An anarchist downloaded a ‘terrorist’s’ guide to staying secret on the internet - and then got caught out by a broken printer.

Roney Commons, 39, began hoarding documents on covert computer use while staying at the Hafan Wen drug rehabilitation clinic in North Wales. But his bid to avoid government surveillance fell apart after he used the communal computer room.

Manchester Crown Court heard that Commons, a New Age traveller and animal rights activist with a lengthy interest in anarchist movements, was exposed after sending information on bomb-making to a printer which jammed.

When another user sought help from staff at the clinic, the how-to instructions on making detonators came out, and Roney’s cover was blown. His room at the clinic was searched, and hidden inside the wardrobe was a ‘cyber-warfare’ guide to using the internet without the FBI finding a trace.

When police searched his home address, they found his own computer was broken.

Commons admitted possessing a record of information likely to be useful for terrorism in connection with the covert internet guide, but was spared jail for the March 2014 offence by a court which heard he had been suffering delusions and had ‘reacted badly’ to a ‘cocktail’ of drugs he had been prescribed at the rehab centre.

Sentencing Commons, of St George’s Avenue, Hulme, to a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years, plus 200 hours unpaid work, Judge David Stockdale QC concluded he posed no threat to the public.

Allan Compton, defending, said Commons, who has a lengthy record of minor convictions, had since overcome his twenty-year drug addiction and was undergoing a ‘remarkable transformation’ into a ‘useful’ member of society.

“If you had seen Mr Commons a few months ago he was an entirely different man. He was an unkempt, shambolic individual with poor personal hygiene and long dreadlocks, living in chaos”, the lawyer said.

Speaking of Commons’ time at the rehab clinic, Mr Compton added: “He suffered low grade psychosis, those symptoms can be increased as one goes through the detox process. He feared ‘liquidation’, that he was here for a purpose and that there was a conspiracy against him.”

Sentencing, Judge David Stockdale QC told Commons: “You have had a significant interest in the anarchist movement, direct action and latterly in covert internet activity. You have not carried out any covert act of terrorism, you have not incited or encouraged anyone else to commit such an act, you have not placed the state or any member of the public in any any danger, neither have you threatened to do so. You are not, in my judgement, on any accepted definition of the word, a terrorist.”