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Video shows moment terrorist lures police officers out of station to attack them with knives and hatchet
Video shows moment terrorist lures police officers out of station to attack them with knives and hatchet
Alex Dighton was armed with poles, molotov cocktails and a knife when he attacked officers at Talbot Green police station leaving two needing hospital treatment
Rhondda Man Sentenced After Defends Trying To Kill Police Officer With Knife And Molotov Cocktail
A chilling video shows the moment a terrorist lured officers out of a police station to attack them with knives and hatchet. Alex Dighton was armed with a knife, sharpened poles and Molotov cocktails when he attacked Talbot Green police station on January 31 this year.
Today he was jailed for life with a minimum of 22 years in prison for the attack. Footage shown to the Old Bailey on June 13 show the 28 year-old calmly trying to set fire to a police van with homemade flammable rags before turning ferociously on police officers who ran out to stop him.
Shouted at to get down, he yelled extremist slogans and was undeterred by a taser gun because he was wearing a bullet proof vest.
He then stabbed an officer in the leg and knocked another unconscious as he continued his assault on the police station in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
The attack had terrorist motivation and the court heard Dighton had a grudge against authority and what he saw as government corruption. Sign up for our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here.
Alexander Dighton has been jailed for life
(Image: PA Media )
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The loner, who lived in Pontyclun, previously admitted 10 charges relating to the attack, including attempting to murder Detective Constable Jack Cotton and attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent to Sergeant Richard Coleman.
He also admitted assaulting Pc Joshua Emlyn and threatening Pc Stephanie Fleming with an adapted wooden pole. Two of the three injured officers were taken to hospital for treatment.
As he launched the attack on terrified officers Dighton shouted: "your government is vulnerable". After trying to set fire to a police van and smashing the windows he got past officers and carried on his assault inside the station foyer.
Officers had been unable to halt him with a taser because he was wearing a bullet proof vest.
Detective Superintendent Andrew Williams from South Wales Police led the investigation into Alex Dighton and his attacks on Talbot Green Police station
(Image: WalesOnline )
Sentencing him on June 13 Judge Mark Lucraft KC told the defendant that the offences had terrorist motivation. He had gone out intent on committing violence and had shown no remorse. There was scant mitigation other than early guilty pleas.
Dighton had been referred to the anti-terrorism programme Prevent in January 2024 but was not deemed high enough risk to be included on the programme, police said after the sentencing.
Interviewed after the attack Dighton said his actions were deliberate and 'his tolerance of the government had come to an end".
He told police he said he had not fully decided if he meant to kill someone when he went to the police station that night and had 'teetered' on whether to do so.
'I don't know whether I intended to kill. I don't know… blood had to be spilled. I didn't think that a person's head had to be chopped off. That person's foot had to be chopped off. I didn't think in that detail," he said in interviews.
Dighton, who was not represented in court, was told he continued to hold entrenched views and an "extreme mindset". The court heard of his sympathy with far right groups, anti-Islam and anti-government views.
Sentencing him to life the judge said there was potential for future harm as there has been "no shift" in his extreme attitudes. Dighton was "rigid" in his thinking and to quote his own words "would 100 per cent do the same thing if the government doesn't change."
He started a fire under a police van and attacked it with a stick
(Image: PA )
The court heard that he had gone to Talbot Green Police station armed with materials to make explosive Molotov cocktails as well as poles with sharpened metal attached and a knife.
When his attempts to set fire to police vehicles with flammable rags he smashed the windows with poles and then turned on police officers who came to stop him.
The violence he meted out left experienced police officers fearing for their lives and shocked. At the time the university educated 28-year-old was on bail for a public order offence.
In victim impact statements read out at the hearing DC Alexandra Smith said: "The initial shock of a male turning up at station and causing damage to cars and brandishing a weapon not something any of us anticipated."
Detective Constable Jack Cotton said he feared he would die when he realised Dighton had stabbed him in the femoral artery, a potentially life threatening injury.
DC Smith said being in the enclosed foyer with Dighton carrying out such a violent attack was terrifying and she thought she and others would die.
"We were trapped in a defenceless position. It lasted seconds but felt like an eternity. Hearing DC Cotton saying he had been stabbed was something I will never forget,"she said.
