Scottish neo-Nazi convicted after planning terrorist attack on local LGBTQ+ group
A neo-Nazi from Stirlingshire, Scotland, has been found guilty of a number of crimes, including plotting to commit a terrorist attack on a local LGBTQ+ group.
Alan Edward, 54, was arrested at his home in Redding, Falkirk, in September 2022 by armed police. They discovered what prosecutors dubbed an “armoury of weapons” at his address, including a crossbow, machetes, tomahawk knives, a stun gun, and over 14 knives that were branded with SS and Nazi insignias.
Edward was brought to trial at the High Court in Stirling, where a jury found him guilty of four charges under the Terrorism Act. He was also found guilty of racism, anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and breach of the peace. He denied all charges.
“A man with clear neo-Nazi ideals” – Prosecutor Paul Kearney KC
During the trial, the court heard how Edward held “a set of ideals with a neo-Nazi outlook, incorporating notions of white supremacy, the notion of racial purity of whites, racism, anti-Semitism, and hatred of homosexuals and transgender people.”
Evidence submitted included a document found on Edward’s computer praising Anders Breivik, the neo-Nazi mass murderer who killed eight people with a car bomb in Oslo and shot dead 69 at a youth camp in 2011.
Meanwhile, the court was shown a series of “incredibly sinister” exchanges on WhatsApp between Edward and an associate in nearby Grangemouth. In the messages, the pair discussed carrying out an attack on a local LGBTQ+ group in Falkirk.
In one, Edward wrote: “It’s clearly time to hunt the f****ts down and beat them.”
“They have been pushing their luck for years, now they will pay in blood,” he continued.
“It’s time to kill [the] tr*nny, there is no place for them in this world.”
During the exchange, Edward also wrote: “I hate them all I really do.”
He added: “Hunting time is nearly here. We should get masked up and go do a few of them in at their little gay club.”
Other messages also expressed hatred of communists, Jewish people and Black people.
Edward, who had nearly 28,000 followers on social media, first came to the attention of counter-terrorism investigators after posting a video celebrating the banned far-right organisation National Action.
The clip, which was filmed at a rally in Darlington, England, in 2016 and uploaded in 2022, showed demonstrators carrying flags with Nazi logos and making Nazi salutes.
Speaking to the court, prosecutor Paul Kearney KC described Edward as “a man who with clear neo-Nazi ideals” who was “preparing for an act of terrorism which would include an ideologically-driven incident of serious violence”.
Judge Fiona Tait deferred sentence until 21 October at the High Court in Edinburgh.
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