A crazed English Defence League supporter from Rowley Regis has been jailed for brandishing an air rifle as he shouted racial abuse at a Muslim family’s home.

Neighbours of the Muslim family were terrified after seeing Shaun Havelin, aged 28, screaming and shouting racial taunts with the gun whilst wearing an EDL sweater.

The incident was sparked after an argument with his mother at her Warley Hall Road in which he shook his beloved sweater in her face and said: “I want to die in this.” He then charged round to the Muslim’s family’s house in a nearby street not realising they were not at home.

Continue reading →

A teenage neo-Nazi accused of plotting a “new Columbine” brought a gun into college and pulled out knives in the middle of a lesson, the Old Bailey heard (Tues). The 16-year-old English Defence League supporter bragged about getting a machete for his birthday and making bombs in his bedroom, it is said.

One college pal said the teenager once pulled a large knife out of his trench coat pocket and told him “look at this”. Two weeks later, he brandished three knives in class when the teacher left the room, it is alleged. “He took me right to the bottom of the corridor and showed me this really long knife”, said the defendant’s fellow student. “It was in his trench coat, he had a massive pocket. He just goes: ‘Look at this’, then he put it back.”

He told jurors the teenager pulled out a knife from his boot and two other small blades when challenged by other students. “People were saying why don’t you get your knife out, the teacher was not in the room at the time”, he said. “He got them out in his hand on the table, from under the desk. He pulled one out of his boot, and he showed me all three.”

The boy, who is now 17 and cannot be named, is on trial accused of plotting a terrorist attack using weapons, homemade bombs, and explosives he had stockpiled in his bedroom. He allegedly planned a Columbine-style massacre at his former school in Loughborough, Leicestershire, and wanted to attack the council offices, a local cinema, and Loughborough University.

The court has heard the Nazi and EDL-obsessed teen had threatened to shoot and stab fellow college students, and had drawn up a list of targets for his attack in a notebook.

Continue reading →

The science teacher of a teenager accused of planning a repeat of the Columbine massacre told a court the boy asked him which gun he would prefer to be shot with. The 17-year-old, who can not be named for legal reasons, also asked for advice from the chemistry teacher about making explosives and told him he wanted to “blow up a mosque,” the Old Bailey heard.

The teacher, who can not be named, told the jury his former pupil looked at firearms on the internet while at school and referred to weapons used in the Columbine high school shootings in Colorado, in which 13 innocent people were killed. “He was encouraging me to look at the guns and make some sort of judgment about whether it was a good gun,” the teacher said. “He asked me which gun I would prefer to be shot with. The message – which I took as an empty threat at the time – was he was considering a shooting.”

The teacher told the court that the student would launch “tirades” against particular religions, aiming his abuse mainly at the Muslim and Jewish faiths, as well as targeting a pupil with German grandparents. “There were many instances of defiance and instances of racial abuse,” he said. “Instances of racism, tirades – long, drawn out – which were frankly painful to listen to. He seemed to believe that people of the Muslim religion did not have a place in this country.”

Continue reading →

A 16-year-old neo-Nazi plotted a Columbine-inspired school massacre using pipe bombs, knives, and a crossbow, the Old Bailey heard today (Weds).

The English Defence League supporter stockpiled homemade bombs, terrorist manuals, and an array of weapons as he planned attacks on his former school and the college where he was studying for his A-Levels.

He kept a notebook of potential targets, including the local mosque, REEL cinema, Loughborough University and council offices, and dubbed plans for an armed assault on his former school as “the new Columbine”, it is said.

Inspired by the violent Nick Cave film Outlaw and Heath Ledger’s portrayal of Batman nemesis the Joker in The Dark Knight, the teen allegedly drew up a list of teachers and pupils he wanted to murder.

He scrawled the mantra “When order fails, violence prevails” in his notebook, which had Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara on the front alongside slogans including “EDL: No Surrender”, “British and Proud”, and Nazi Swastika drawings. The teenager, who is now 17 and cannot be named because of his age, had a Nazi flag above his bed and wrote essays on his hatred of Muslims.

Continue reading →

Smashed windows, arson attacks and anti-Muslim threats have left town centre businessmen claiming Weston has a “very big racist problem” and that they are being targeted because of their nationality.

Police are investigating a Turkish-run eatery’s claims that someone attempted to blow up its premises after a fire was started near a set of gas canisters, while one convenience store worker was told “I hate Muslims” after putting a Halal poster in a window – which was also smashed.

Continue reading →