A British court has sentenced a former army chef to nearly four years in prison on charges of possessing weapons for "terrorist purposes."
Mark Broadhurst, 28, received the sentence at a Wednesday hearing at Sheffield Crown Court in England, two years after police discovered online messages in which he expressed racist views and an intent to sell homemade guns to far-right groups.
Police found a large quantity of weapons at Broadhurst's home when they arrested him in September 2024, including knives, a crossbow, black powder, ammunition, an air rifle and what authorities described as "a homemade cannon."
The former British Army member was also identified as a member of an online chat group with three other men who were jailed last year for plotting a "terrorist" attack on mosques or synagogues as part of what they believed would be an imminent "race war."
Frank Ferguson, head of the special crime division at Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said Broadhurst had "a clear interest in violence and in developing weapons capable of causing untold harm to innocent people."
Senior Inspector James Dunkerley, who leads "counter-terrorism" policing in northeast England, said Broadhurst had been identified as someone who fostered "far-right thinking" and "actively ordered components to build explosives."
Broadhurst pleaded guilty to possessing firearms and possessing explosives in suspicious circumstances, but denied "terrorist" intent. The judge nevertheless determined that his offenses were linked to "terrorism."
The sentencing comes amid rising racial tensions and hate crime in Britain, where marginalized communities are increasingly being targeted.
In July, British police arrested 12 people over a "far-right terrorist threat" targeting a Muslim gathering in the east of the country. Six months earlier, British prosecutors said they were handling the highest number of hate crime cases referred by police in history.
