A 21-year-old right-winger from Bangor who downloaded terrorist documents, built improvised devices and boasted about constructing a pipebomb has been spared jail, despite a jury having convicted him of four terrorism offences.
Ashton Rees, was found guilty on 5 March of four counts of possessing information useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, following a four-day trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
Today he was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years, with a 12-month period on licence.
Potentially destructive
Judge Brian Cummings KC said he believed the suspended sentence would best “serve the public”, as he was concerned time in custody could be “potentially destructive” for Rees.
Documents recovered from his phone included the Anarchists’ Cookbook.
The court heard Rees was 17 when he downloaded the first of four documents containing instructions on making firearms and explosives.
He had distributed some materials to others online.
Two basic devices made by Rees were discovered by police, while others were buried in woodland and never recovered.
Far-right dimension
The far-right dimension was impossible to ignore. Photographs found on his phone showed Rees wearing a skull mask linked to far-right movements, alongside paramilitary-style attire.
There was also an image of him in a T-shirt bearing the words “Natural Selection” – similar to that worn by a perpetrator of the 1999 Columbine massacre.
During a search of his university accommodation in February 2024, officers found knives, skull masks and a diary containing the word “kill”.
The court was also told of a connection between Rees and Aristedes Haynes, a former RAF cadet from South Wales convicted in 2023 for defacing a Windrush mural with Nazi imagery.
Rees told his trial he had encountered Haynes in a group chat and at first thought of him as “being a bit ridiculous”, but that they became friends.
Judge Cummings said his overall conclusion was that Rees did not have terrorist motivations, and that through “a combination of immaturity and autism” he had “come close to crossing a line that would have led to more serious offending, but did not actually cross that line.”
Rees was made subject to a two-year order prohibiting him from deleting his internet history, owning more than one mobile phone, or accessing internet-enabled devices without informing a probation officer.
He was also ordered to carry out 60 days of rehabilitation activity and 200 hours of unpaid work.
