A Scottish supermarket employee drew up plans for a militant pro-Palestinian organisation and proposed “launching attacks” against police and British Army targets, the High Court in Glasgow heard.
Sean Grant came to the attention of police after officers were called to his home in East Lothian over an unrelated matter in August 2025.
The 22-year-old was a member of the Communist Party of Britain and its youth wing, a left-wing organisation.
Officers seized a collection of publications and documents from Grant’s flat in Musselburgh. He was subsequently charged under the Terrorism Act.
Grant pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow and is due to be sentenced next month, when he is expected to receive a lengthy prison term.
Police attended the property on August 19, 2025, after Grant’s partner called 999 because of concerns about him.
Scottish supermarket worker Sean Grant admitted terrorism charges at the High Court in Glasgow
Prosecutor Greg Farrell KC told the court: “Police observed handwritten notes strewn across the bathroom floor as well as empty beer bottles.”
Grant, who worked at a local Lidl store, was arrested. A subsequent search of his home uncovered a series of documents.
One notebook contained at least 50 pages of handwritten plans for what Grant described as a “new pro-Palestinian militant organisation” based on a “cell structure”.
He also referred to an “inspiration reading list” that included several terrorist publications.
The notebook advised others not to “keep maps or notes at home” and referred to “weapons for street fighting”, including petrol bombs.
Grant wrote about “phase 3” of a plan to “launch a campaign of attacks” against “police targets”, what he called the “intelligence” infrastructure and British Army recruitment centres.
The proposed campaign was linked to what Grant described as police “repression” of the Palestinian Solidarity Movement, intelligence co-operation with Israel and the “training” of defence force officers.
Investigators also found a booklet at Grant’s home titled “The Red Army Faction’s Urban Guerilla Concept”.
Mr Farrell said: “This is described as a strategy of radical left-wing terrorism which focused on conducting armed resistance.”
The Red Army Faction was a militant organisation active in the former West Germany from the 1970s until the 1990s.
Police also recovered part of a copy of the IRA’s “Green Book”.
Mr Farrell said: “This was distributed to all IRA volunteers as a political handbook that represented the official views of the group and its strategy for guerrilla warfare against the British.”
A further document, titled “A Practical Security Handbook”, contained information intended to help “anarchists and other rebels” assess their “security needs”, plan and carry out “direct action”, and detect or evade physical surveillance, the court heard.
A further item discussed ‘militant actions’ including tips on being ‘digitally and forensically aware’.
There was also a hand-drawn image of a so-called aerosol grenade with two pages of notes written by Grant with ‘instructions’.
Grant stated: ‘The British state seems intent on completely blurring the lines between non-violent and violent acts. We are more than happy to oblige them.
‘If smashing a window or having a sign will result in you being treated, legally speaking, the way a person who targets British soldiers with roadside IEDs, would you not rather go down dealing the largest possible blow to Israel and its collaborators?’
Grant told police he had been a member of The Communist Party since 2022 and had re-joined the youth wing in May 2025.
He said any material found was ‘reflective of his own political opinions’.
Grant said he planned to ‘plead guilty to all charges’ and did not want to be freed from custody as he felt he could not ‘integrate safely into society’.
While then on remand, Grant wrote to his partner insisting any terror offence ‘solely involved’ himself and ‘nobody else’.
The charge Grant pled guilty to stated he had a ‘document or record’ which contained information ‘likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.
John Scullion KC, defending, gave no further background into Grant at the hearing.
Lord Arthurson continued Grant’s remand in custody as sentencing was deferred for reports.
