A Fife man accused of planning to attack a mosque hated Muslims and believed there was a need to take action against them, a prosecutor claimed.
Advocate depute Lisa Gillespie QC said Sam Imrie had become “steeped” in right wing ideology and revered mass murderers Anders Breivik and Brenton Tarrant, who carried out terrorist atrocities in Norway and New Zealand.
She told the High Court in Edinburgh Imrie’s own statements “revealed his extreme hatred of ethnic groups and Muslims in particular”.
She said the 24-year-old had glorified Breivik as “the saviour of Europe” and said: “I love him so much”.
Accused of mosque plot
Ms Gillespie said Imrie – accused of plotting a terrorist attack at Fife Islamic Centre in Glenrothes – had joined a fascist group on the Telegram social media app and told members on July 4 2019: “‘No guns all I can do is burn them down’.”
On the 10th day of his trial, Ms Gillespie said: “He could hardly make it clearer than that.”
She said: “These were the people Sam Imrie was telling ‘it’s time to rise’.
“It would be obvious to Sam Imrie it was a group of fascists.
“I would suggest that is why he joined it.”
She added: “It’s not as if to be a committed neo-Nazi nowadays you have to meet up with people in real life.
“Nowadays you can simply log on.”
She said a video filmed inside his car with bagpipe music was deliberately constructed to evoke memories of footage shot by Brenton Tarrant as he drove to murder worshippers at a mosque in Christchurch.
She told the jury Imrie had earlier search for a Gopro camera, which was the device used by Tarrant to film his murder spree.
The prosecutor said CCTV footage showed Imrie trying the door at an Islamic centre in Poplar Road, Glenrothes.
Defence summation
Defence solicitor advocate Jim Keegan QC said when Imrie visited the Islamic Centre in Glenrothes on July 4, 2019 it was broad daylight and “in view of the very obvious security cameras that surrounded the building”.
He said: “If he wanted to be notorious he could have splashed the petrol all over the door and set it in flames.
“Did he do that? No, he didn’t do it.”
He said he then went to a dilapidated lodge building, Strathore Lodge, in Thornton and set fire to a doorway and videoed it, claiming to the Telegram group it was a mosque or Islamic centre.
“The effect on his audience was that they ridiculed him,” said Mr Keegan.
“The sum total of this would-be terrorist plot, this preparation to commit an act of terrorism, was the vandalism of an abandoned building – a crime nonetheless – and the vandalism of a bush beside a gravestone, also a crime.”
He said Imrie maintains the whole episode was “a con… a joke”, for which he has spent two years in custody already.
Mr Keegan said: “He, on his own admission, hated Muslims in 2019 – didn’t know any – but he hated them.
“His impression of Islam was something to be hated… But I suggest that does not make him a terrorist.”
He told the jury: “He was no leader.
“I suggest he was no deliberate encourager, or even reckless encourager.
“He was no terrorist planner nor was he any knowing possessor of documents that would assist terror.”
The charges
Imrie has denied nine charges against him.
It is claimed he was planning to attack Fife Islamic Centre and encouraged terrorism and collected information likely to be useful to terrorists between June 20 and July 4 2019.
He faces further charges over child abuse material and extreme pornography allegedly found on his computer, fireraising and a driving offence.
The trial before judge Lord Mulholland continues.
