LONDON (Reuters) -Three British right-wing extremists were jailed for a total of 29 years on Friday after they were convicted of planning to carry out an attack at mosques or synagogues as part of what they believed to be a coming “race war”.
Brogan Stewart, 25, Marco Pitzettu, 26, and Christopher Ringrose, 35, were preparing an act of terrorism when they were arrested in February 2024, prosecutors said at their trial.
The trio were also each charged with two counts of collecting information which may be useful to someone preparing an act of terrorism, while Ringrose was charged with manufacturing a component for a 3D-printed firearm.
They pleaded not guilty but jurors at Sheffield Crown Court convicted them of all charges in May.
Judge Johannah Cutts jailed Stewart, who prosecutors said played a leading role, for 11 years. Ringrose was jailed for 10 years and Pitzettu for eight years.
Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford had told jurors that the three defendants expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and perpetrators of notorious terrorist attacks, as well as hatred for non-white people, especially Muslims and immigrants.
“It was their belief that there must soon come a time when there would be a race war between the white and other races,” Sandiford said.
Among hundreds of messages sent by the trio, including in a Telegram group called “Einsatz 14”, the defendants discussed executing then-prime minister Rishi Sunak and torturing imams.
Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said in a statement that the trio “espoused vile racist views and advocated for violence, all to support their extreme right-wing mindset”.
“Some of their defence in court was that it was all fantasy or just part of harmless chat, however all three took real world steps to plan and prepare for carrying out an attack on innocent citizens,” Dunkerley added.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by William James)
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