A teenage neo-Nazi who plotted to blow himself and worshippers up in his local synagogue over a Jewish holiday is facing jail.
'Violent anti-semite' Mason Reynolds was convicted of possessing terrorist materials after he was found with annotated diagrams of the synagogue in Hove, near Brighton on his phone. He had even identified one entrance point that would be 'good for surprise attack', jurors were told. The 19-year-old sixth form student, who was still living with his parents, was found to have held 'racist and white supremacist' views, which he planned to act on one day when the synagogue was most busy.
Reynolds messaged an extreme online chat group saying he 'had a plan', and wanted to better the efforts of other neo-Nazis' attacks on Jewish people. Reynolds had denied possessing an article for terrorist purposes between May and June last year, and said he didn't intend to act on what he had written.After a two week trial at Winchester Crown Court, Hants, he was convicted by a majority jury verdict of 10 to 2 following more than 15 hours' deliberation. Opening the trial, Naomi Parsons had said Reynolds was a sixth form college student in Brighton, East Sussex, who lived an otherwise 'typical existence'.
She said: "He lived with his mum and dad, who he got on well with. At the time, Mr Reynolds has admitted he was a neo-Nazi. Mr Reynolds does not find himself here because he has political, racial or ideological views that some may find distasteful or indeed abhorrent. He's here because he has been charged with a terrorism-related offence, and what that means, in practice, is that he's not just held those political, racial and ideological views - he's acted on them."
Ms Parsons said the specific article related to a note that was found on the notes app of his phone containing a plan to "attack" a synagogue in Hove. "It was a note which had, inserted in it, a video and a few images and some text", he said. The court heard there were designs of the synagogue, with entrances, exits and a camera.
Ms Parsons added: "One annotation on the map reads 'Unknown place it leads to could blow the whole plan but could be good for surprise attack'. Further text inserted: 'The Jewish holidays that tend to have the most people in synagogues are Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Passover'."
Reynolds was arrested in June 2023, where his phone and laptop were seized. Upon examination, police found a 'vast amount' of neo-Nazi, specifically anti-semitic material, it was heard. Reynolds was part of a channel on Telegram - an instant messaging application - called 'Far Right Sigmas' which had started in November 2022.
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He was one of two people 'entrusted' with posting content on the neo-Nazi 'propaganda channel'. The court heard the channel 'promoted violent anti-Semitism, racism and white supremacism', while glorifying 'Nazi heroes of the past' like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler.
Ms Parsons added: "It hoped, it seems, to create neo-Nazis of the future." She said the motive of the channel could be encapsulated in a 14 word sentence taken from Mein Kampf which read: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."
The court heart the 'deep rooted concern' among the approximate 350 subscribers was that the white race was 'under threat' from other races and that Jewish people were responsible for that.
A chat group was set up shortly after the channel and Reynolds was given 'admin' powers to ban certain people from joining.
Ms Parsons said the chat function was used to discuss the attacks of neo-Nazis such as Brenton Tarrant, Anders Breivik and Stephan Balliet.
She said that on Yom Kippur in October 2019, Baillet had live streamed himself using home-made weapons to kill two and wound another two before trying to attack a synagogue. Discussing the attack, Reynolds said '...it'd be 10x better seeing Jews get killed'. In private messages on Telegram, Reynolds was found to be in possession of a video captioned 'Burn your local synagogue, Join Your Local Nazis' and an image he made, captioned 'Make Jews Afraid Again'.
In June 2023, he started detailing a plan where he wanted to 'blow myself up inside a synagogue'. He wrote 'I have a plan', alongside the entrance and exit points of the synagogue and a camera. Ms Parsons added: "Mr Reynolds was not lying about that, he did have a plan, that was not a fiction. The circumstances give rise to a reasonable suspicion that he had the note for a purpose connected to an act of terrorism."
The court heard the examination of his devices also found Mujahieen's Explosives Handbook and instructions on how to make a 3D printed gun. Reynolds has previously pleaded guilty to separate charges of possession and distribution of terrorist material.
In his police interview, Reynolds accepted making the note but said he did it to 'shut his friends up' as they were always having a go at him for being 'all talk and no action'. The court heard he titled the note 'Enough Larping' - with LARP standing for Live Action Role Play - but didn't intend to take actions in real life. Representing Reynolds, Amy Packham claimed he never intended to use it and was 'in effect, all talk'. Reynolds will remain in custody until his sentencing on June 14.
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