Man tried to recruit helper in plot to petrol bomb migrant hotel, court told

Mikka Anderson, 24, told a would-be accomplice that he had a crossbow and would fire the petrol bombs using some form of device in an attack on the Royal Hotel in Hull, jurors were told.

The defendant, from Hull, denies preparing an act of terrorism including by manufacturing Molotov cocktails and by conducting “hostile reconnaissance” on the hotel.

He also denies possessing knives and other weapons for terrorist purposes, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

Adam Birkby, prosecuting, told jurors that Anderson met a man, who cannot be identified by the media for legal reasons, in Hull city centre in February and outlined “his plan to attack the Royal Hotel by the city’s railway station, and to kill as many of the migrants who were housed inside it as possible”.

Mr Birkby said that during the meeting, where the two men laid down their phones, Anderson revealed “that he had a crossbow and that he had created some form of device that he would use to launch the Molotov cocktails through the hotel windows”.

The defendant believed the would-be accomplice to be a fellow patriot who might join the plot, but Mr Birkby said that was a “fatal error” as he went to police two days later.

Anderson was arrested and police found knives, a crossbow and petrol bombs during a search of his home.

Officers examined his phone and found his plans for “terrorist violence” were motivated by extreme right-wing ideology, Mr Birkby said.

He had a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook, which the prosecution described as “a how-to guide for the wannabe terrorist”.

He had made or attempted to create napalm, gunpowder and fuses, the court heard.

Anderson tried to recruit others to join him, without success, the Crown said.

He carried out reconnaissance on the hotel, which housed migrants until September this year, checking for weaknesses in security.

The hotel had been the scene of serious disorder at “anti-migrant” protests in 2024, the court heard.

In February this year, the media reported that a 13-year-old girl had been repeatedly raped by an Iranian asylum seeker at a different hotel.

Mr Birkby said: “As the defendant later explained in his police interview, his reaction to that news was to tell a friend that he was going to attack the Royal Hotel.

“The Crown say that that is exactly what he planned to do.”

Anderson denies being a terrorist, Mr Birkby said, and it is understood he will say the discussion with the other man about attacking the hotel was “purely hypothetical” and also that it was the other man who tried to recruit him.

The defendant will say the cache of weapons was not for terrorist purposes and was linked to his interest in survivalism and “doomsday prepping”, the Crown said.

Mr Birkby said Anderson lived an apparently everyday life with a job and a partner but “behind this veil of normality” he was “immersed in “extreme right-wing ideology”.

He was an ardent believer in white nationalism and that white people were the superior race, Mr Birkby said.

He believed in an antisemitic conspiracy theory, the Great Replacement, jurors were told, which claims politicians and global elites plotted to swap the white population with non-white immigrants.

Mr Birkby said Anderson told a friend last November that the UK Government was building an army of “cultist, fanatic, inbred lunatics” and added: “There’s rumours the Government have been shipping guns into Scotland and the weapons are being transferred and stored in mosques.”

The prosecution said Anderson admired Hitler and referred to himself as a Nazi.

Mr Birkby said Anderson told an associate in September 2025: “I am stocking up and preparing for violence… Muslims aren’t here to assimilate, they’re here to take over.

“They’re a literal bioweapon.

“One day they will turn this country into a warzone.”

The trial, which is expected to last eight days, continues.