Neo-Nazi who had 'kill list' of customers and colleagues at Tesco jailed

A neo-Nazi who drew up a "kill list" of customers and colleagues at the Tesco store where he worked and planned a mass gun attack has been jailed for 13-and-a-half years.

Alfie Coleman was just 19 when he was caught in an MI5 sting trying to buy a Makarov semi-automatic pistol, five magazines, and 200 rounds of ammunition, with £3,500 saved from his part-time supermarket job.

The Old Bailey heard he branded some of his former fellow staff and shoppers "race traitors" for having partners who were not white, in a list of people who had "upset him", which featured their number plates.

One entry named a checkout worker, whose husband was mixed race, along with the make and colour of her car, and a description of her as having "short blonde hair with bits of pink in it".

Prosecutors said he believed in an extreme right-wing ideology, which included idolising Adolf Hitler and the likes of Thomas Mair, who murdered the MP Jo Cox in a gun and knife attack in 2016.

A Met Police investigation found Coleman began being radicalised online when he was just 14.

Sentencing Coleman, judge Richard Marks KC said he must be treated as a "dangerous offender", describing his views as "virulently racist".

He told Coleman: "[Giving evidence] you maintained that much of what you had said and the virulently racist views which you expressed were no more than intrusive thoughts and did not represent what you believed in real life.

"It was in effect, although you did not use these words, hyperbole, bravado, fantasy, and you never had any intention to carry out an attack."

Counterterrorism officers said Coleman, from the village of Great Notley, in Essex, was trying to buy automatic weapons, which suggested he planned to carry out a mass shooting, with possible targets including mosques.

He had unwittingly been talking to undercover MI5 agents for months on encrypted messaging apps before he was surrounded by officers armed with Tasers in a Morrisons car park in Stratford on 29 September 2023.

Video footage shows him dropping to his knees and lying flat on the ground being handcuffed in front of shocked shoppers, seconds after he left cash in the front passenger seat footwell of a Land Rover Discovery and collected a holdall from the boot containing the deactivated pistol.

Coleman, now 22, previously pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to possess a prohibited firearm and ammunition, as well as 10 counts of possession of material likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

He denied he was plotting a terror attack and a jury failed to reach a verdict on that charge last year after Coleman said he was now "embarrassed" and "cringing" about the views he expressed. However, Coleman was found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism after a retrial.

He was jailed for 13 and a half years, with a further five years on extended licence.

Commander Helen Flanagan, head of counter terrorism policing London at the Met Police, said: "It is extremely concerning that such a young person was planning to murder innocent members of the public as part of an extreme right wing terrorist plot.

Cmdr Flanagan added: "What is particularly concerning is that Coleman was radicalised online from when he was just 14 years' old, and sadly we're seeing more and more examples of young people and children being drawn into violent extremism and terrorism this way.

"This is why I'm urging parents and carers to make sure that you are aware of what your children are doing online. While it may be difficult, it is vital that you have conversations with them, and if you are still concerned, then contact Action Counters Terrorism (ACT) Early and get in touch, so that they can be steered down a different path before it is too late."

(c) Sky News 2026: Neo-Nazi who had 'kill list' of customers and colleagues at Tesco jailed