Neo-Nazi Alfie Coleman jailed 13.5 years for plotting mass gun attack in London

Alfie Coleman, 22, was snared in an MI5 undercover sting and sentenced at the Old Bailey. He had planned to target a mosque, the Lord Mayor of London, and former colleagues.

Neo-Nazi jailed over mass shooting plot foiled by MI5 sting in east London

Alfie Coleman, 22, has been sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison at the Old Bailey after plotting a mass gun attack in London, the Daily Express reports. The former part-time Tesco worker had drawn up a hit list of targets including a local mosque and the Lord Mayor of London, and was arrested in an MI5 undercover operation in September 2023.

Coleman was 14 when he first sought out extreme right-wing material online, including a neo-Nazi text he downloaded onto his iPad. Over the following years he compiled a list of colleagues and customers he labelled with racial slurs or as "race traitors", and wrote a "manifesto" in a diary identifying potential targets.

Authorities grew concerned in the summer of 2023 as Coleman became increasingly active in online extremist groups. In early September of that year he arranged to acquire a Skorpion automatic weapon, an AK47 rifle and ammunition in France, having identified a mosque as his target — a plan he subsequently abandoned.

MI5's "highly sophisticated operation" then culminated in a Morrisons car park in Stratford, east London, on the morning of 29 September 2023. Coleman, then 19, had arranged through encrypted chat with an undercover officer to purchase a Makarov pistol, five magazines and 200 rounds of ammunition for £3,500.

Jurors were shown video footage of Coleman dropping the cash into a Land Rover Discovery and collecting a holdall containing the weapon and ammunition from its boot. He had not walked 30 yards before armed counter-terrorism officers confronted him and forced him to the ground. He was still carrying his Tesco employee card at the time.

A search of the home he shared with his parents and a sibling revealed the depth of his ideology. Officers found £2,500 in savings alongside a bug-detection device in his bedside drawer, a rock bearing a swastika on a table, a Black Sun flag on the wall, and a collection of extreme right-wing books. Material idolising Thomas Mair — the man who murdered MP Jo Cox — was also recovered.

Coleman had pleaded guilty to possessing ten documents likely to be useful to terrorists, including texts on weaponry and bomb-making instructions. He admitted attempting to possess a firearm and ammunition but denied he had been preparing a terrorist attack.

Giving evidence, Coleman said he had been lonely and struggling with his mental health during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Commander Helen Flanagan, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said after sentencing: "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."

Flanagan added that Coleman had been radicalised online from the age of 14, and warned that authorities were seeing increasing numbers of children being drawn into violent extremism in the same way. "This is why I'm urging parents and carers to make sure that you are aware of what your children are doing online," she said. "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."

Source: Daily Express