'This wasn't some fantasy' - Nazi-worshipping extremists guilty of planning terror attacks

A jury at Sheffield Crown Court heard how Christopher Ringrose, 34, Marco Pitzettu, 25, and Brogan Stewart, 25, were preparing to use the more than 200 weapons they had amassed, including machetes, swords, crossbows and an illegal stun gun.

Ringrose had also 3D-printed most of the components of a semi-automatic firearm at the time of his arrest and was trying to get the remaining parts.

The trio, who are not believed to have met in the real world before they appeared together in the dock of a court, were arrested when security services believed an attack was imminent after undercover officers infiltrated their online group, the court heard.

A nine-week long trial heard how the group idolised Hitler and the Nazis, shared racist slurs and glorified mass murderers.

Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, previously told the jury the group discussed potential targets at the end of January 2024.

He told the court Stewart sent Blackheart details of the Islamic Education Centre on Mexborough Road in Leeds, including a Google Maps image.

The officer asked Stewart for more detailed information about the plan and he replied that they could smash windows or ambush someone, the court heard.

According to Mr Sandiford, Stewart said: “It depends how far we are willing to go. It could be a beating with batons and bats or something more serious.”

On Wednesday, a jury rejected claims the defendants were fantasists with no intention of carrying out their threats and found Ringrose, of Cannock, Staffordshire; Pitzettu, of Mickleover, Derbyshire; and Stewart, of Tingley, Wakefield, guilty of a charge of preparing acts of terrorism and charges of collecting information likely to be useful to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism.

Ringrose was also convicted of manufacturing a prohibited weapon. Pitzettu pleaded guilty to obtaining an illegal stun gun at a previous hearing. The defendants will be sentenced on July 17.

The judge, Mrs Justice Cutts, told them: “You must all expect substantial custodial sentences”.

Head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley said the trio would have attacked a mosque, synagogue or other place of worship or education with potentially fatal consequences if they had not been arrested.

The officer said: “We saw this building of a firearm, and we saw them then changing their conversation and an uptick in their hatred and looking to identify a real-world target, which could have been talk of a synagogue, an Islamic institution, a mosque, education…

“When we saw that uptick changing, and they were looking to come out into the real world, that’s when we took the action to arrest them.

“That was a tipping point for us. The protection of the public was absolutely paramount, and this wasn’t some fantasy.”

The defendants formed an online group of extremists, unaware that a number of those who joined were undercover officers.

But the three of them are not believed to have ever met in the real world.

The officer said: “These individuals have come together in an online space, and what brought them together was extreme racial prejudice. They held extreme racist views. They idolised the Nazi Party.

“There was adoration for mass murderers, and they held really extreme views against people who didn’t look like them. Those views were amplified in that online space, encouraged between them, and they looked then to start what I think was prepping for a real-world attack.”

Mr Dunkerley said: “I think, had we not taken steps to arrest them, that we would have seen something play out in the real-world that could have had fatal consequences.”

The officer said: “It was very much our firm view that this was more than just talk.”

And the police believe the most likely target was an Islamic education school.

Mr Dunkerley said the construction of a firearm using a 3D printer was a particularly worrying feature of this case.

He said: “If they took that 3D printed firearm onto the streets and discharged it, it would kill somebody. They are dangerous individuals, and they hated people, and that mix could have been absolutely fatal.”

He added 3D printed guns were becoming a concern more generally.

Mr Dunkerley said: “3D printed firearms are relatively straightforward to print, if you have the technology. They are available, they present as toys, they are not toys, they are lethal weapons.”

The officer said it is currently not an offence to possess the blueprints needed for printing a firearm, but a Bill is currently going through Parliament to change this.

Mr Dunkerley said it is not unusual to find extremist groups interacting entirely online.

He said: “A lot of my casework in counter-terror is online. Many people have never physically met in the real world. They are in the digital space. So, we have to police the digital space.

“We have to be alive to these groups, alive to the forums that they use, so that we can police them, and when people then are committing acts, we can take action against them.

“So it is, unfortunately, a daily occurrence for us to be in online groups, because the digital space is where people come together.”

He encouraged parents, and the public generally, to be vigilant about what young people are accessing online.

The officer said: “People need to understand how susceptible vulnerable people can be in that online space to radicalisation, to extremist behaviour and having these conversations without any moderation, without any counterbalance.”

But Mr Dunkerley said it is not clear how these defendants were first radicalised.

He said: “We don’t fully understand where these individuals first found their views. What we do see in the online space is that people are coming into these forums, and they’re self-radicalising within them.

“They’re going down a rabbit hole. They’re seeking information from one source.”

He added: “In terms of extreme right-wing terrorism, we have seen a significant growth in that over the last 20 years. It does predominantly affect younger men.

“They are coming together in an online space, and that is growing. That is a concern. That is a significant proportion of my work.”