A teenage white supremacist who lauded the killer of MP Jo Cox as a hero has been found guilty of making a pipebomb.

The neo-Nazi who celebrated the murder of Cox on the day she died, calling her a race traitor, was found guilty of constructing the explosive device following a week-long trial.

However, the 17-year-old was cleared of another charge of preparing a terrorist act.

Trial judge Justice Goss told the court he was concerned about “a very disturbing mindset in this young man and unusual and worrying behaviour”.

The bomb was found in the desk drawer of the teenager’s bedroom in Bradford after police were alerted when he posted images on Snapchat.

Barnaby Jameson, prosecuting, said one of these messages was a cartoon-like image of a mosque being blown up along with the words: “It’s time to enact retribution upon the Muslim filth.”

Another was a picture of a pipebomb with an image of the Bradford skyline and the message: “Incendiary explosive and home-made black powder. More to come.”

The jury heard how officers found the defendant’s bedroom covered in flags, including the swastika and the symbol of the Waffen SS as well as a laptop with wallpaper featuring a Nazi eagle over a swastika and the German phrase: “One Nation, One Empire, One Leader.”



But the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court he never intended to use the pipebomb.

The blond youth sat in the dock flanked by two security guards and showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out.

During the trial the youngster, who idolised the IRA and Hitler, was described as a white supremacist who harboured dangerous racist ideologies and wanted to start urban guerrilla warfare.

He made the explosive using sparklers before boasting about it to his followers on Snapchat. The Snapchat messages were shared with police.

The defendant had denied both charges.

Jameson told the court that on 16 June last year, when Thomas Mair murdered Cox as she emerged from a constituency meeting in Birstall, West Yorkshire, the defendant described Mair as a hero who had “butchered a race traitor”.

Jameson said: “The night of the killing [the defendant] posted on Facebook a picture of Thomas Mair along with this post: ‘Tommy Mair is a HERO. There’s one less race traitor in Britain thanks to this man.’”

In another post later the same night, he described Mair an “absolute fucking legend”.

A week later the defendant posted a link to an article on the Daily Stormer website entitled: “Brexit: Jo Cox’s death was not a tragedy and the world is a better place without her.”

Jameson earlier told the jury that the defendant’s teachers considered him “bright and articulate” and said he would always dress smartly, sometimes in a business suit. He did not socialise with other students, however, and would often sit alone in class. But in the months leading up to his arrest his attendance at college dropped off dramatically and despite letters to his parents he did not return.

In April, the youngster was contacted by National Action, a small and secretive neo-Nazi youth organisation and he went on to join the group.

Jameson said his racist ideology continued to grow during his membership of National Action and he took part in demonstrations. Jameson took the jury through a number of social media posts and messages associated with the defendant, including footage he said showed him at a National Action demonstration in York.



He said messages from members of a National Action chatgroup found on the defendant’s phone included phrases such as: “Should we just blow up Leeds or some shit?”

He began attending rallies and participating in sticker campaigns to spread the group’s message, the prosecutor said.



In early June, he wrote to a friend on Facebook Messenger: “The IRA is where we get most of our techniques from. We follow them religiously, the way they operated in an urban environment. The way they blended into the population. Urban guerrilla warfare is what we need to learn.”

In late July last year, the defendant shared extreme messages on Snapchat. West Yorkshire police were contacted by someone who had viewed the Snapchat images and wished to remain anonymous.

The defendant was arrested on 26 July after the pipebomb was found in his desk.

Jameson said: “In the third drawer of his desk, officers found a pipebomb with a fuse protruding. It was the same pipebomb as in the Snapchat image.”

A bomb disposal expert from Catterick barracks was called in and the device was made safe.

In police interviews the defendant denied preparing an act of terrorism, claiming that he had merely been “fooling around with fireworks”.

He will be sentenced at a later date.

• This article was amended on 1 February 2017 to remove a personal detail.