Firearms manuals on terror suspect's phone - court

A terror suspect "created an online library of extreme right-wing material" which included Hitler's Mein Kampf and firearms manuals, a jury has heard.

Ondrej Sidelka, 21, is accused of eight counts of possessing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism and a further charge of disseminating a terrorist publication.

Mr Sidelka, of Elwyn Road in Bradford, has gone on trial at Leeds Crown Court for the offences, all of which he denies.

On Tuesday, the court was told the contents of a Dropbox folder on the defendant's phone showed he held "racist, anti-semitic, homophobic and neo-Nazi" views.

Opening the prosecution case, Ashleigh Metcalfe told the jury that files within the folder, which was linked to an email address featuring the defendant's first name, included a raft of guides with instructions on how to assemble weapons.

These included manuals relating to machine guns, pistols and one on how to make a firearm using a 3D printer.

Ms Metcalfe said a 3D printer was one of the items seized from the defendant's home in May 2023, when he was arrested.

Among the "troubling literature" also said to have been found within the Dropbox account was Mein Kampf, explosive-making guide The Anarchist Cookbook and a "manifesto" by US lone bomber Ted Kaczynski.

A text by the white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 people at a New Zealand mosque in 2019, was also discovered, the court was told.

Tarrant's face was also used as a profile picture on a Steam gaming account believed to belong to Mr Sidelka, the jury heard.

It was said the Dropbox folder contained "floating images" of Derek Chauvin kneeling on the head of George Floyd, who was murdered by the police officer in the US in 2020.

Other material included an image of a black woman with a noose around her neck against the backdrop of a Confederate flag, a video showing black people being racially abused and an image bearing the words 'The reality of Auschwitz - no more lies'.

Ms Metcalfe told the jury that the contents were "perhaps illustrative of the defendant's mindset" and the prosecution believed Mr Sidelka had a "clear fascination, verging on obsession, with weaponry".

He is accused of having sent one of the firearms manuals to another individual over Facebook Messenger.

It was said the defendant, who was 16 when the Dropbox account was created, denies having any knowledge of the folder and its contents.

The court was told his position was that the phone was used by several people and that he had long held a legitimate interest in video games featuring guns and survival skills.

When interviewed by the police across two separate occasions, he responded 'no comment' to all questions, it was said.

The trial, which is expected to last for around three weeks, continues.

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