‘Nazi sympathiser’ built submachine gun to fight in war against Jews, court told
Birmingham Crown Court heard Ben Styles posted in an online group called “#Kill All the Jews” and described the holocaust to friends as the “holohoax”, adding: “I hope the holocaust is real next time.”
An alleged Nazi sympathiser started building a homemade submachine gun in his garage in order to fulfil his “mission” of fighting in a religious war against Jews and other targets of right-wing terrorists, a court heard.
Birmingham Crown Court heard Ben Styles posted in an online group called “#Kill All the Jews” and described the holocaust to friends as the “holohoax”, adding: “I hope the holocaust is real next time.”
Prosecutors allege the 24-year-old, who has a B-tec in Engineering from Warwickshire College, told his friend he was “just getting as strong as possible for the war” and sent a picture of his phone lock screen which had images of swastikas on it.
Referring to the lock screen, the defendant allegedly told his friend: “Waking up and seeing this lock screen to start my day is far more important than some non-person NHS clapper shouting at me about primary school history.”
The court heard messages were also recovered from Styles in 2019 following the terror attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, which said: “I just got back from New Zealand – it made me super racist. Then that happened and I had a good day.”
Opening the case against Styles on Friday, prosecutor Matthew Brook said: “When you all walked into court, and looked at the defendant, you may well have thought to yourself ‘I wonder what he is on trial for?’
“You were then told that this is a terrorism trial.
“I don’t know, but I suspect that may have surprised you because most of us unconsciously think in stereotypes, and I suspect that the defendant, Ben Styles, does not look like how you expected a terrorist to look.
“In all trials, the jury is asked to put stereotypes to one side, and to decide the case on the evidence they hear. This case is absolutely no different.”
Mr Brook said a police search of the defendant’s garage in Leamington Spa recovered the lower part and top part of a homemade submachine gun, as well as shop-bought blanks alongside manuals which “showed the reader how to convert blank bullets into functioning live ammunition”.
The prosecutor said officers also uncovered a Nazi fitness manual and a book titled: “The SS family yearly – celebrations of the SS family.”
Mr Brook continued: “In this case, the evidence will prove that the defendant, Ben Styles, fully believed in extreme right-wing ideology.
“That is the twisted ideology of Nazis and white supremacy.
“The evidence will show that the defendant had collected on an encrypted USB drive instruction manuals about how to build guns and how to make live ammunition.
“When the police searched his home on February 15 last year, they found that he had closely and carefully followed the instructions in one of those manuals and was well on his way to making a homemade submachine gun.
“He had also started to make ammunition.
“He had also written a manifesto which talked about, in his words ‘working to fulfil my mission’, and set out his views about being in a religious war against the Jews and other targets of extreme right-wing terrorists.
“The evidence will show, it will prove, that the defendant was preparing to commit a terrorist act.”
Styles, of Plymouth Place, Leamington Spa, denies preparing an act of terrorism.
The trial continues.
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