A white supremacist who dismissed other extreme groups as weak and gutless was jailed for 10 years today after becoming the first Briton to be convicted for producing a chemical weapon.
Ian Davison, 42, whose Aryan Strike Force idolised Hitler and flew swastika flags on secret training days in Cumbria, was castigated by a judge for recruiting his teenage son Nicky, a part-time milkman and would-be soldier, who was given two years' detention for possessing material useful to commit acts of terror.
A sentencing hearing at Newcastle crown court heard that other alleged members of the ASF, which recruited some 350 people worldwide online, will face trial later this year. The group's antics appeared bizarre, jurors were told at an earlier trial, and Ian Davison's barrister called him a "superwimp with a fragile ego". But police were seriously concerned about their intentions and the threat they posed.
Condemning Ian Davison's "appalling" behaviour, Judge John Milford expressed surprise that The Anarchists' Cookbook and The Poor Man's James Bond, whose bombmaking advice was circulated by the pair, were still available on Amazon. Possession and circulation of such material was part of the case against Nicky Davison, 19, who was convicted last month. His father earlier pleaded guilty to producing a chemical weapon, preparing acts of terrorism, three counts of possessing material useful to commit acts of terror and possessing a prohibited weapon.
The judge said that references to the books should be removed from the website and any copies in Amazon's UK warehouses destroyed.
Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, said Ian Davison had made enough ricin to kill nine people and kept it in a jar in his kitchen for two years. It was seized in a police raid last June and is now at the government's chemical weapons centre at Porton Down in Wiltshire.
Edis said Davison had assembled easily-obtainable ingredients and followed online instructions to arm the ASF for a terror campaign. He told the court: "The purpose ... was the creation of an international Aryan group who would establish white supremacy in white countries.
"They were followers of the ideology of Adolf Hitler, who they revered, and whose work Mein Kampf was among many available on their website."
Edis said that the group had not drawn up a list of targets but the prosecution was in no doubt that the poison was made to be used. Ian Davison had discussed poisoning Muslims' water supplies with an avowed Nazi in Serbia, as well as emailing other ASF members about posting cockroaches through letterboxes of Asian restaurants and businesses to start infestations and for their closure.
Although the hatred was often focused on Muslims and ethnic minorities, the group's propaganda - fed online by Nicky Davison, often attacked "Zionist governments". Ian Davison wrote on an internet forum: "The Jew is the Aryan's sworn enemy above all."
Toby Hedworth QC, in mitigation for Ian Davison, said that a psychological report showed that he was a pathetic character who tried to impress others by talking big. He told the judge: "The more he did so, the greater esteem he appeared to be held in by these people.
"A very small amount (of ricin) was eventually produced and nothing was done with it."
Peter Carter QC, for Nicky Davison, said that the teenager was of previous good character and had been corrupted by his father. He had lost any chance of the army career he hoped for.
The group's frightening ambitions contrasted with the mundane worlds of both men in county Durham, where the ASF was financed by online sales of keyrings and mouse mats. Judge Milford told Ian Davison, of Burnopfield: "A particularly unpleasant aggravating feature of this case is that you corrupted your son." Turning to Nicky Davison, he said: "Nonetheless, you were actively involved in the website and expressed on it the same vile, racist views as your father."
Neither Davison nor his son, who lived with his mother and brother, showed any emotion as sentences were passed. They were sent down for transfer to jail and a youth detention centre.