A white supremacist was today convicted of terrorism after planning to carry out a machete attack at a LGBT event.
Ethan Stables, 20, planned to kill people attending a gay pride event at the New Empire pub in Barrow, Cumbria.
Armed police stopped him on the way to the pub after a tip-off from a member of a far-right Facebook group where he had posted a message saying he was ‘going to war’.
Stables had written that he planned to ‘slaughter every single one of the gay b*******’.
A court heard Stables (pictured) planned to kill people at the LGBT event in Barrow, Cumbria
Ethan Stables (pictured) was today convicted of plotting a terror attack at his local pub in Cumbria
He was unarmed when he was arrested on June 23, but police found an axe and a machete at his home, Leeds Crown Court heard.
The jury was shown a video of a burning rainbow flag and Stables saying ‘gays look nicer on fire’.
Jonathan Sandiford, prosecuting, said Stables had previously espoused homophobic, racist and Nazi views online, and the defendant was pictured with a swastika flag hanging on his bedroom wall.
Stables said in his defence that he did not intend to carry out the attack and he was simply venting his anger online.
The defendant told the court he is bisexual and has an autism spectrum condition, denied one count of preparing terrorist acts and one of making threats to kill.
He denied he was doing a ‘recce’ of the venue when he was arrested and said he was heading out to sit outside the job centre to use the free public WiFi.
Stables, of Egerton Court, Barrow, claimed he was a liberal and adopted a right-wing persona to fit in with people he chatted to online.
Patrick Upward QC, defending, told the jury Stables was not a white supremacist but a ‘white fantasist’.
A selection of potential weapons (right) and a swastika flag (left) were found in Ethan Stables flat in Barrow, Cumbria
His barrister said Stables would sit at night on a wall outside the jobcentre for six hours at a time as he had no WiFi at his home.
In his closing speech to the jury Mr Upward said: ‘How can that be regarded as normal?’