A teenage neo-Nazi accused of plotting a “new Columbine” posed for pictures holding a gun on his Facebook profile and declared himself a Commander of a far-right white power group, the Old Bailey heard.

The 16-year-old schoolboy used the social network site to reveal his affiliation to the Knights Templar, an extremist organisation which counts Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik among its members, it is said. He allegedly had a picture of himself clutching an air rifle as his main profile photo.

The war-obsessed teenager, now 17, who cannot be named, is accused of stockpiling weapon and explosives to carry out a Columbine-style massacre at his former school in Loughborough, Leicestershire.

According to a school friend, the teenager became withdrawn and isolated when they entered year 11, but became “excited” when making racist remarks about Indians and Germans.

“He would say Indians and foreigners shouldn’t really be here, taking jobs with Britain didn’t have or were not getting because of them”, he said. “It was in normal conversations between me, him and others – it wasn’t really aimed at people who were Indian. He seemed a bit into it, excited almost, like he knew what he was talking about and was into it.”

The school friend said he spotted the Facebook entries when he went to unfriend the teenager. “It said on Facebook he’s the Commander of either the Knights Templar round table or some sort”, he told the jury. “I’ve heard of them before, and it’s all pure white people. It’s like a white group with the hats, stuff like that, and it says he’s the Commander or one of them. On his profile page, he is holding the gun, an air rifle or something.”

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