Essex neo-Nazi jailed for terror offence after MI5 sting

A neo-Nazi who was plotting a gun attack has been jailed for 13 and a half years after being caught in an MI5 sting.

Agents lured Alfie Coleman, 22, to a car park in east London and swooped on him as he collected a Makarov pistol and 200 rounds of ammunition in September 2023.

The supermarket worker, from Great Notley in Essex, was described in court as a "militant accelerationist" who had been radicalised online from the age of 14.

He was convicted of preparing terrorist acts at the Old Bailey in April, where jurors heard he had dreamed of fighting a race war.

Judge Richard Marks KC described Coleman's views as "virulently racist" and branded him a "dangerous offender".

"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," the judge told the defendant.

Coleman appeared tearful and wiped his eyes with a tissue as the judge made his remarks.

The sting operation involved undercover agents engaging with him on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, where he was seeking to buy a firearm.

In pre-sentence reports, probation officers deemed him as "posing a high risk of serious harm to the public" and found it unlikely "his feelings, which were evidently quite deeply rooted, would change completely", the court heard.

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.

Mitigating, defence counsel 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."

The court heard Coleman was expected to served two-thirds of his sentence, less the more than 1,000 days he had already spent in custody.

Once released from jail, Coleman must also serve a further five years on extended licence.

He was also made subject of a part 4 notification order, meaning he must share personal information with the police for 30 years.