A self-styled “Anglo Jihadi” has been found guilty of planning a terror attack.
Muslim convert Jordan Richardson, 21, of Oliver Close, Howden, East Yorkshire, was planning an “atrocity”, with possible targets including Meadowhall shopping centre, near Sheffield, a trial at Leeds Crown Court heard.
He also “regularly expressed a wish to kill Jews” and joked about going into a synagogue wearing a suicide vest, prosecutors said.
Richardson was convicted on charges of preparing for acts of terrorism, the collection of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism and distributing terrorist publications.
Richardson, who was arrested on his way to work in December last year, was found to have handwritten notes in his backpack which detailed his attack plan, as well as ingredients and instructions on how to make mustard gas.
A search of his home, revealed weapons including a crossbow, crossbow bolts, and a combat-style knife.
Richardson’s internet history also showed an “affiliation with extreme Islamist ideology, including material “depicting and glorifying terrorist actions”.
Richardson had claimed he was “playing the character of an extremist” to escape from the rest of his life, where he felt depressed and isolated.
But, in her closing speech, prosecutor Katherine Robinson said there was evidence Richardson “wasn’t just an online fantasist” but that he was “going to put his jihadi fantasies into reality”.
“He was a man who kept a lethal crossbow and knife in his house, who had a recipe for explosives, who was carrying around a detailed set of notes for how to make a chemical warfare agent,” Ms Robinson said.
Richardson also posted a video on Instagram of the exterior of Meadowhall shopping centre followed by a brightly coloured clip featuring pictures of rainbows and dolphins, overlaid with the words: “How life feels when you finally give up and just start killing people brutally”.
Other video clips shown to the court included Richardson smashing a statue of Buddha in a garden, describing how it was a “polytheistic idol”.
“We say the only possible intention in sharing that sort of material, in particular with a group of people who had professed allegiance to the Islamic State, was to encourage terrorist acts,” Ms Robinson added.
Speaking at the conclusion of the case, Det Ch Supt James Dunkerley, head of counter terrorism policing North East, said Henderson had been inspired by the “violent propaganda” of the so-called Islamic State.
“He was preparing to conduct an attack on members of the public, and to become a martyr to others who share his ideology,” he said.
“This case shows the real-world threat that terrorist content online poses, and how quickly people who view this content can radicalise themselves.
“In just a few short months, Richardson went from being a new convert to Islam, to being a committed and dangerous extremist,” he added.
Richardson is due to be sentenced on 15 December.