London, United Kingdom. A British white supremacist prosecutors said idolised Adolf Hitler was convicted on Thursday of preparing terrorism acts after attempting to buy a gun and ammunition from undercover officers. Alfie Coleman was arrested in September 2023 after paying 3,500 pounds ($4,730) for a pistol and about 200 rounds of ammunition.
Undercover operation and evidence
Prosecutors said the 21-year-old venerated Nazi dictator Hitler and Thomas Mair, who murdered lawmaker Jo Cox in a street attack in 2016. Manifestos 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 at the time of his arrest.
Trial and conviction
Prosecutor Nicholas de la Poer told jurors at London’s Old Bailey court that Coleman had written his own manifesto as a diary, stating: “All people whom are not on our side must die.” Coleman pleaded guilty to possessing the gun and 10 charges relating to documents containing information likely to be useful to terrorists, but denied preparing terrorism acts.
Sentencing and official response
Coleman was convicted by a jury after a retrial and is due to be sentenced in July. Police have said he extensively consumed extreme right-wing material online as a teenager, particularly during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 when he was 15.
Bethan David, head of counter terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service, described Coleman as “a dangerous man who planned to commit a terrorist attack to further his extreme racist and white supremacist agenda”. She said he was motivated by an extreme ideology and hatred of people of other races and religions and was intent on causing harm.
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