture order and made Coleman subject of a notification order, meaning he must share personal information with the police, for 30 years.
