An extremist who fantasised about shooting the Prince of Wales so Harry could be king has been detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act for plotting a terror attack “for the Aryan people”.
Mark Colborne, 37, likened himself to Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Breivik and made notes in his diary of his plan to assassinate Charles with a high-powered sniper rifle.
He bought the ingredients for deadly poison cyanide over the internet, and stockpiled dust masks, metal filter funnels, plastic syringes and latex gloves, jurors were told.
Colborne was caught after his half brother uncovered chemicals and papers detailing his racial hatred stashed in his bedroom at the family home in Southampton.
Following a retrial at the Old Bailey, he was found guilty by a majority of preparing terrorist acts before his arrest on June 3 last year.
Sentencing, Judge John Bevan QC described Colborne as an extraordinarily “warped individual” whose “extravagant self-pity” had made his own life and that of his family a “misery”.
He said: “You have been consumed with rage at disparate individuals and groups and you write in graphic terms of bombing and butchery.
“You are, I regret to say, a warped individual who in the past has held views of your fellow man which were repugnant to right-thinking people.”
Colborne’s “extraordinarily violent fantasies” were “seriously concerning”and represented a real or potential risk to the pubic as he had developed thewherewithal to kill 1,500 people.
Whether or not the change in his outlook was true, “a spark of some kind could reignite your rage” in the future, the judge told him.
He accepted that the defendant’s “past hatred of humanity generally” was based on his mental state, but Judge Bevan pointed out that many people had “unpleasant childhoods” and were not so affected in adulthood.
Colborne was ordered to be detained under section 37 of the Mental Health Act with a further restriction under section 41 “without limit of time” on the basis of two psychiatric reports.
The court heard that Colborne was “sane” but had a personality disorder with a degree of psychosis which warranted continued treatment at Ravenswood secure unit in Hampshire.
The judge said that as a result of the case, Colborne’s brother and mother were no longer speaking to one another. He added that his sibling’s actions in alerting authorities to what he found at the family home was “entirely proper”.
The trial had heard Colborne felt alienated and marginalised for being a white, ginger-haired, man and also suffering from agoraphobia and depression.
In his notebook, he wrote: “I don’t want to be a serial killer. I’m more of an Anders Breivik. I have left potential targets open.
“I was waiting for an opportunity to kill one of them. Let it be Prince Charles which would be good.”
He went on to state that he wanted a “silent rifle”, adding: “Take up a good position and put a bullet in Charles’s head.
“He is protected but not too protected. I would sacrifice my life for that one shot. Kill Charles and William and Harry become king. Kill the tyrants.”
Prosecutor Annabel Darlow QC said Colborne’s notes expressed hatred for “non-Aryans” who he referred to as “blacks and Caucasian idiots”.
Comparing himself to other right-wing extremists, he wrote: “I’m looking for major retribution, a mass terrorist attack which will bring to the attention our pain not just mine but my brothers around the world.”
The jury convicted on the basis that Colborne possessed handwritten notes copied from internet sources such as The Terrorist Handbook, The Complete Improvised Kitchen and The Jolly Roger Cookbook about the production of viable explosives.
They also agreed that he had books with titles including Assorted Nasties, Silent Death and The Poor Man’s James Bond – which contained recipes for the production and delivery systems of lethal poisons such as cyanide.
However, the jury rejected aspects of the allegations that he intended to use the chemicals and paraphernalia as part of the terror plot.