Homophobic neo-Nazi to be sentenced for LGBT attack plot

Ethan Stables, then 20 years old, posted threats on social media. Credit: Police/ PA

A white supremacist who planned to carry out an attack at a pub's gay pride night is to be sentenced.

Ethan Stables was arrested by armed police as he made what prosecutors called "a final reconnaissance visit" to the New Empire in his home town of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, last summer.

Officers later found a machete, an axe and knives at his home, which were supposedly instruments for carrying out the attack.

Social media posts to far-right pages revealed he was intent on "going to war" and wanted to "slaughter every single one" of the event's LGBT+ attendees.

He was unarmed when he was arrested on June 23 but police found an axe and a machete at his home. Credit: Police/ PA

Officers discovered that, as well as researching firearms, he had also looked into methods for making a bomb.

Following a trial at Leeds Crown Court, the then-20-year-old was convicted of preparing an act of terrorism, making threats to kill and possessing an explosive substance in suspicious circumstances.