London - A man who likened himself to Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik and fantasised about assassinating Prince Charles has been convicted of plotting a terrorist attack from his bedroom on behalf of “the Aryan people”.
Mark Colborne, 37, from Southampton, had made notes in his diary detailing his plan to kill the heir to the throne using a silent, high-powered sniper rifle, a jury at the Old Bailey in London was told.
His plot was uncovered by his half-brother, who found chemicals and papers detailing his racial hatred stashed in his bedroom at the family home.
The jury convicted him of preparing terrorist acts by a majority after it emerged that he had made notes from internet sources including The Terrorist Handbook, The Complete Improvised Kitchen and The Jolly Roger Cookbook, which gave instructions on how to make viable explosives.
The court heard that he had written in his notebook: “I don't want to be a serial killer. I'm more of an Anders Breivik. I have left potential targets open. I was waiting for an opportunity to kill one of them. Let it be Prince Charles which would be good.”
Writing of his wish to obtain a “silent rifle” to carry out the assassination, he added: “Take up a good position and put a bullet in Charles's head. He is protected but not too protected. I would sacrifice my life for that one shot. Kill Charles and William and Harry become king. Kill the tyrants.”
Colborne also possessed books with titles including Assorted Nasties, Silent Death and The Poor Man's James Bond, which contained recipes for the production and delivery systems of lethal poisons such as cyanide, jurors were told.
He bought ingredients to make cyanide over the internet and had stockpiled dust masks, metal filter funnels, plastic syringes and latex gloves by the time of his arrest on 3 June last year.
However, they rejected allegations that he had intended to use the chemicals and other paraphernalia as part of a terror plot.
The court heard that Colborne felt alienated and “belittled” for being a white, ginger-haired man and was also suffering from agoraphobia and depression. In his defence, he admitted buying the chemicals and writing the diary, but said his entries were merely “angry rants” prompted by him being off medication for depression.
“Fantasies about killing people as a hitman - that was my number-one fantasy. Terrorism fantasies were sort of subsidiary but my main interest in being a professional hitman had taken over,” he said.
However, prosecutor Annabel Darlow QC said Colborne's notes also revealed his hatred for “non-Aryans”, who he referred to as “blacks and Caucasian idiots”. Comparing himself to other right-wing extremists such as Breivik, he wrote: “I'm looking for major retribution, a mass terrorist attack which will bring to the attention our pain not just mine but my brothers around the world.”
Colborne was arrested after his half-brother Kevin discovered a bundle of receipts for chemicals as he was preparing to do some decorating at the family home in Southampton.
Telling their mother, Patricia, what he had found, the pair went into Colborne's “extremely cluttered” bedroom and uncovered an assortment of chemicals, his racist notes, the books and other equipment and called the police.
Colborne had faced a retrial after a jury failed to agree a verdict in May. At the second trial, the jury reached a verdict by a majority of 10 to two after more than 14 hours of deliberations. Colborne made no reaction in the dock as the verdict was delivered. Adjourning sentencing until 3 November, Judge John Bevan QC said: “It is a very strange case involving, if I may say it, a very strange person.”
The Independent