Terror chief’s alert over rise of far-Right fanatics
have even set up “whites only” food banks in some cities to lure in vulnerable homeless men.
Lone wolf Darren Osborne was “brainwashed” by far-Right propaganda before he killed a man by driving a van into worshippers near a London mosque last year.
A heavy drinker and drug abuser, the killer developed a fierce hatred of Muslims “largely due to his consumption of large amounts of online, far-Right material,” the police chief said.
“There can be no doubt that the extremist rhetoric he consumed fed into his vulnerabilities and turned it into violence.”
Osborne was also influenced by the online rants of figures including Tommy Robinson, former leader of the English Defence League, it was said during his trial.
Mr Rowley, who is retiring as Britain’s head of counter-terrorism policing, said Robinson and others are far-Right mouthpieces in the same way that Anjem Choudary was a spokesman for radical Islam.
Choudary inspired several extremists to commit acts of terror, including the two men who butchered soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, south London, in 2013.
Robinson and others are less influential but have the same goals – to undermine communities by spreading fear, hatred and a sense of isolation, Mr Rowley warned.
Neo-Nazi Thomas Mair, 52, killed Labour MP Jo Cox when he ambushed her in his home town of Birstall, West Yorkshire, in 2016.
The oddball loner was found to have pamphlets by another neoNazi group, Britain First. He is serving life and will never be freed.
Mr Rowley said National Action was founded in 2013 and proscribed as a terror group three years later.
Internet companies have faced severe criticism for failing to stem the tide of extremist material online.
North Korea has indicated it is open to holding talks with President Donald Trump. The news came after a ground-breaking Winter Olympic Games saw athletes from North and South Korea march together in a spectacular closing ceremony.
The US says any dialogue must have North Korea’s nuclear disarmament as the end goal.