He was 14 when the online radicalisation began, which his parents were unaware of
Police say Alfie Coleman posed a “lethal threat to the public”(Image: Metropolitan Police)
A senior police officer who investigated an Essex man that was planning a mass gun attack has shared a stark warning to parents. Alfie Coleman was 19 when he was caught by MI5 in an undercover sting, but he was just 14 when his online radicalisation began, police say.
Coleman, from Essex and now 21, was convicted on Thursday (April 30) of planning a mass gun attack. He was thwarted after a joint operation involving police and the intelligence services, which deployed undercover operatives to engage Coleman online as he tried to buy automatic weapons.
Police dramatically swooped to arrest Coleman moments after he picked up a Makarov handgun and ammunition in an east London car park. He was 19 at the time but the process of online radicalisation began five years before, although his parents were unaware.
DCS Flanagan has called for parents to be more vigilant, saying “horrific” terrorist manifestos and other extreme material are just “one click” away. Ms Flanagan said: “Alfie Coleman was dangerous. Clearly he was seeking to get firearms and ammunition.
“His intent was to carry out a terrorist attack. He posed a lethal threat to the public. We were really concerned about his behaviour and luckily with the work that we did with MI5, we were able to manage that threat.”
The Old Bailey trial had heard how Coleman was aged just 14 when he first became interested in extreme right-wing material on the open web. He was heavily influenced by the manifestos of neo-Nazi mass killers whom he idolised as saints and warriors.
Ms Flanagan said: “Unfortunately, we are seeing younger and younger individuals getting radicalised online. Now one in five people that we deal with in counter-terrorism is a child.
“We are seeing more and more referrals to Prevent (the multi-agency programme which aims to stop individuals becoming terrorists) at a younger age. It is a concern for us around young people getting caught into terrorism through the online influence.
“Alfie was 14 when he first started to look at content online and we had concerns about his behaviour. I think where people are living their lives online they’re getting exposed, and there is an awful lot of horrific material online that is influencing young people. So clearly we are keen to intervene at the earliest opportunity to prevent that ideation and radicalisation happening and turning into a real-world threat.”
The officer was keen to point out that extreme material is not just on the dark web but is easily accessible through a simple online search. They said: “I think the perception is that it’s on the dark web and your children aren’t going to be exposed to that, but it’s not, it’s on the open web.
“With a couple of clicks, you can certainly start to see some of that horrific material. And the more you see, obviously with algorithms, the more you’re getting exposed to.”
“It is there available – and available to all our children,” she continued. The accessibility of “manifestos” by the likes of mass killers Anders Breivik, Dylann Roof and Christchurch terrorist Brenton Tarrant remains an “ongoing challenge” for police, she said.
Ms Flanangan said: “We’ve seen those individuals held as warriors, as people that inspire other attacks. He (Coleman) read their manifestos and then created his own manifesto around carrying out an attack. So it’s clearly concerning that we have got individuals that are influenced online and hold these people in such high regard.”
Ms Flanagan said parents and carers should take “basic steps” and initiate conversations with their children to guard against radicalisation. She said: “One click, two clicks to find material. So it’s about understanding what your children are doing and really trying to be quite intrusive with them around what they’ve been exposed to.”
