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Three neo-Nazi extremists who amassed an arsenal of more than 200 weapons and were planning terrorist attacks on mosques and synagogues in England have been jailed for between eight and 11 years.
Christopher Ringrose, 35, Marco Pitzettu, 26, and Brogan Stewart, 25, communicated online and formed a group with, a jury heard, “like-minded extremists” who wanted to “go to war for their chosen cause”.
A nine-week trial at Sheffield crown court heard how the trio idolised Hitler and the Nazis, used racist slurs, glorified mass murderers and encouraged violence against anyone deemed an enemy.
The three men, who were not believed to have met in real life until they appeared together in the dock of a court, were arrested when security services believed an attack was imminent. It came after undercover officers infiltrated their online group.
A jury rejected defence claims that the men were fantasists with no intention of carrying out their threats.
On Friday, a high court judge, Ms Justice Cutts, jailed Stewart for 11 years, Ringrose for 10 years and Pitzettu for eight years.
She said she believed all three men continued to adhere to their extreme rightwing ideology.
At the two-day sentencing hearing, the prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC said the three defendants were “followers of an extreme rightwing Nazi ideology”.
He said: “They justified, encouraged and glorified serious violence against and killing of persons of other races [who were] effectively seen as inferior and unworthy of human dignity or indeed life.
“On more than one occasion, each of the defendants expressed hatred for and desire and willingness to engage in serious violence against people they perceived as enemies of their cause.”
Sandiford said they each showed an interest in material depicting mass killings and by 2024 had acquired a large cache of weapons capable of inflicting serious violence.
The trial heard that the arsenal included machetes, hunting knives, swords, axes, crossbows, body armour, a stun gun and a baseball bat.
Ringrose had also 3D-printed most of the components of a semi-automatic firearm at the time of his arrest and was trying to obtain the remaining parts.
Sandiford said the men were actively seeking to acquire more deadly weapons including improvised explosives.
The men, believing a race war was imminent, discussed targets for harassment and attacks, including mosques, Islamic education centres and synagogues.
The trial heard that the trio identified an Islamic centre in Leeds to attack and discussed abducting and torturing an imam, the route they would take, how they would avoid detection and their escape.
Stewart styled himself as the “Führer” and laid down uniform rules for members to be dressed in Nazi-style clothing.
He called the group Einsatz 14, referencing Nazi paramilitary death squads, and appointed Pitzettu and Ringrose as “armourers”.
An undercover officer called Blackheart was appointed as the “Obergruppenführer” in the group, jurors heard.
During the trial Sandiford said that when Blackheart asked Stewart about the group’s ideology, the defendant replied: “Personally, I’ve taken inspiration from the SS” adding “I also hope that we can extort political rivals and potentially plan operations to meet migrants landing on our beaches and deal with them.
“As the race war comes to unfold, I’d expect members to stand by, wait for orders and deploy to combat.”
Ringrose, of Cannock, Pitzettu, of Derby, and Stewart, of Tingley, West Yorkshire, were found guilty of a charge of preparing acts of terrorism and charges of collecting information likely to be useful to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism.
Ringrose was also convicted of manufacturing a prohibited weapon. Pitzettu pleaded guilty to obtaining an illegal stun gun at a previous hearing.
After the sentencing, the head of counter-terrorism policing north east, DCS James Dunkerley, said: “Stewart, Pitzettu and Ringrose have rightfully been convicted of multiple terrorism offences, and I welcome their sentence today.
“They were a group that espoused vile racist views and advocated for violence, all to support their extreme rightwing 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.”
Bethan David, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s counter-terrorism division, said: “These extremists were plotting violent acts of terrorism against synagogues, mosques and an Islamic education centre. By their own admission, they were inspired by SS tactics and supremacist ideology.
“Had Christopher Ringrose managed to completely finish building the 3D printed semi-automatic firearm that he had started to, it could have been used leading to devastating consequences.”
