Ex-soldier jailed for far-right terror plot to burn down bookshop

William Howitt targeted a left-wing bookshop because it was the ’embodiment of everything you detested’, a judge said as he jailed him on Wednesday.

Former British soldier William Howitt has been jailed for four years and 10 months over a terror plot (Nottinghamshire Police/PA)

A former British soldier who wrote a detailed plan to burn down a left-wing bookshop and spraypaint a swastika and “white lives matter” on the wall has been jailed for nearly five years.

William Howitt, 27, had written a guide in his iPhone notes app to carry out an arson attack on the Five Leaves bookshop in Nottingham because he disagreed with their stances on political and social issues including the LGBT community and the Black Lives Matter movement.

As well as the arson plan, created on September 7 2020 and dubbed ‘Plan A’, a raft of other pro-Nazi, antisemitic and anti-communist messages, videos and pictures were found on Howitt’s phone when he handed it over to counter-terrorism police after he was stopped at East Midlands airport on January 5.

At Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday, Howitt, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and striped tie, looked at the floor throughout the hearing where he was jailed for four years and 10 months by the judge Paul Farrer KC for preparing a terrorist act and perverting the course of justice, a charge he admitted after his trial had finished.

You received and shared pro-Nazi and rabidly antisemitic videos and you sent messages expressing your hatred of Jews and the left-wing

Judge Paul Farrer KC

Prosecutor Emma Gargitter said the second charge related to an incident in March 2022 which was discovered after Howitt’s arrest when police searched his phone.

Having been caught speeding, Howitt had asked another person to “do him a solid” and take the blame because he believed he had 12 points on his licence, offering them £320.

The other person agreed, pleaded guilty to the offence and took part in a speed awareness course.

Ms Gargitter said Howitt had “avoided prosecution and punishment” for that crime, but he was disqualified from driving in November last year after another offence of driving with excess alcohol.

Sentencing, Judge Farrer said Howitt’s arson attack plan was “at best inept, at worse nonsensical” and written in a hotel room late at night under the influence of cocaine and alcohol during a period of low mood and low self-esteem.

However, he said, Howitt had “entrenched right-wing views” which had developed since leaving the Army.

Judge Farrer said: “You were virulently antisemitic, anti-Islam and opposed to the left-wing, you glorified Hitler and were sympathetic of acts of terror towards those you disapproved of.

“You received and shared pro-Nazi and rabidly antisemitic videos and you sent messages expressing your hatred of Jews and the left-wing.

“In this country we are fortunate to live in a tolerant society where freedom of belief and expression are of fundamental importance, but it is where your views led you that bring you before this court.”

Judge Farrer said Howitt chose the Five Leaves bookshop as a target because it was “the embodiment of everything you detested”.

He said: “Probably because of intoxication, parts of your plan were at best inept, at worse nonsensical.

“You listed the equipment you would need including petrol, a lighter, an air pistol, a knife, tarpaulin, a balaclava, contact gloves. You already owned several of these items.

“Having completed and saved your plan, you went to bed and sobered up.

“You told the jury you would do things when drunk you would forget the following day. However, in the following days, the glass hammer and tarpaulin arrived at your address and you cannot have forgotten you created plan A.

“Despite this, there is no evidence you ever visited the note again or sought to progress your plan.

“Having heard the evidence, it is possible and probable when you woke the following day you no longer had a settled intention to attack the bookshop.

“As time progressed you simply forgot about it altogether. But following this, you maintained your extreme right-wing views.”

Judge Farrer jailed Howitt for four and a half years for preparing a terrorist act and four months, to run consecutively, for perverting the course of justice.

Howitt blew a kiss to his mother, father and sister in the public gallery as he was taken back to the cells after his sentencing.

The trial heard that the same evening he wrote Plan A, Howitt had gone online and purchased a hammer for glass and a tarpaulin – two items mentioned in the plan as being needed to complete the attack – which were found at his house during a police search.

Plan A referenced smashing the windows of the bookshop and dousing “books and upholstery” with petrol – and “if practical” a mural featuring a swastika, the words “tread carefully”, “smash Marxism” and “white lives matter” could be sprayed on the wall.

Our commitment to diversity runs with the grain of bookselling. But if you don’t like our books just walk away, don’t plan to burn us down

Bookshop owner Ross Bradshaw

He had also looked up white nationalist groups, bought an Adolf Hitler T-shirt and a skeleton mask and told an associate he was what “many would describe as a neo-Nazi”, as well as exchanging homophobic, transphobic and antisemitic messages, videos and photos with other people.

Howitt also messaged a contact asking for a firearm but they were out of the country. When the contact asked why he needed a gun, he responded that it was “politically driven” with an “anti-Marxist theme”.

Howitt had denied preparing a terrorist act, telling the jury he had problems with alcohol and drugs which worsened when he left the Army to become a crane driver as he dealt with an “inferiority complex”.

Giving evidence during his trial, Howitt said messages he sent to other people – including one where he said he had “banged a couple of journalists” and “lobbed a Peroni at a BLM” while at a Black Lives Matter counter-protest – were just “bravado” and him trying to “fit in”.

He denied having racist views and described the arson attack plan as “fantastical bullshit” and “just rubbish, it’s just babble … it’s bollocks”.

But he was found guilty by a jury of 11 men and one woman last month after two and a half hours of deliberation.

His plan to carry out the arson attack was fuelled by his anger and hatred towards those whose views who were strongly opposed to his own

Nick Price, CPS

In a victim impact statement read out by Ms Gargitter on Wednesday, Fives Leaves bookshop owner Ross Bradshaw said customers had been supportive but the matter has been “hanging over” staff since March.

He said: “With thousands of titles, we’d be surprised if every customer liked all our books. Our commitment to diversity runs with the grain of bookselling.

“But if you don’t like our books just walk away, don’t plan to burn us down.”

He said the fact that Howitt was a former soldier made his arson plans much worse, adding: “He set out to damage our lives but succeeded in damaging his own. We hope he seeks help to reintegrate into society so no other bookshop faces the same.”

Nick Price, head of the Crown Prosecution Service Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said in a statement after the sentencing: “Howitt was someone who held entrenched racist, antisemitic, and far-right views.

“His plan to carry out the arson attack was fuelled by his anger and hatred towards those whose views who were strongly opposed to his own.

“Howitt’s drafting of the plan was accompanied by the purchase of two items and an attempt to obtain a third.

“It was clear this was not a fantastical creation without intent – he planned to carry out the attack.”