A former Ukip member and British army employee has been found guilty of a range of terror and explosive charges.
Dean Morrice ran a Telegram channel that prosectors said had “unapologetically, unambiguously pumped out” neo-Nazi propaganda that encouraged the killing of people of colour and Jewish people.
The 34-year-old was found to have a stockpile of chemicals used in homemade explosives as well as a cache of terrorism manuals and instructions for a 3D-printed gun when his home was raided in August last year.
On Thursday a jury at Kingston crown court convicted him of 10 counts related to terrorism and explosives, all of which he had denied. They were two counts of having an explosive substance, three counts of dissemination of a terrorist publication, one of encouraging terrorism and four of possession of a document useful for terrorist purposes.
Morrice, who told police after his arrest that it was clear they were worried he was “the next Christchurch shooter”, was remanded in custody to be sentenced on Monday.
A previous hearing was told that Morrice made a video of himself strumming along on a guitar to footage of the 2019 terror attacks on mosques in the New Zealand city, in which 51 people were killed. In an alleged video tribute to the killer that was posted online, the court heard, Morrice wore a skull mask and appeared against the backdrop of a picture of a black sun – iconography associated with neo-Nazis.
The court also heard details of Morrice’s political beliefs, which he discussed in interviews with the police. He told them he had undergone “an awakening” when Nigel Farage, the then Ukip leader, was involved in an air crash in 2010. At other points he claimed that he was apolitical, but he also said he sympathised with some elements of an ethnicity-based “ethno-nationalism”. Morrice had been a member of Ukip but left some years ago, the trial was told.
He admitted holding “fascist and neo-Nazi views” but said he did not believe in “committing acts of violence towards ethnic or religious groups” and did not want to encourage terrorism.
The police raid found 1kg of carbon, 1kg of potassium nitrate and 500g of sulphur in his garage – enough ingredients to make 1.3kg of gunpowder. Officers also found 500kg of aluminium metal powder, 500kg of iron oxide in the garage and 25g of magnesium ribbon in the kitchen, which would make 680kg of thermite.
Police found stored on his mobile phone a manual about how to make a gun and a document called “Poor Man’s RPG” about making explosives.
The prosecutor, Naomi Parsons, told the jury that while it was not illegal to hold neo-Nazi views, Morrice‘s conduct “crossed the line into terrorism”.
