Far-right extremists jailed for terror plots

Three Nazi-worshipping extremists convicted of terrorism crimes have been jailed.

Christopher Ringrose, 34, Marco Pitzettu, 25, and Brogan Stewart, 25, were convicted of planning terrorist attacks on mosques and synagogues in May.

Stewart, from West Yorkshire, was sentenced to 11 years in prison, Ringrose, from Staffordshire, to 10 years and Pitzettu, from Derbyshire, to eight years.

Sentencing them at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, Mrs Justice Cutts said she believed they all remained committed to their far-right ideology.

The judge told how the online group to which the trio belonged had prepared an attack on an Islamic education center in Leeds before being arrested by counter-terrorism police.

During the trial, it emerged that the men, who are not believed to have met in the real world before appearing in court, were preparing to use more than 200 weapons they had accumulated, including machetes, swords, crossbows and illegal stun guns.

Ringrose had also 3D printed many of the components of a semi-automatic firearm.

Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC said the three defendants were “followers of far-right Nazi ideology” and described themselves as an armed military group.

Mr Sandiford said they were looking for more staff by 2024 and hoped to obtain more lethal weapons.

He said they planned their first attack in January and February and identified a target in Leeds who harbored “intent to commit extremist acts involving the murder of multiple victims”.

The three men were arrested after security services believed an attack was imminent after undercover police infiltrated their online group.

The jury rejected allegations that the defendants were delusional people who did not intend to carry out their threats and found all three guilty of charges of preparing to commit acts of terrorism and collecting information that would be useful to a person preparing or carrying out a terrorist act.

Ringrose was also found guilty of producing a prohibited weapon.