LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) – A British army chef who was motivated by an extreme right-wing ideology was jailed for nearly four years on Wednesday after he was arrested with a homemade gun and explosives.
Mark Broadhurst, 28, was arrested at his barracks in September 2024 after police discovered online messages espousing racist views, his desire to form a militia and his intention to create homemade firearms and sell them to right-wing groups.
He was in a Telegram group with three other men who last year were jailed for a combined total of 29 years for planning to carry out a terrorist attack at mosques or synagogues as part of what they believed to be a coming “race war”.
When Broadhurst was arrested, police found knives and crossbows, black powder, 9mm ammunition and air pistols at his home address, as well as what police described as “an improvised homemade cannon”.
Broadhurst pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and making or possessing an explosive under suspicious circumstances, though he denied he possessed them for the purposes of terrorism.
But a judge ruled that Broadhurst’s offences were connected to terrorism and he was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court to three years and 10 months in prison.
“Mark Broadhurst was clearly interested in violence and developing weapons that had the ability to cause untold harm to innocent people,” Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said.
“He was immersed in extremist material and maintained close contact with three now-convicted terrorists inspired by SS tactics and supremacist ideology over a prolonged period.”
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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