A man who told police he had “made a pact with the devil” to become “a minion” has been jailed after he was found carrying guides on carrying out “lone wolf attacks”.
Counter terrorism police stopped Declan George-Candiani, 26, at Stansted Airport in August 2024. His devices were seized and on them officers found terrorist-related documents including guides on how to commit “dangerous attacks involving extreme violence”.
In a police interview, George-Candiani, of Streatham, told officers that he started to access the material after he developed an interest in an extreme-right wing group advocating “traditional Satanism”.
He claimed he had a “possessed mindset” and said he had made a “pact with the devil” to be a “minion”. He also said that he had developed an “unhealthy obsession” with the ideology and that it had “overpowered” him in a way he “couldn’t control.”
But prosecutors argued he intentionally accessed and downloaded extreme right-wing material because of an interest in extremist ideology.
Following a trial at the Old Bailey, he was convicted on 3 October of two counts of collection of material likely to be of use to a terrorist under 58(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000. The jury found him not guilty of two further counts of the same offence.
On 28 November he was sentenced to 23 months behind bars.
Following the sentencing, Commander Dominic Murphy, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said George-Candiani had been carrying “horrific material” about “acts of extreme violence”.
“This is another example of why ‘schedule 7’ powers at our ports and borders are so important in helping us to identify potential terrorist activity,” Commander Murphy said.
“In this case, analysis of digital devices revealed downloads of horrific material promoted by extreme right-wing terrorist groups, as well as extremely dangerous material about carrying out attacks and other acts of extreme violence."
