Fife terrorism-accused Sam Imrie had copies on his phone of a far right mass murder video and changed his Facebook profile picture to one of Hitler, his trial heard.
Police found the recordings showing Brenton Tarrant carrying out mass shootings at mosques in New Zealand after seizing 24-year-old Imrie’s iPhone, following his detention for allegedly planning to attack Fife Islamic Centre in Glenrothes.
On Wednesday, the High Court in Edinburgh heard from Detective Constable Murray Cairns, 47, who described the images to prosecutor Lisa Gillespie QC.
He was giving evidence on the fourth day of proceedings against Imrie who denies charges of planning a terrorism attack.
He told Ms Gillespie officers seized Imrie’s phone during a search of his bedroom in Glenrothes’ Colliston Avenue in July 2019.
‘Horrifying video’ found on phone
Mr Cairns told Ms Gillespie he watched the video which Tarrant made as he murdered people at the mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, live streaming it online, also in 2019.
He said: “I think there were three copies on the phone.
“It’s horrific. It’s very graphic. It shows a shooting from a first person point of view.
“It starts with him driving towards the mosque with music playing.
“It then shows him getting out of the car and getting a gun.
“You see him walking towards the centre and people coming out to talk him.
“He can be seen walking from room to room murdering numerous people.
“You can see him making decisions about firing and not firing. It’s horrifying.”
The jury have previously heard how the accused also expressed support for Tarrant, who murdered 51 people in an attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, as well as Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in a 2011 terror attack in Norway.
Far right messaging on Facebook
The officer told the advocate depute his colleagues managed to access Imrie’s Facebook account and found various images and texts about Muslims.
He said a “cover” photo on Imrie’s account showed a man who looked like Hitler addressing a crowd.
He said Imrie had put the phrase “seeing Muslims suffer” on the biography part of his Facebook profile.
The court heard that on June 23, 2018, Imrie posted the number 1488 onto his Facebook profile.
Jurors were told how the phrase is often used by Neo Nazis.
Mr Cairns said 88 is used to refer to the eighth letter of the alphabet “H” and the numbers stood for HH which meant “Heil Hitler”.
The police officer said 14 referred to the number of words in a sentence which he said was taken from Hitler’s book Mein Kampf.
Mr Cairns said he thought it was “we must ensure a future for our people and a future for white children”.
‘White nationalist’
Later, the court heard a recording of the the accused’s interview with police on July 7 2019.
In it, he denied wanting to kill First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
The court previously heard Imrie had posted on the Telegram app that he wanted Sturgeon “to die”.
Asked if he wanted to kill her, he replied: “No, I just don’t want the SNP to be the most popular party.”
He told police that he was “only pretending” to set fire to a mosque.
Asked if he hated Muslims, Imrie said: “I was just being edgy and drunk. I don’t hate anybody.”
Imrie told police he was a “white nationalist”.
He denied he wanted to harm people of colour.
DC McCormack, conducting the interview, asked Imrie if he “understood how it looked” to threaten to set fire to a mosque on the Telegram app.
He replied: “I guess so. That’s not how it was. I didn’t do it.”
The charges
Jurors have heard in a statement of agreed evidence that police found weapons in the bedroom of Imrie’s home in Glenrothes, on July 6, 2019.
An axe, a black-handled knife, a lock-knife and a ‘credit card knife’ were also recovered, the court heard.
He is also said to have possessed copies of works by Tarrant and Breivik.
In addition, prosecutors claim Imrie possessed a quantity of ‘Nazi, neo-Nazi, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic and other racist’ texts, audio files and texts which ‘glorified terrorism’.
He is said to have driven to the Fife Islamic Centre in Poplar Road, Glenrothes where he “carried out observations” while in possession of a can of petrol.
As well as those relating to the materials and online posts, he also faces charges concerning fire raising, child abuse material, possessing extreme pornographic material and being found unfit to drive through drink or drugs in July 2019.
Imrie has pled not guilty to all charges.
The trial, before judge Lord Mulholland, continues.
