‘Ginger hair extremist in plot to kill Charles’

He wanted red-headed Harry as king, court hears

A GINGER-haired extremist accused of plotting a cyanide terror attack wanted to assassinate Prince Charles with a sniper rifle, a court heard yesterday.

Mark Colborne, 37, wrote in his diary that he wanted to ‘take out’ the heir to the throne so that Prince Harry became king, the Old Bailey was told.

‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a military silent rifle, take up a good stealth position and put a bullet in Charles’ head,’ he allegedly wrote. ‘I would sacrifice my life for that one shot. Kill Charles and Prince Harry becomes king... Kill the tyrants and become free from tyrannical future rule.’

In a later entry in May 2012 it is claimed that he wrote: ‘If I had the right weapon, military grade sniper rifle, I would take out Prince Charles and a few others for the sake of the Aryan people.’

Colborne allegedly felt ‘belittled by society’ because of his ginger hair and white skin and compared himself to ‘lone-wolf terrorists’ Anders Breivik, who shot dead 69 people at a youth rally in Norway in 2011, and Timothy McVeigh, the man behind the 1995 Oklahoma bombing, which killed 168.

He had equipment and the ingredients for making cyanide in his bedroom at the home he shared with his mother in Southampton, jurors heard.

Colborne, who suffers from agoraphobia, wrote in his notebook about his hatred for non-Aryans, blacks and black-haired Caucasians. The court was told that in one entry in May 2012 he said he wanted to ‘perform strategic co- ordinated attacks on the tyrants’. The following year he wrote about finding information about making ‘nerve gases as deadly as nukes’.

Colborne added: ‘I’m stuck between ... using a weapon of mass destruction and just targeting tyrants. I have often wanted to smear toxin on their door handles that in time seeps through their skin.’ He also referred to attacking a ‘n*****’ in a park and doing ‘another Stephen Lawrence’.

Colborne’s notes included the boast: ‘I will put a major dent in England – one that is felt around the world.’

He was arrested last June when his half-brother Kevin found the materials and tipped off police. Detectives found a chemical that helped poisons penetrate the skin, the jury was told.

Prosecutor Annabel Darlow QC told the jury: ‘ He clearly experienced a troubled childhood and perceived himself as marginalised and belittled by society because he was a white, ginger-haired male.’

Colborne’s half-brother Kevin said he found items in his brother’s room, including receipts for chemicals that could be used for explosives. He told his mother Patricia and they went to his room. Kevin Colborne said they found a book on poisons and another entitled How to Kill People, with more receipts tucked into the chapter on poisons.

He said he also discovered the diary, which contained ‘ comments about being attacked and abused when younger... and being laughed at and bullied because he was ginger’.

Colborne, of Sholing, Southampton, denies preparing terrorist acts. The trial continues.

‘Put a bullet in his head’