close
close
mathshare

Far-right extremist who inspired mass shootings arrested in England and UK

Pirineus
Far-right extremist who inspired mass shootings arrested in England and UK

Colin McNeil, a 46-year-old Leeds resident, was sentenced to seven years in prison for terrorism offences at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced.

McNeil ran websites that glorified Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and neo-Nazis, as well as contemporary racist mass murderers including Brenton Tarrant, who was responsible for the murder of 51 people in and around Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019.

The CPS said that while McNeil did not produce the material, he created a well-known platform for it to be spread among “terrorist-inclined” people.

McNeil’s websites were so well-known that the CPS alleged they helped inspire 18-year-old Payton Gendron to murder 10 people in a mass shooting at a US supermarket in 2022. Investigators confirmed that Gendron liked content on the site and left racist comments.

In addition to expressing his own racist beliefs, McNeil used the site to raise donations from some of the site’s 18,061 members.

A man is detained after a mass shooting in the parking lot of TOPS supermarket, in a still image from a social media video in Buffalo. (Credit: Courtesy of BigDawg/ via REUTERS)

Hundreds of thousands of photos and videos were uploaded to the sites, and members could contribute material for a fee of $50.

McNeil pleaded guilty to four counts of disseminating a terrorist publication at Sheffield Crown Court on April 11, 2024, and was sentenced on Friday to seven years in prison.

Bethan David, head of the CPS’s Counter Terrorism Division, said: “Colin McNeil allowed his websites to operate as propaganda platforms for far-right terrorist material.

“He profited from the sites in the form of donations from users, and it is clear that others were inspired by the hateful and racist material they were able to access online – including those from overseas.

“McNeil’s actions were quite deliberate; he was well aware that there was a risk of terrorism being encouraged and yet he allowed access to such material.

“The CPS will always seek to prosecute those who encourage terrorism when our legal test is met.”



Related Posts