A BRITISH accounts clerk has been accused of paying £4,500 to hire a hitman on the dark web to assassinate his ex-girlfriend, it is claimed.

Adrian Fry, 24, has been pulled into an FBI probe into an alleged plot to kidnap and kill his former lover Alexis Stern, 20, after they broke up., MailOnline reports.

3 British accounts clerk Adrian Fry is at the centre of an FBI probe into alleged dark web plot to assassinate his ex, Alexis Stern (pictured) Credit: Facebook

3 Her killing is said to have been plotted on a dark web site called Cammora Hitmen Credit: Alamy

In July, 2018, police in Ms Stern's home US state of Minnesota are said to have warned her that her killing had apparently been ordered on a dark web site called Camorra Hitmen.

Ms Stern has told Harper's Magazine she suspected Mr Fry, but he denies being behind any plot.

Mr Fry told MailOnline: "I can't believe what I'm hearing and what she's accusing me of. I'm traumatised and hurt that she would even think that it could be me.

"I would never think of killing anyone, I've never so much as harmed a fly.

'I LOVED ALEXIS'

"I once really loved Alexis and we parted on bad terms because I wanted the relationship to survive.

"Of course I was heartbroken, that's just normal when couples break up. But that doesn't mean I wanted her killed. It's absolutely unjust and preposterous to think that.

"I don't know anything about the dark web and I wouldn't know how to access it. The only IT training I've received is for accounts systems."

The pair were introduced in 2015 and Mr Fry flew from the UK to visit Ms Stern in her hometown of Big Lake, Minnesota three times.

But in March, 2018, she told him the relationship was over and then that she had found someone else.

The Harper's Magazine article says the order to kill Ms Stern was made on Camorra Hitmen by someone using the alias Mastermind365.

I don't know anything about the dark web and I wouldn't know how to access it Adrian Fry

Mastermind365 had originally asked for Ms Stern to be kidnapped, but changed the order a week later to say she should be killed, it is claimed.

Payment of more than £4,500 was made in bitcoin to Camorra Hitmen as well as a photo of Ms Stern.

The order to kill Ms Stern rather than kidnap her is said to have been changed on the day she told Mr Fry she had a new boyfriend.

Ms Stern also suspected Mastermind365 was Mr Fry because the person using the dark web alias spelt thankyou as one word, like her ex-boyfriend used to do, according to Harper's Magazine.

Mastermind365 also allegedly tried to buy a gun, which he wouldn't need to do on the dark web if he lived in the United States.

But Mr Fry emphatically denies the allegations that he is Mastermind365.

He said: "None of the things that Alexis has pointed out is concrete evidence against me. It's just flimsy nonsense.

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"She's understandably worried that somebody wants her killed and is looking for a scapegoat, who just happens to be me."

He added: "I don't even have any significant savings and there's no way I could afford to pay £4,500 to have somebody killed.

"This whole thing is just ridiculous."