Alfie Coleman, a 22-year-old neo-Nazi from Great Notley, Essex, has been sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison for plotting a mass shooting, following a covert MI5 operation. He was convicted of preparing for terrorist acts after a retrial at the Old Bailey and will serve two-thirds of his term, minus over 1,000 days already spent on remand, before parole eligibility.
Early Radicalisation and Hate List
The court heard that Coleman began searching for extreme right-wing content at age 14, downloading a neo-Nazi text onto his iPad. As a part-time Tesco employee, he compiled a hate list of colleagues and customers, labelling them with racial slurs or as 'race traitors'. He wrote a 'manifesto' in a diary and identified potential targets, including the Lord Mayor of London and a mosque.
MI5 Undercover Operation
Authorities became alarmed in summer 2023 when Coleman grew active in online extreme right-wing groups. In September 2023, he arranged to purchase a Skorpion automatic weapon, an AK47 rifle, and ammunition in France, targeting a local mosque, but abandoned the plan. The MI5 operation culminated on 29 September 2023 in a Morrisons car park in Stratford, east London, where Coleman arranged to buy a Makarov pistol, five magazines, and 200 rounds of ammunition from an undercover officer.
Footage showed Coleman dropping £3,500 into a Land Rover Discovery and retrieving a holdall with the handgun and ammunition. He was intercepted by armed counter-terrorism officers within 30 yards and pinned to the ground, still carrying his Tesco employee card.
Seized Evidence and Ideology
A search of his family home revealed £2,500 in savings, a bug detector, a Swastika rock, a Black Sun flag, extreme right-wing books, knives, a stone axe, an air rifle, and a target shooting flyer. His devices showed he had emailed the far-right group Patriotic Alternative in July 2021, expressing a desire to participate in activism. He documented plans for attacks, including hijacking an aircraft and targeting the Lord Mayor of London's residence, as well as using explosives, knives, and crossbows.
Prosecutor Nicholas De La Poer KC stated Coleman was 'seething with hatred' when he created a work hate list in September 2022. Among those targeted was a white female co-worker married to a man of mixed Indian and Seychellois heritage. Coleman admired Thomas Mair, the extremist who murdered MP Jo Cox, and was 'captivated' by a book commemorating public hangings of 'white race traitors'.
Pre-Arrest Behaviour
Six days before his arrest, Coleman posted an image of a balaclava-clad man with an automatic weapon, commenting: 'Coming soon here my man.' Two days before collecting the Makarov, he wrote: 'Just something has gotta be done, how long can we sit here and talk over the internet.' He also purchased a Gerber Strong Arm knife online.
Defence and Sentencing
Coleman claimed loneliness and mental health struggles during Covid-19 lockdowns. He admitted attempting to possess a firearm and ammunition but denied plotting a terror attack. He pleaded guilty to possessing 10 documents useful to terrorists, including bomb-making instructions. Probation officers assessed him as 'posing a high risk of serious harm to the public', with deeply rooted feelings unlikely to change.
In mitigation, Martin Rutherford KC described Coleman as 'intelligent, articulate and polite' but noted his obsessive personality took a 'horribly wrong turn' in 2020. Judge Marks declined a life sentence, citing Coleman's age, immaturity, autistic spectrum traits, anxiety, vulnerability, lack of prior convictions, and absence of actual harm.
Police and Public Safety
Cdr Helen Flanagan, head of counter-terrorism policing in London, said: 'He lived in a normal family [and had a] normal education. He was like any other child, any other teenager, who was spending a lot of time online behind closed doors. Sadly, living in that world, he was able to radicalise himself and be overexposed to a significant amount of influence in the extreme right wing.'
