Alfie Coleman tells Old Bailey terrorism trial he was lonely
He was aged 19 when counter terrorism police arrested him at a Morrisons car park in Stratford, east London.Mr Coleman's barrister, Tana Adkin KC, asked him on Wednesday: "Did you ever intend to commit an act of terrorism?"The defendant denied it, insisting he never intended to hurt anyone.
Giving evidence, Mr Coleman said he struggled with his mental health as a teenager but refused help because he "didn't feel like anybody would understand".He told the court about feeling "very lonely, isolated" just before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.Mr Coleman said he would spend hours a day in his bedroom viewing content about conspiracy theories on TikTok and playing Call of Duty on Xbox.He told jurors he could not remember searching online for the Ku Klux Klan when he was aged 14, but said it could be linked to a documentary he watched.Mr Coleman was also asked about writing down the Lord Mayor of London's address, believing it was the Mayor of London's, in a note entitled "Important Stuff".It followed the prosecution alleging he identified the "Mayor of London house" as a target in an early abandoned attack plan.However, Mr Coleman told the court he probably found the address on a TikTok video about Ulez in 2020.Asked why he made a note of it, the defendant replied: "I don't know. I don't remember doing it myself. It was so long ago."
Mr Coleman explained his school year was cancelled in March 2020, adding: "I didn't really like school at that time. I was not attending often. I was pretty lonely."By early 2021, he admitted spending "a lot of time" on the internet and had discovered Telegram.He initially deleted it because the content about extreme right-wing views and firearms "was a bit strong", he said.But Mr Coleman soon returned to it, explaining: "Mainly I was just looking, I wasn't interacting at that point."He described his mental health at that point as "pretty bad".
Mr Coleman told jurors from then on the content he was viewing "snowballed", as he watched material about the Nazis, knives and firearms.Prosecutors previously said he became inspired by Thomas Mair, who murdered the MP Jo Cox in 2016.The defendant does not dispute going on to write a text bearing similarities to other "manifestos" written by convicted extreme right-wing terrorists.The trial continues.
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