How MI5 foiled a Tesco worker's plan for mass gun attack

When Alfie Coleman collected a gun and 188 rounds of ammunition from the boot of a Land Rover, his fantasy was within touching distance.

To the outside world, he presented as a normal teenager who enjoyed gaming and worked at his local Tesco supermarket in Great Notley, Essex.

But he was also a white supremacist who, behind the closed door of his bedroom, had been plotting to use explosives, knives and a gun to cause mass terror – which included targeting the home of the Lord Mayor of London.

Coleman has been convicted of preparing terrorist acts following a retrial at the Old Bailey, after jurors in his first trial failed to secure a verdict.

How close did he come to executing his plan?

One month into the UK's Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, Coleman, then 15, saved a document to his iPad.

It was a copy of a book written by an American neo-Nazi in the 1980s.

While not illegal to own, it was the first in a series of texts that appeared to radicalise the teenager.

By November 2021, Coleman possessed 10 illegal documents of terrorist material.

They included guides to explosives and "silent killing", one of which featured a paragraph on how to use a garrote.

Meanwhile, Coleman was retreating deeper into his bedroom, cutting contact with his family and friends in self-imposed isolation accelerated by the pandemic.

But online, he was much more forthcoming.

"[I am] a 17-year-old proud white European," he wrote in an email, applying to join white supremacist movement Patriotic Alternative in July 2021.

He told the far-right group he "would like to start participating in activism" and attached a photograph to prove his white ethnicity.

After 11 further months of research, Coleman began the first draft of his plan for a terror attack.

Writing in the notes section of his phone, he entitled it "Collapse" and identified his target: the "Mayor of London house".

It outlined the recipe for an explosive and concluded with a list of "weapons I can get easily", listing knives and crossbows.

A week on – the day before his 18th birthday – Coleman researched "most advanced weapons used by terrorists".

Further notes, discovered by police after his arrest, showed his mentality at the time.

In one called "The List", he identified people police thought he may have intended to kill, including a Tesco colleague he deemed to be a "race traitor" for marrying a man who was not white.

Another detailed a plan on how to hijack a plane.

Prosecutor Nicholas de la Poer KC told the jury Coleman was "seething with hatred on the inside".

But asked about the list in court, Coleman said it was simply of "people who weren't nice to me".

In July 2023 – two months before his arrest – Coleman appeared to turn his attention to purchasing a firearm, using money he had saved from his part-time job.

He withdrew £6,000 from his bank account and filmed himself counting some of it to prove to sellers he was serious.

Yet it was his searches on encrypted messaging platforms that began to undo his plot, leading him to both police and MI5 agents operating undercover online.

Posting on "arms traffic" group chats, he said: "Original iron needed (automatic, if u have) pm me asap" – stressing his desire for an automatic weapon.

He also discussed Dylann Roof and Anders Breivik – both neo-Nazis who carried out mass killings – with a covert police officer.

In other messages, he glorified far-right extremist Thomas Mair, who murdered the Batley and Spen Labour MP, Jo Cox, in 2016.

"What about Jo Cox? These [people] are not gods everyone bleeds no matter who you are," Coleman wrote.

He criticised others who did not agree with his views, adding: "I'm sick and tired of people not wanting to do what must be done."

Coleman initially chose France as his target, agreeing to meet another undercover officer in Reims to purchase two guns and full magazines for both.

Despite researching flights, logistical reasons led to him abandoning the plan – but not the overarching plot. Instead, London became one of the desired targets.

Returning to the notes section on his phone on 31 August 2023, Coleman penned his manifesto.

"Peace and love? Try war and hate," he wrote.

"It's time to tribe up, find your brothers, train and finally, attack."

By this point, police say his family had no idea where his thinking was leading, as he became a loner who had largely withdrawn from his parents and sibling.

Having analysed Coleman's computer, officers believe his interest in right-wing ideology began at the age of 14.

The location he wanted to attack was never confirmed by police, but detectives say he searched for a mosque online and they were confident he planned to hurt members of the public.

On 15 September 2023, Coleman contacted a user on an encrypted messaging app, who put him in touch with someone selling a Makarov pistol.

They struck a £3,500 deal for the Soviet semi-automatic gun and 188 rounds of 9mm (0.35in) ammunition, with Coleman boasting "we will be folk heroes for the rest of eternity".

Two days before he was due to pick it up, he wrote: "Something has gotta be done, how long can we sit here and talk over the internet."

He ordered a knife with a 4.8in (12cm) blade online and, on the morning of 29 September, by then aged 19, boarded a train to Stratford, east London.

Following instructions provided by an undercover MI5 agent, he walked to a Land Rover in a Morrisons car park and swapped a bag full of cash for the firearm and ammunition, stashed in the boot.

It was a bold step by officers to allow a man seeking a weapon for a terror attack to hold one.

Yet within seconds, the game was up.

Shocked shoppers watched as armed police swarmed, forcing Coleman to the ground as they arrested him.

It was the culmination of months of work and led officers to make further discoveries at Coleman's family home in Tailors Close, a quiet road on a leafy newbuild estate in the village of Great Notley, near Braintree.

They found knives, a rock with a swastika on it and equipment for detecting hidden cameras and listening devices, as well as a stash of posters linked to the far-right.

But despite his imprisonment awaiting trial, police still remained concerned about Coleman's state of mind.

During a search of his cell at HMP Bullingham while he was awaiting trial in December 2023, prison staff found a note he had written.

Coleman wrote: "Despite all this I remain steadfast in my duties to my people and above all to secure the existence of my people and a future for white children."

It was a reference to "The 14 Words", considered the most popular white supremacist slogan in the world.

Appearing before the Old Bailey, Coleman admitted possessing a firearm, ammunition and 10 offences of having a document useful to terrorism.

On Thursday, he was found guilty of preparing to carry out an attack.

Police said Coleman's case was an acute example of a growing threat to young people posed by far-right groups using the internet to organise, indoctrinate and recruit.

Cdr Helen Flanagan, head of counter-terrorism policing in London, said: "He lived in a normal family [and had a] normal education.

"He was like any other child, any other teenager, who was spending a lot of time online behind closed doors.

"Sadly, living in that world, he was able to radicalise himself and be overexposed to a significant amount of influence in the extreme right wing."

Additional reporting by Neil Henderson

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