A teenage neo-Nazi who plotted to blow himself and worshipers 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 improve 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 did not 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 offense, 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, the 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.