Neo-Nazi found guilty of planning mass gun attack after being caught in MI5 sting

A neo-Nazi who drew up a "kill list" of customers and colleagues at the Tesco where he worked has been found guilty of planning a mass gun attack.

Alfie Coleman was just 19 when he was caught in an MI5 sting trying to buy a Makarov semi-automatic pistol, five magazines and 200 rounds of ammunition, with £3,500 saved from his part-time supermarket job.

The Old Bailey heard he branded some of his former fellow staff and shoppers "race traitors" for having partners who were not white, in a list of people who had "upset him", alongside their number plates.

One entry named a checkout-worker, whose husband was mixed race, along with the make and colour of her car, and a description of her as having "short blonde hair with bits of pink in it".

Prosecutors said he believed in an extreme right-wing ideology which included idolising Adolf Hitler and the likes of Thomas Mair, who murdered the MP Jo Cox in a gun and knife attack in 2016.

Counterterrorism officers said Coleman, from the village of Great Notley, in Essex, was trying to buy automatic weapons, which suggested he planned to carry out a mass shooting, with possible targets including mosques.

He had unwittingly been talking to undercover MI5 agents for months on encrypted messaging apps before he was surrounded by officers armed with Tasers in a Morrisons car park in Stratford on 29 September 2023.

Video footage shows him drop to his knees and lie flat on the ground being handcuffed in front of shocked shoppers seconds after he left cash in the front passenger seat footwell of a Land Rover Discovery and collected a holdall from the boot containing the deactivated pistol.

Coleman, now 21, previously pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to possess a prohibited firearm and ammunition, as well as 10 counts of possession of material likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

They included documents such as the White Resistance Manual, The Terrorist Explosives Handbook and 21 Techniques Of Silent Killing.

But he denied he was plotting a terror attack and a jury failed to reach a verdict on the count last year after Coleman said he was now "embarrassed" and "cringing" about the views he expressed.

His barrister Tana Adkin KC said he was a "lonely teenager", who became isolated during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and although he was "obsessed with getting a gun", he was never going to kill anyone.

But Coleman was found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism after a retrial.

Detective Chief Superintendent Helen Flanagan, of the Metropolitan Police, said the case demonstrates how young people are being drawn into extremism at a young age.

One in five of those arrested by counter-terrorism police are aged 17 and under, and around half of referrals to the government's anti-radicalisation Prevent scheme now relate to children.

Extreme right-wing ideology

Police found evidence of Coleman's extreme right-wing ideology dating back to when he was 14, when he searched for the Klu Klux Klan.

An analysis of his electronic devices revealed documents relating to extreme right-wing content, weaponry and explosives.

DCS Flanagan said a "key piece of evidence" was his diaries, which outlined plans to carry out a terrorist attack and set out his own manifesto, detailing grievances and motivations behind his actions.

She compared the writings to other extreme right terrorists such as the Charleston Church mass shooter Dylann Roof, Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik and New Zealand mosque terrorist Brenton Tarrant - who he referred to as "warriors".

Coleman identified London mayor Sadiq Khan as a potential target in a written plan but mistakenly included the address of the ceremonial Lord Mayor of London.

He also wrote of putting a bomb in a cash machine and hatched another plot to hijack a plane, which was described "far-fetched and childish" by prosecutors - but they said he was a "man of action".

Coleman came to the attention of police and MI5 in the summer of 2023 as he became increasingly active in extreme right-wing chat groups and enquired about getting a gun.

Undercover agents gained his trust and discussed getting hold of a Skorpion submachine gun and an AK47, as well as ammunition, which he planned to pick up in northern France.

DCS Flanagan said he researched travel to France and "rather ominously" searched the locations of mosques in the area, adding: "It's our belief that he was considering targeting those mosques."

He arranged to travel to France on 6 September but did not go through with the plan, so undercover officers arranged to sell him a Makarov semi-automatic pistol for £3,500, which he saved for working part-time in Tesco.

Police said he was in the "advanced stages of radicalisation" and attack planning so officers had to "take immediate steps to protect the public" and arrested him in the dramatic car park sting.

Items including a collection of knives, a bottle with a rag, and a flag associated with the SS, were found at his home.

In notes written inside prison Coleman drew weapons and neo-Nazi symbols including a swastika, quoted cult leader Charles Manson and wrote: "Under no circumstances will I betray my race for less jail time."

DCS Flanagan said there had been no prior police contact or referrals to the government's Prevent deradicalisation scheme, and there was "absolutely no evidence that his parents had any knowledge of what he was looking at, what he had become involved in, what his mindset was".

"They didn't realise that he had such a dangerous and toxic interest in extreme right-wing ideology," she added.

(c) Sky News 2026: Neo-Nazi found guilty of planning mass gun attack after being caught in MI5 sting