A white neo-Nazi who began consuming extremist material at the age of 14 has been jailed for plotting a terrorist attack that included plans to target a mosque and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Alfie Coleman, 22, from Essex, was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Wednesday to 13-and-a-half years in prison, followed by five years on licence, after being convicted of preparing acts of terrorism. He must serve at least two-thirds of his custodial sentence before becoming eligible for release.
Judge Richard Marks KC found that Alfie Coleman was a “dangerous offender” because of the serious risk he posed to the public and the advanced stage of his plans to carry out a terrorist attack.
He described Coleman’s views as “virulently racist” and rejected his claim that the extremist material he had written and collected was merely fantasy or bravado.
The judge rejected that explanation, concluding that the evidence demonstrated a genuine intention to commit acts of terrorism, which warranted a lengthy custodial sentence.
Police said Coleman was radicalised online from the age of just 14 and spent years immersing himself in extreme right-wing propaganda before attempting to obtain a firearm to carry out an attack.
A joint investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing London and MI5 found Coleman had been trying to acquire weapons through contacts on neo-Nazi extremist forums and was motivated by what prosecutors described as an “extreme ideology and hatred of people of other races and religions.”
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Officers became increasingly concerned about his activities during the summer of 2023 after discovering he was attempting to buy firearms in support of his extremist ideology.
On September 29, 2023, Coleman travelled to a car park in Stratford, east London, carrying £3,500 in cash to purchase a Makarov pistol and ammunition.
Unbeknown to him, he had arranged the transaction with undercover operatives. Moments after exchanging the cash for a bag containing the firearm, five magazines and 200 rounds of ammunition, armed officers arrested him.
Subsequent searches of his home and digital devices uncovered a cache of extremist material, including terrorist manuals, bomb-making guides, weapons manuals and a manifesto outlining his plans for future attacks.
The manifesto included plans to target a mosque in France, while investigators also found evidence that Coleman had intended to target London Mayor Sadiq Khan, although he mistakenly recorded the address of the Lord Mayor of London’s residence instead.
Police also discovered that Coleman had compiled a list of so-called “race traitors” containing the names and vehicle registration details of colleagues and members of the public he believed had offended him. Prosecutors said he was “seething with hatred” as he drew up the list while working at a Tesco store.
Investigators found Coleman had amassed a library of neo-Nazi literature, including manifestos written by previous far-right terrorists. Among them was the manifesto of Christchurch mosque attacker Brenton Tarrant, who murdered 51 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand in 2019. Coleman described Tarrant as both a “warrior” and a “saint.”
Police also recovered a swastika-inscribed rock, a Black Sun flag associated with neo-Nazism, and other extreme right-wing material from his home.
Investigators found evidence showing Coleman had been accessing extremist content since at least 2019, when he was only 14 years old. At the age of 16, he downloaded a notorious extreme right-wing terrorist text and continued collecting terrorist publications and instructional manuals in the years that followed.
Following his arrest, Coleman pleaded guilty to 10 counts of collecting information likely to be useful to terrorists, as well as attempted possession of a firearm and ammunition. After a trial at the Old Bailey, he was also found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism.
In addition to his prison sentence, Coleman will remain subject to terrorism notification requirements for 30 years, requiring him to provide personal information to police.
Online radicalisation
Commander Helen Flanagan, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, described Coleman as “an extremely dangerous individual” who had been planning a lethal terrorist attack.
She warned that his case reflected a growing trend of children being radicalised online.
“What is particularly concerning is that Coleman was radicalised online from when he was just 14 years old, and sadly we’re seeing more and more examples of young people and children being drawn into violent extremism and terrorism this way,” she said.
Flanagan urged parents and carers to take a greater interest in their children’s online activity and to seek help through the ACT Early programme if they become concerned about possible radicalisation.
