Far-Right fanatics ‘trying to make 3D-printed guns for deadly attacks’
FAR-RIGHT extremists are increasingly trying to obtain guns or make their own 3D-printed firearms at home to carry out deadly attacks, the head of MI5 warned yesterday.
Director General Ken McCallum revealed children as young as 13 were being drawn into terrorism by a ‘confused soup of hate’ online spread by ‘Right-wing ‘extremist influencers’.
Mr McCallum said the spy agency was concerned about the growth in farRight attempts to buy ‘firearms in particular, whether illegally obtained, homemade or 3D-printed’.
He warned: ‘From the comfort of their bedrooms, individuals are easily able to access Right-wing extremist spaces, network with each other and move towards a radical mindset. Often weapons are sought for their own sake, well in advance of any specific targeting intent developing – making for difficult risk management judgments and forcing early intervention.’
Last October, an 18-year-old neo-Nazi who plotted to shoot a friend was jailed for more than 11 years. Matthew Cronjager, from Essex, tried to get hold of a 3D-printed gun or a sawn-off shotgun to kill an Asian boy for having sex with white girls.
Earlier this year, a case against a 16-year-old girl accused of possessing instructions on how to make a gun using a 3D printer was dropped after the Home Office decided she was a victim of modern slavery.
The schoolgirl from Derbyshire had developed a fixation with Hitler at the age of 14. One fellow student claimed she was ‘getting to the point where she wants to kill someone in school or blow up a Jewish place of worship’.
Mr McCallum said there had been a switch away from ‘structured, realworld groups such as National Action to a diffuse online threat’ promoted by extremist influencers. In his annual threat assessment, he revealed police and MI5 had foiled eight late-stage terror plots in the last year.