Teenage neo-Nazi who planned attack on synagogue jailed for eight years
14 June 2024, 16:28
A teenager from Brighton who created a detailed plan to carry out a suicide bomb attack on a synagogue has been jailed eight years.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Mason Reynolds, 19, from Moulscoomb was convicted of possession of an article connected with the preparation of an act of terrorism against Hove Synagogue in East Sussex.
At the time, he had been studying bricklaying and roofing while doing part-time labouring roof on the side.
He lived with his parents and was described as leading “in many ways, a not untypical existence of a young man in his late teens".
The defendant had shared right-wing videos and possessed bomb instruction manuals, Winchester Crown Court heard.
The 19-year-old had annotated a Google street map and satellite image of the synagogue detailing "entry points and points to attack”, the court also heard.
Naomi Parsons, prosecuting, said: "Whilst preparation is described as limited, it is not absent, for Mr Reynolds had a neo-Nazi mindset and he had prepared an extensive library of manuals, explosives manuals, gun-making manuals.”
She added: "There was the potential to endanger many lives, he included references to the days when the the synagogue would be busiest, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Passover."
Ms Parsons continued: "He had an entrenched and violent neo-Nazi mindset and had expressed an intention to commit terrorist acts.
Read more: Killer dad-of-two jailed for 13 years after beating 'bragging' serial paedophile to death
She also said that Reynolds used the Telegram social media site to encourage others with his "propaganda channel to promote the neo-Nazi agenda" and he posted that he wanted to "make Jews afraid again".
Reynolds also pleaded guilty to guilty to five counts of possessing material likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, as well as five offences of sharing terrorist publications dating back to when he was aged 16.
The judge, Mrs Justice May, told him that she considered him as "dangerous" and added: "You intended to encourage terrorism, this was propaganda pure and simple."
A Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) spokesman said that Reynolds had "praised attacks by far-right terrorists".
He added: "Reynolds created a note detailing a plan to attack a synagogue in Hove.
"Following a police search of his home, various devices were found which had been used to store or share material, including an iPhone and USB drives.
"He was also found to be the administrator of a Telegram channel which shared far right extremist, anti-Semitic and racist views, as well as manuals on bomb building and how to 3D print firearms."
