Former soldier pleads guilty to terror charges after nail bomb found

Categories: Latest News
Monday October 06 2014
The Daily Mirror and Manchester Evening News both report on the trial of a former soldier who has pleaded guilty to terrorism offences after a nail bomb and The Anarchist Cookbook were discovered at his home.
Ryan McGee, 19, pleaded guilty to possessing a document with information useful to terrorism and to a second charge of making explosive substances under suspicious circumstances.
McGee, whose Facebook page featured photos of him dressed in English Defence League and Ku Klux Klan garb was arrested at a British military base in Paderborn, Germany last year where he served with the 5th Battalion The Rifles.
McGee is said to have ‘liked’ the Facebook page of Nick Griffin, former leader of the British National Party.
McGee has been released on bail and will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on 28 November.
A number of hate crime incidents, both serious offences like criminal damage and low level hate crime, such as racist communications on social media, have been linked to British soldiers in the last year. Some of these incidents occurred after the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich last May such as the firebombing of a mosque in Grimsby and the attempted arson of a mosque in Rhyl, Wales. During trial proceedings the military backgrounds and affiliation to far right groups of offenders has been disclosed leading to questions about the membership of far right organisations among serving members of the British Armed Forces.