A neo-Nazi obsessed teenager has been jailed for more than 15 years after attempting to behead a Kurdish barber with an axe.
Alina Burns, 19, launched the brutal attack on Mohammed Mahmoodi, 27, outside his shop in Bedminster, Bristol last August.
Bristol Crown Court heard Burns was motivated by extreme neo-Nazi ideology and had established contact with far-right groups.
Evidence presented included her telling a man on a dating app to "kill all Jews and Muslims," alongside online searches for "Jihad, the Southport stabbings, Jewish supremacy and Nazi Germany."
Serena Gates KC, prosecuting, told the court: “The prosecution case is that the defendant had an extreme right-wing mindset and wanted Jews and Muslims to be killed and non-whites to flee or be expelled from the UK.
“The day before the attack the defendant was watching videos of SS marches and sent an email called, ‘The dawn of civil war’.”
At a previous hearing, Burns, of Lynton Road, Bristol, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and three charges of having an article with a blade or point – specifically an axe, a scalpel and two darts.
She had denied a charge of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, contrary to the Terrorism Act.
The Crown argued that despite accepting the pleas, there remained a terrorist motivation to the attack, which was accepted by the judge, Mrs Justice Lambert.
Passing sentence, the judge said: “I have no doubt that you are a dangerous offender and you remain deeply entrenched in your abnormal belief system.
“You communicated with a man on an online dating app which at one stage you expressed the desire to kill all the Jews and Muslims in Britain, and also carry out a plan where you wished to take all the glory for carrying this out.
“There were Telegram chats with the Patriotic Alternative, a far-right group.
“The leader of the Patriotic Alternative has made highly racist and homophobic comments in public.
“You also accessed large quantities of material reflecting extreme right-wing ideology.”
The judge said Burns passed the threshold for an extended sentence for dangerousness.
She imposed a custodial sentence of 15-and-a-half years and an additional four-year period on licence.
Burns will be able to apply for parole after serving two thirds of the prison sentence.
The incident happened on the afternoon of August 2 when Burns approached Mr Mahmoodi from behind and swung the axe – that she had bought for the attack – at his neck, causing a small wound.
Mr Mahmoodi, who was much bigger than the 5ft 2in Burns, was able to wrestle the axe away from her before she could strike him again.
A nearby police officer heard the commotion and went to the scene in East Street and arrested Burns.
Asked why she had attacked the Kurdish-Iranian man, Burns told the officer: “Because I wanted to cut his neck.
“I would do it again, but to succeed.”
She later told a Mental Health Act assessor she knew Mr Mahmoodi worked in the barbers, which was involved “in money laundering”.
“I know of him, he works in the Turkish barbers, I think they are money laundering and the police aren’t doing anything about it,” she said.
“So if I done this, then maybe the police would investigate the shop.”
Miss Gates told the court: “She further asked if it had been on the news yet.
“She said she wanted to influence people to do the same thing, but be successful.
“She stated she would do it again, but to succeed.”
After Burns was arrested, police discovered her links to far-right groups and extremism.
Five months before the attack she had used an online dating app to speak with a man, who she told: “I am the embodiment of hell and desire to amplify everything I bear witness too.
“I don’t want to end my life anymore. I plan on bringing change to the UK through means I can’t detail.”
She later told him to “kill all the Jews and Muslims in Britain please”.
The man, who was not identified in court, reported the exchange to the police, the court was told.
Detectives found at her home handwritten notes about the “spread of Islam”, how to use fertiliser to manufacture explosives, and nuclear weapons.
There were also notes about German SS units serving in the Second World War, Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf, and the nationalist novel The Turner Diaries.
On her notebook computer was a copy of a terrorist handbook with information about chemicals and IEDs.
Burns had also used the Telegram messaging app to contact a representative of the British far-right group Patriotic Alternative.
In a victim personal statement Mr Mahmoodi said he had fled Iran because of persecution and had sought asylum in the UK.
“After this attack my life has completely changed,” he said.
“I cannot move my neck easily and the physical reminder of the scar where I was nearly killed is a daily reminder.
“My mental health has suffered and I am living in fear.
“My sleep in impacted and I wake up with bad dreams and nightmares of being attacked from behind with an axe.
“I am still living with the effects of the attack more mentally than I could have imagined.”
Andrew Langdon KC, defending, said Burns had experienced a difficult childhood due to her family being made homeless and living in a series of temporary accommodation.
“This is plainly a disturbing case for a number of reasons,” he said.
“My Ladyship’s primary concern will be for Mr Mahmoodi and for society.”
Mr Langdon said that despite both of Burns’s parents being teachers, the teenager had stopped attending full-time education at 14.
“The last three of four years of her life are spiralling descent and isolation, despite living with her family,” he added.
