'Lonely' white supremacist, 20, convicted of terror plot over planned machete attack at gay pride pub event

A white supremacist has been convicted of a terror offence after he plotted to carry out a machete attack on a gay pride event at a pub.

Armed police swooped on 20-year-old neo-Nazi Ethan Stables as he walked towards the New Empire in Barrow, Cumbria.

Officers had received a tip-off from a member of a far right Facebook group where he posted a message saying he was “going to war” and that he planned to “slaughter every single one of the gay b******s”.

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He was unarmed when he was arrested on June 23 but police found an axe and a machete at his home, Leeds Crown Court was told.

The jury was shown a video of him burning a rainbow flag and posing next to a swastika hanging on his bedroom wall.

During his trial Stables, who has an autism spectrum condition, claimed he was just a fantasist and was himself bisexual.

He was convicted of preparing an act of terrorism, making threats to kill and possessing explosive.

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.

Stables made a series of chilling Google searches, including “I want to go on a killing spree”.

The right-wing extremist had a swastika hanging on his bedroom wall and bought a new Nazi armband after his was taken by police when he was arrested.

The unemployed 20-year-old, described by his own barrister as “lonely and inadequate”, made a series of extremist comments to fellow racists he befriended online.

Leeds Crown Court heard Stables was interested in the Columbine High School massacre, had been expelled following an incident in which he put another pupil in a headlock, and has an autism spectrum condition.

Stables became radicalised after a trip to Germany to see a young woman, his mother said.

The loner himself claimed he was “brainwashed” by right-wing extremists he met when he lived in hostels.

After he was arrested, police found he had Googled “how to make chemical poison”, “what is prison like for a murderer”, “I want to go on a killing spree” and, bizarrely, “do you get haircuts in prison”.

He had also searched for how to make a bomb from matches, and police found a collection of cut-off match heads in his flat.

He swapped messages with fellow extremists and blamed the fact that he was jobless on “faggots, n******, spastics” and the Equalities Act.

At other times he expressed his hatred of Muslims and Jews, and claimed in a WhatApp message a month before his murderous plan: “My country is being raped.

“I might just become a skinhead and kill people.”