Man accused of terror plot 'isolated by Covid'

A supermarket worker accused of preparing terrorist acts has told a jury about his "vulnerable" and "isolated" state during Covid lockdown measures.

Alfie Coleman, 21, from Great Notley, Essex, was arrested in 2023 after attempting to buy a gun from an MI5 operative he thought was a fellow extremist, the Old Bailey in London heard.

Prosecutors allege Coleman, who denies the charge, was a far-right "militant accelerationist" who believed in fighting a race war.

Jurors heard claims that Coleman, who was 19 at the time of his arrest, was a neo-Nazi who had compiled a list of so-called "race traitors".

They have also heard how the teenager had immersed himself "in an extreme-right wing world while looking to arm himself with weapons openly advertised on the internet, such as knives".

But questioned by his counsel Martin Rutherford KC, he told the jury his arrest had come after lockdown, when he had found himself distanced from society.

Coleman agreed he had become fascinated by guns and that he had drawn a diagram featuring many kinds of weapons shortly after his arrest.

He admitted his knowledge of guns at that time had been "pretty advanced".

Asked if he had wanted to make explosives, he replied that he was "familiar with the fundamental principles but I wouldn't have known exactly how".

He denied wanting to make them, telling the court: "I thought they were pretty cool but never went further than thinking that."

Coleman agreed that in 2021 he had tried to join the far-right group Patriotic Alternative, but never actually did.

He told the Old Bailey that the "community aspect" of the group and an opportunity to socialise was "what appealed to me".

Asked what he was doing in 2021 and 2022, he said: "I was very isolated, I guess, and spending a lot of screen time."

Coleman described the race traitors document he had compiled as being "a list of people who, where I worked, were very rude to me".

He said: "I'd become pretty desensitised, which is why there wasn't much thought to it at the time."

He said he planned to do "nothing" to the people listed in the document.

Jurors were also shown a picture of Coleman wearing a skull head face mask with a death's head flag pinned to a wall in the background.

Coleman said the image was a selfie that he had not sent to anyone and was a result of him "fooling around".

The trial continues.

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