Glorification of terror acts ends with jail

A“despicable” man who glorified terrorist acts by mass murderers online and encouraged terrorism has been jailed for seven and a half years.

Sam Imrie was convicted of two charges under separate Terrorism Acts and six other charges after trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in October.

He posted online statements suggesting he was going to livestream video of “an incident” and posted footage pretending he had set fire to an Islamic centre.

The 24-year-old, from Glenrothes, Fife, also posted on social media platform Telegram and Facebook glorifying acts by convicted terrorists Anders Breivik, Brenton Tarrant and others.

Imrie, who had a photo of Hitler as his screensaver, also made offensive comments about Muslims and Jews, and uttered racial remarks which the charge stated he did with the intention of encouraging acts of terrorism.

Sentencing Imrie at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, Lord Mulholland said he was “spreading hate” and told him to use his time in jail to “remove hatred from your heart”.

Between June 20 and July 4 2019 Imrie also had information of a kind “likely to be useful” to someone preparing an act of terrorism, namely copies of The Great Replacement by Tarrant, who killed 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in 2019, and a manifesto by Breivik, who killed 77 people in two attacks in Norway in 2011.

He was also convicted of possessing pornography including indecent images of children and one of a corpse, of setting fires and driving while unfit due to drink or drugs.

Lord Mulholland said that Imrie revered white supremacists and referred to terrorists as heroes, lauding their kill counts of innocent people.

He added: “You were spreading hate and encouraging others to take terrorist action.

“Your conduct was despicable. You have no understanding or self awareness of the hate you sought to spread.

“Walk around any city, town or village and you will quickly find memorials to people of this country who gave their lives defending the freedoms you enjoy.”

He placed Imrie on the sex offenders register for 10 years and imposed a fiveyear serious crime prevention order which will start upon his release.

Imrie will also be subject to terrorism notification requirements for 15 years.

Jurors heard devices in his bedroom had images of sexual activity with mutilated women.

LOCKED UP: Sam Imrie revered Hitler and pretended to set fire to an Islamic centre.