TERRORISM MANUALS ‘FOUND ON FAR-RIGHT STUDENT’S COMPUTER’
FILES INCLUDED INFORMATION ON MAKING WEAPONRY
POLICE found terrorism manuals on the computer of a student said to be an admirer of Hitler, writes Suzy Gibson.
Ben John had downloaded more than 67,000 files from the internet, including manuals describing how to make weaponry, ammunition and explosives, on or before January 7 last year.
After police searched his then student flat in Saxby Street, Leicester, John was arrested and charged with seven counts of possessing a record containing information useful to terrorism – which he had denied ahead of the first day of his trial at Leicester Crown Court.
Ben Lloyd, prosecuting, said: “For good reason the law makes it a criminal offence to possess material that could be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. The prosecution do not say this defendant was actively making plans to commit a terrorist act.”
John admitted downloading the 67,788 files and documents, some of which were on lawful topics, but claimed the literature on ammunition and guns was for research. He also claims he did not read all the information and was unaware of the content of some of the files.
The trial continues.
TERRORIST manuals were found on a student’s computer after police raided his flat.
Ben John, who is said to hold extreme right-wing views and be an admirer of Adolf Hitler, had downloaded more than 67,000 files from the internet, including manuals featuring how to make weaponry, ammunition and explosives, on or before January 7 last year.
He had come to the attention of counter-terrorism staff from the govenment’s Prevent strategy twice in 2018, but on both occasions investigators decided to close the case.
However, police searched his then student flat in Saxby Street, Leicester, where they seized a number of electronic devices and three hard disk drives that were digitally forensically examined.
John was arrested and charged with seven counts of possessing a record containing information useful to terrorism, which he had denied ahead of the first day of his trial at Leicester Crown Court.
Ben Lloyd, prosecuting, said: “For good reason the law makes it a criminal offence to possess material that could be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
“It is perhaps obvious but we don’t want those with such aims or plans to have easy access to information that could help them, for example instructions on making weapons, ammunition or explosives.
“I make it clear at the outset: the prosecution do not say this defendant was actively making plans to commit a terrorist act.
“No doubt he would be charged with other offences if he had such plans.
“At the very least he was fascinated by extreme right-wing views. In fact, the prosecution says the material you will consider in this case shows he shared those views and beliefs himself.
“Such views can include believing white people are superior to other races, believing that mass migration from the non-white world presents a threat to the white population, subscribing to antisemitism.
“There’s material to show the defendant admired Nazism and Adolf Hitler.
“I make one other thing clear – the holding of these views is not a crime.
“However, it is an offence to be in possession of terrorist material that could be useful, for example, to a terrorist plotting an attack.”
John admitted downloading the 67,788 files and documents, some of which were on lawful topics, but claimed the literature on ammunition and guns was for research after an online dispute on the topic.
He also claims that he did not read all the information he downloaded and was unaware of the content of some of the files.
Mr Lloyd said: “The prosecution says it is clear the defendant carefully and knowingly obtained and stored this material.
“He was methodical in how it came to be curated and he was something of a careful librarian.
“It’s untenable to suggest he did not know he had the material or what the nature of it was.”
Defence barrister, Harry Bentley, said some files relating to the charges were created with about 9,000 others, including sub-folders within folders, on April 18, 2019, and on August 16, that year.
But it was unclear if or when they were viewed, because the defendant’s computer had been overwritten by a new operating system on December 5, 2019, a month before his arrest.
The trial continues.