Incel Anwar Driouich, 22, pleaded guilty to possessing explosive substances, downloading terror manuals and discussing plans to launch an attack at the Old Bailey

A supporter of a violent movement for the 'involuntary celibate' has been jailed for 20 months after collecting bomb-making chemicals, explosives manuals, knives and balaclavas.

Anwar Said Driouich, 22, from Middlesbrough, used the password 'killer' on his mobile phone and told a friend he wanted to launch a 'massacre'.

A court heard he researched a misogynistic movement called Incel which has been associated with at least six mass-shootings and the murder of 46 people in the US.

Followers believe in genetic determinism and target women and attractive men - termed 'Stacys' and 'Chads' - as the source of their inability to find a partner.

Police were called in by a chemical supplier after Driouich bought 10kg of ammonium nitrate online, paying £199.80.

Inquiries into his purchases showed that it was his second purchase of the chemical and he had also bought weapons such as a knuckleduster, handcuffs, full-face balaclavas, and two wireless firework firing systems with a firework electric igniter fuse.

When officers raided the family home, they found the ammonium nitrate in the garden shed and found he had also stockpiled three litres of sulphuric acid, one kilogram of potassium nitrate and eight kilograms of urea.

In his bedroom they found three large knives, and elsewhere in the house was a crossbow, ball bearings, arrow heads and a pressure cooker - an item which could be turned into a bomb.

He had written instructions in a Spiderman notebook about shrapnel for a bomb that listed ball bearings, arrow heads and hex nuts.

Driouich refused to give the PIN code for his Apple iPhone, but when forensic experts broke into it they found he had downloaded a series of bomb manuals.

One note, created on the phone in April 2019, listed weapons, body armour and tactical equipment, with prices and was accessed by the password, 'Killer.'

Another note - created six days before his purchase of ammonium nitrate - listed the ingredients, the amounts and proportions of other chemicals to turn it into a bomb.

The documents he had downloaded included Improvised Munition Black Books volumes one, two and three.

He also had the Anarchy Cookbook Version 2000 - a 241-page document containing a comprehensive compilation of bomb-making instructions - and Ragnar's Big Book Of Homemade Weapons.

A document called Bloody Brazilian knife fighting Techniques was also found.

He had also collected three volumes of an al-Qaeda online publication called Inspire, published in Summer 2010, Spring 2014 and Winter 2014, the second two of which included articles on car bombs by the 'AQ Chef' and attacks on aeroplanes.

The 'involuntarily celibate' online subculture became violent when Elliot Rodger (pictured) stabbed dead three and shot another three fellow students at the University of California before killing himself in May 2014

Prosecuter Tom Walkling told the court: 'Analysis of computers and telephones belonging to the defendant show that he had made a large number of internet searches for material and videos relating to mass shootings, terrorist attacks, "incels", beheadings and other examples of extreme violence and murder.'

He described 'incels' as a 'loose US online community [which] has members responsible for high profile murders and a mass shooting.'

In one Facebook message from March 31, Driouich and a friend discussed their perceived hardships in life and Driouich said he wanted to end it all.

Driouich stated: 'It's f****** humiliating I have no hope with girls man I might aswell be a ghost to them its pathetic.

'It feels like there is hardly any point trying now... I want to massacre this place man. I wouldn't even feel sorry for anyone. I know I'm a cold hearted SOB [son of a b****] and I just can't help it, I have so much anger built up in me.'

His internet browsing history showed that Driouich had accessed a website named incels.co on the day before his arrest.

He viewed a post with the title: 'Could be another ER coming up soon.'

The 'involuntarily celibate' online subculture became violent when Elliot Rodger stabbed dead three and shot another three fellow students at the University of California before killing himself in May 2014.

Rodger left behind a 137-page'manifesto' and a Youtube video revealing that he carried out the attack because he could not secure a relationship with a woman, which in turn led to his hatred for those who were in relationships.

The post included a reference 'thots' - a woman who has many sexual encounters - who would 'meet their impending doom on the morrow, their degeneracy will be their death, and I'll make sure to amp up the number of victims up to at least one hundred.'

Driouch argued that he settled on viewing violent imagery as way of 'relieving emotional pain and intrusive thoughts.'

He was born to a Muslim father from Morocco, who works as a property developer, and a mother who was a Jehovah's Witness.

His mother, who he was close to, died from bowel cancer when he was nine, and that was said to be a 'traumatic' event in his life.

Lucie Wibberley, defending, said Driouich had been 'bullied severely, he felt, for not fitting in within Middleborough because of his heritage.'

When the family moved to London, he struggled to fit in because of his northern roots and was 'viciously bullied' at Deptford School Community, she said.

'He suffered throughout his childhood and teenage years from chronic and debilitating eczma, and felt physically underdeveloped compared to his classmates, making him more of a target for the bullies,' Ms Wibberley said.

When a friend committed suicide, that was said to be the 'final straw that caused Mr Driouiche to begin to unravel.'

In December 2018 he referred himself to mental health services in Middlesborough and gave a 'full and frank account' that he was experiencing intrusive thoughts of violence to others.

In March 2019 he made an attempt to commit suicide by tying a ligature round his neck.

Miss Wibberley said that Driouich had an interest in 'all things explosive' and held 'violent fantasies' but, she added: 'He never acted on it and never intended to.'

His comments about a massacre were 'generalised, over-stupid, sometimes inappropriate chat,' she said.

'It is a comment that has been taken out of all context, a teenager-ish comment, one of many, many, many innocuous conversations. It was not a threat, it was not a statement of intent.'

'The defendant has no terrorist associations or sympathies, his motivation for having possession of the material was purely personal and with no intention, or action taken, to cause any harm to any person.'

Driouich appeared at his sentencing by video link from Belmarsh jail because of the coronavirus outbreak.

But he read a letter to the judge saying his behaviour had been 'reckless and foolish.'

'I am sorry for all of the alarm my actions have caused to my community, as well as all the police time and energy that has been taken up,' he added.

'I am adamant though that these offences do not define me as an individual, especially the terrorism offences and the thought of being associated with them fills me with revulsion and embarrassment.'

Mr Walkling said: 'The prosecution position is that this is a young man with a violent interest in chemicals precursors. The defendant repeatedly accessed extremist material.

'We accept that he did not have terrorist motivation or connections but the material provides instructions for specific terrorist activity and endangering life.'

Driouich appeared at his sentencing by video link from Belmarsh jail because of the coronavirus outbreak

Driouich pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing an explosive substance and seven charges of possessing information useful for terrorism, which related to bomb manuals a knife-fighting guide and instructional material produced by al-Qaeda.

Sentencing him to 20 months in jail, Judge Leonard said the material Driouich had collected was 'terrifying in nature and extent' but accepted that it was not connected to terrorism.

He told him: 'I sentence you on the basis that you obtained this material to relieve emotional pain and intrusive thoughts at a time when you were involved with self-harm and suffering from depression.'

But he said there was a 'real risk' that in order to relieve such symptoms Driouich could have gone further to make actual device.

'It is the future risk that you pose had you followed your fantasy to its conclusion that I must consider,' he added.

Detective Chief Superintendent Martin Snowden, head of Counter-Terrorism Policing North East said that while there was no evidence of Driouich having a terrorist mind-set, 'there was evidence of his morbid fascination with extreme violence.'

'It is possible that he could have gone on to be influenced by others to commit further offences had he not come to the attention of the authorities,' he added.

'The materials in his possession could easily be used by those intent on causing harm to others and seeking to disrupt society.

'In pleading guilty, Driouich has recognised the seriousness of his behaviour and the implications of his actions.'