A member of the neo-nazi organisation Patriotic Alternative has pleaded guilty to attempted murder after trying to cut a man’s head off with an axe.
Alina Burns, who was 18 at the time, attacked Mohammed Mahmoodi, a 27-year-old Iranian Kurd, outside a barber’s shop in Bedminster, Bristol, on 2 August last year as he stood chatting with a friend.
CCTV from inside the shop captured the victim turning and ducking at the last moment as Burns swung an axe at his neck.
She attempted to strike him again before he managed to disarm her, escaping with only painful scratches to his neck and cheek. Burns was then detained by police officers who had been on patrol nearby, who found a scalpel and several darts on her person.
Terror and hate crimes
Burns was a member of Patriotic Alternative, the neo-nazi right group founded in 2019 by Mark Collett, who still leads it.
PA members have served prison sentences for terrorism and hate crime offences, and MPs have called for the organisation to be proscribed under counter-terrorism legislation.
Most recently, Sam Melia, husband of PA Deputy Leader Laura Towlr, was released after serving 10 months of a two year sentence for inciting racial hatred.
The Burns case illustrates precisely the concerns which have led to calls for PA to be banned. Prosecutor Serena Gates KC told Bristol Crown Court that Burns had “a desire for a white England, achieved, if necessary, through terror.”
Police found messages in which Burns stated she had “realised my role in existence: I am the embodiment of hell, destined to annihilate everything holy I bear witness to.” In another message, she referred to carrying out a “plan” and said she wanted “all the credit and glory.”
Dawn of civil war
An examination of her diary and notebooks revealed notes about Germany, Adolf Hitler, and weaponry used in both World Wars.
On 30 July, she searched online for “what age you buy an axe UK” and “how to properly use an axe for self-defence.”
The day before the attack, she watched YouTube videos about Patrick Crusius, who killed 23 people in a mass shooting at a US Walmart supermarket.
An email to herself on the day before the attack, titled “The dawn of civil war,” declared: “Land is reclaimed through terror.”
Police also discovered an email Burns had written to an associate, stating: “Kill all Jews and Muslims in Britain, please.”
Denes terror motive
During a mental health assessment, Burns was asked how she felt about being arrested for attempted murder. She replied “fair enough.” When asked whether she had any plans to harm others, she said she “would go on again but to succeed,” and asked whether the attack had made the news.
Burns pleaded guilty to attempted murder and three charges of carrying a bladed weapon in a public place. She denies a terrorist motive, and the judge will rule on that issue at her sentencing in May.
The outcome of that ruling will be significant, not just for this case, but in possibly increasing pressure for PA to face proscription as a terrorist organisation.
