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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/05/man-found-guilty-planning-terror-attack-cumbria-gay-event-ethan-stables
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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Man found guilty of planning terror attack on Cumbria gay event | Man found guilty of planning terror attack on Cumbria gay event |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| White supremacist Ethan Stables is convicted of preparing act of terror and making threats to kill | White supremacist Ethan Stables is convicted of preparing act of terror and making threats to kill |
| Frances Perraudin and agencies | |
| Mon 5 Feb 2018 11.55 GMT | Mon 5 Feb 2018 11.55 GMT |
| Last modified on Mon 5 Feb 2018 13.00 GMT | |
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| A 20-year-old man has been convicted of preparing an act of terrorism after he planned to carry out a machete attack on a gay pride event in Cumbria. | |
| Ethan Stables showed no reaction as the verdicts were returned at Leeds crown court on Monday morning and he was remanded in custody before sentencing later in the day. | |
| Stables, who has an autistic spectrum disorder, was convicted of preparing an act of terrorism, making threats to kill and possessing explosives. He had told the court he was ashamed of racist and homophobic comments he made online and claimed he was himself bisexual. | |
| Armed police swooped on Stables on 23 June as he walked towards the New Empire pub in Barrow, Cumbria, which was hosting a gay pride event. He was unarmed when he was arrested, but police later found an axe and a machete at his home. | |
| Officers had received a tip-off from a member of a far-right Facebook group where Stables posted a message saying he was “going to war” and that he planned to “slaughter every single one of the gay bastards”. | |
| After he was arrested, police found Stables had made internet searches for “how to make chemical poison”, “what is prison like for a murderer”, “I want to go on a killing spree” and “do you get haircuts in prison”. | |
| The jury was shown a video of him burning a rainbow flag and posing next to a swastika hanging on his bedroom wall. He swapped messages with fellow extremists, blaming the fact that he was jobless on “faggots, niggers, spastics” and the Equalities Act. | |
| He expressed a hatred of Muslims and Jews, and claimed in a WhatsApp message a month before his arrest: “My country is being raped … I might just become a skinhead and kill people.” | |
| During the trial, his own barrister described him as “lonely and inadequate”. Stables claimed he had been brainwashed by rightwing extremists he met when he lived in hostels and that he had only made racist and homophobic comments to fit in. | |
| He told his trial that he was bisexual and had had sexual experiences with men. Giving evidence, his godfather, Phillip Loveless, who is gay, said he did not believe Stables was homophobic, saying: “I have a sixth sense for that sort of thing.” | |
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