LONDON
A Nazi sympathizer who planned to blow up mosques in the UK has been jailed for 10 years.
Ian Forman, 42, was branded "evil" by a judge at Kingston Crown Court on Thursday after a jury found him guilty of planning to explode bombs packed with nails and ball bearings at two mosques in Merseyside, Liverpool.
Forman was arrested after work colleagues alerted police that he had been researching dangerous chemicals on the internet at the glass recycling factory where he worked as a receptionist.
Forman, who is married but was separated from his wife at the time of the offences, had expressed racist views at work to his work colleagues and posted comments on YouTube about “mosques lighting up the sky”.
He had dubbed as "targets" the Wirral Islamic Centre and Penny Lane Mosque in Liverpool.
Police searched his house in Birkenhead and found a stockpile of potassium nitrate, sulphur and charcoal as well as a home-made explosive device.
- Explosives experiments
Forman, who had filmed himself playing computer games while wearing a Nazi uniform, had denied the charges under the 2006 Terrorism Act and claimed that his research was for his hobby of making homemade fireworks.
The court also heard that Forman had also filmed himself experimenting with explosives.
Judge Paul Dodgson said: "You are someone who has held extreme right-wing views for a number of years.
"A number of your messages express your admiration for Adolf Hitler - an admiration that led you to have parts of an SS uniform in your bedroom and, as you told the court, you intended in due course to obtain a mannequin so the uniform could be displayed in full.
- 'Evil thoughts'
"On occasions you have provoked understandable anger and disgust from people who have seen the material that you put on sites such as YouTube, which gave vent to your extreme opinions.
Judge Dodgson went on: “The defendant had, in my judgment, very extreme and evil thoughts - I think the word 'evil' is appropriate.
Detective Sergeant Matt Findell said after sentencing, "Thankfully, we will never know how far Forman was prepared to go in acting out his racist fantasies.
"However, we do know that Forman had carefully selected a number of targets to meet his own means.
"Had he carried them out, his attacks could have caused considerable damage to both property and people at several mosques."
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