Man who shared explosives recipe guilty of terror offences

A man who shared bomb-making instructions in a far-right group chat has been convicted of terror offences.

Elliot Brown, 25, from Bath, shared a video of his Alexa speaker reading out a recipe for how to make the explosive substance thermite.

Brown denied wrongdoing but was convicted of collecting information that could be of use to a terrorist.

He was also convicted at Bristol Crown Court earlier of the dissemination of a terrorist publication.

On the first count Brown was convicted on a majority verdict of 10 jurors to two, and on the second charge by 11 jurors against one, following seven hours and 18 minutes of deliberations.

He is due to be sentenced at 10:00GMT on Monday at the same court.

The week-long trial heard how Brown, who had no previous convictions, held "extremist views".

He was a member of a far-right group chat, in which he exchanged racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic messages with other members.

The group chat also contained photos related to the support of neo-Nazism and white supremacy.

Brown recorded a 30-second video on 22 March 2020, in which his Amazon Alexa speaker responded to his question - "how do I make thermite?"

Alexa read out instructions from a website, which Mr Brown recorded and sent into the chat via the messenger app Telegram.

Three days later fellow group member Dean Morrice purchased materials that could be combined to make thermite.

In August 2020, police raided his home and found enough aluminium powder, iron oxide, and magnesium ribbon in the kitchen to make the explosive substance.

Morrice was later convicted of 10 terrorism related offences, including stockpiling explosive materials.

Brown was subsequently arrested in February 2021 for the dissemination of a terrorist publication, but he told police he made the video "as a harmless joke", the court heard.

He said he had "a dark sense of humour" and was being "ironic" and had "made comments" to gain others group members' approval because he was significantly younger than them.

He told police he did not have extremist or far-right views.

But giving evidence, Brown admitted to holding "far-right, anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic" views, at the time.

Addressing the jury, prosecutor Naomi Parsons said: "I ask you, are his actions not a little bit more than a joke, as we have realised with Brown, a joke is not necessarily the whole story.

"Sharing a video explaining how to make an explosive with a right-wing group, who have an over-arching concern for white genocide, is that a joke?

"The group talked of race war, and Brown himself said that the race war was upon us.

"Morrice tells you about the people that Brown associated with and understood, and that he knew the potential consequences of his actions."

Brown has been granted bail ahead of sentencing.

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