A gym instructor who referred to himself as the “Anglo Jihadi” has been convicted of plotting a bomb and chemical attack targeting a major shopping center.
Jordan Richardson, a 21-year-old convert to Islam, was apprehended on December 19 of last year. At the time of his arrest, he was found carrying a recipe for mustard gas in his backpack, accompanied by plans to “shoot,” “stab,” and “throw grenades” at a crowd, as reported by Leeds Crown Court.
Authorities also discovered that Richardson had access to a bomb-making video linked to ISIS, the same tutorial used by the Manchester Arena bomber, which demonstrated the preparation of the high explosive TATP.
Richardson had previously proposed an attack on the Meadowhall shopping center near Sheffield, one of the UK’s largest shopping destinations, in conversations with another user on social media.
During a search of his residence in Howden, East Yorkshire, police uncovered a combat knife in a sheath and a crossbow, which had been purchased online from SuperGuns UK on August 12 for £35.95.
While in custody awaiting trial, Richardson admitted to a prison officer that he was a supporter of the so-called Islamic State.
He was found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism by acquiring weapons, researching explosive substances, identifying possible locations and considering the steps required for an attack, at court on Monday.
Richardson was also found guilty of three counts of encouraging terrorism and two counts of possessing bomb-making instructions useful for terrorism. He will be sentenced next month.
Gym instructor Jordan Richardson, who called himself the Anglo Jihadi, has been found guilty of planning a bomb and chemical attack on a major shopping centre
One of the notes discovered when he was arrested last year read: ‘Reach hidden vantage point, apply gas mask, outfit, load crossbow, throw all grenades into crowd, shoot bystanders, stab anyone who come close, do not get taken alive.’
A second note contained the ingredients and instructions for how to make mustard gas, a chemical warfare blister agent that can be fatal if inhaled.
He converted to Islam the day after Ramadan in April last year and his interest in the religion developed into a focus on extremism, Katherine Robinson, prosecuting, said.
Richardson had Instagram accounts in his own name but later adopted the moniker Abu Bakr al Aziz and the username Anglo Jihadi, the court was told.
In online messages he said he wanted to conduct jihad and kill infidels and called himself a terrorist.
He wrote in one: ‘Inshallah, I pray to be a jihad and to be martyred for Allah.’
In October last year, Richardson said he wanted to get married and study to become a high school teacher in order to radicalise children.
His back-up plan was to travel abroad to fight jihad and he wrote that he had contacted a Syrian fighter on Telegram and talked about travelling to destinations including Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria and Palestine.
Richardson had previously suggested an attack on the Meadowhall shopping centre near Sheffield, one of the largest in the country, to a fellow social media user
Ms Robinson told the jury that ‘one of the features of the defendant’s mindset was that he regularly expressed a wish to kill Jews’, using the terminology, ‘the pillagers’, ‘the big noses’, and ‘the money’.
Richardson joined an extremist Instagram group called Islamic State, shared material that encouraged terrorist activity and gave advice on how to become involved in terrorism, the prosecutor added.
As part of his plans to travel abroad, Richardson began learning Arabic and sent images of himself to other users in which he was wearing traditional Islamic dress and a Middle Eastern shemagh scarf, with his index finger pointed upwards in a gesture associated with extremists.
He also discussed the need to get weapons and discussed making 3D firearms including how to make the metal parts with hand tools.
In November, he suggested an attack on the Meadowhall shopping centre near Sheffield, one of the largest in the country, to another user, sharing a video of the location with the caption: ‘How life feels when you finally give up and just start killing people brutally.’
Ms Robinson said he was ‘considering possible locations for an attack’ and ‘proactively’ suggesting Meadowhall as a target.
Richardson also shared an al-Qaeda tutorial showing how to make an explosive device and searched online for nail bombs, stating he had bought some chemicals and was concerned about being under surveillance or possibly arrested.
The same day he told someone he had been making bombs in his kitchen and sent a photograph of the kitchen, bragging he could show another user how to make TATP.
In December he shared a link to the ISIS bomb-making video used by the Manchester Arena bomber, showing how to make TATP, saved screenshots for the recipe on his iPhone and looked up the ingredients of TATP including hydrogen peroxide.
Titled ‘homemade alarm clock tutorial’, it had been speeded up, a musical soundtrack added, and comments put alongside it about how to make chocolate brownies in order to get it past online monitors.
Richardson also took photographs of himself wearing a balaclava and holding a crossbow and sent a video to another user on Instagram in which he shot a bolt from the crossbow, set to an Islamic chant called a nasheed.
He searched online for how to get to Palestine and how to volunteer for Hamas, saying he wanted to ‘fight Jews’ and joked about going into a synagogue in a suicide vest.
Ms Robinson said there was an ‘overwhelming level of engagement with violent extremism in this case, including repeatedly discussing his desire to put that into practice in the real world, acting upon it by obtaining weapons and even carrying a plan in his backpack’.
It demonstrated that Richardson ‘was not simply a keyboard warrior or fantasist, but a person who was dangerously far down the road to carrying out terrorist acts’.
The Muslim convert told the court he was working at a gym in Goole and spending time looking at extremist material on his mobile phone while working on reception.
He used Instagram and Youtube where he came across ‘a couple of teachers who would spread things online or teach things in relation to people who had never heard about Islam’.
Richardson said: ‘The more I watched it the more I would obsess over it and it became a fixation to learn.
‘I found it was filling that void that I had and for those reasons I was seeking more content and for those reasons I reverted.’
Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley, head of Counter-Terrorism Policing North East, said: ‘Jordan Richardson was preparing to conduct an attack on members of the public, and to become a martyr to others who share his ideology.
‘This case shows the real-world threat that terrorist content online poses, and how quickly people who view this content can radicalise themselves.’
Bethan David from the Crown Prosecution Service said Richardson was a ‘dangerous individual’ intent on ‘causing violence in the name of his ideology’.
‘He researched how to make explosive substances, bragged about doing so, and had credible recipes for creating mustard gas and TATP, which if used would cause mass injury and devastation,’ she added.