Steph Fleming who twice tasered Dighton said she was terrified when it did not work. She said she could not stop thinking about how close she was to getting killed.'
The Judge told the defendant: "Whilst they accept potential violence and difficult confrontations are part of the role of being a police officer, they were all deeply shocked by the nature and ferocity of your attack."
Nicholas Hearn prosecuting said Dighton's sister had reported him to Prevent due to concerns he held "racist and anti-Muslim views" and was likely to be involved with incel groups harbouring extreme and misogynistic views.
Before he was taken down Dighton addressed the court saying: "I don't care about myself being noticed. Fame is not important to me.
"What I think is important is having a conversation about where Britain is right now.
'Whether violence against the state is justified. Has the state got to a point where violence is justified? You have grooming gangs and Boris Johnson having parties in lockdown. Open corruption. You have the Tavistock Clinic mutilating children.
'I have been watching this for 15 years…this is years of build up. People have such a short memory.
'I will be done. It doesn't bother me.'
Speaking after the sentencing: Detective Superintendent Andrew Williams, who led the investigation, said it was clear that Dighton was motivated by strong anti-Government, anti-immigration, anti-Islam views and that he acted to "undermine democracy". He confirmed that Dighton was referred to counter terrorism programme Prevent a year before the attack but after three weeks of assessments, including interviews with Dighton, it was concluded that he was not high enough risk to be included
Defending that decision DS Williams said there was no indication he would launch a violent attack on officers.
Alexander Dighton pictured in 2015 when he won a trophy for a computer-aided design
He said it was hard to predict what people will do, despite rigorous checks: "It is very difficult to speculate on what radicalised him. We can say that Alex Dighton was a lonely individual who lived by himself and had challenges with his health.
"He spent a lot of time on gaming channels. He identified with (the game) War Hammer and identified with characters from that game.
"Over the past few years counter terrorism policing has processed 30,000 referrals to Prevent. Every year there are 20,000 referrals from the public into suspected terrorist action. So there has got to be a prioritisation of referrals.
"These are highly trained and dedicated officers (doing referrals and prioritising) and in January 2024 they undertook extensive checks on Alex Dighton. Prevent has intervened successfully but behaviour is often unpredictable. Nothing predicted what he was going to go on to do.
"It is easy to have hindsight but the information at the time was no cause for concern. Alex Dighton said in interviews that he only formulated his plan to attack one month before."
Describing events that night he said: "Alex Dighton left home for a police station with the clear intent to cause as much damage and injury to others as he could. He had a lock knife, metal hatchet, wooden pole with sharp metal plates which he said he had sharpened with the intent to harm police.
"I need to be clear - the courage of officers cannot be over stated. One of the officers attempted to subdue him by taser but that was ineffective as he was wearing body armour. Another officer was struck across the head with a pole
"When the officers took him to the ground he reached behind and pulled out his lock knife and stabbed an officer in the thigh narrowly missing his femoral artery."
"Our investigation showed Dighton was motivated by a strong anti state, antic government , anti Islam and anti immigration mindset. He acted to undermine our democracy. Alex Dighton was known to us. He was referred to Prevent in January 2024 - 12 months earlier. He was referred on the basis of expressing anti immigration and anti-islam views as well as views on Incel, the celibacy movement.
"Police from Counter Terrorism Wales did a detailed assessment which included interviewing Alex Dighton at length. That assessment took three weeks. After that the conclusion was he did not meet the criteria to be included on the Prevent programme.
"Nothing in that assessment suggested he would go on to commit such an attack. The three week assessment included checks on local systems , partners, lengthy interview and we asked him what he was looking at and who he was associating with.
"He later said he decided to do the attack a month before he did it. "
DS Williams said Dighton was on X, formerly Twitter, and in chat rooms and other social media platforms "expressing views" but that it is "very difficult" to take action against what people post on social media or get social media companies to take action.
He said police did not liaise with Twitter, Meta, or other channels about Alex's posts on them "because his discussions on them did not go into criminal law."
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But DS Williams conceded: "Taken in contect you can see his rhetoric was starting to ramp up."
