Staff Reporter
AN ALLEGED right-wing British extremist who used to live in Spain’s Alicante has admitted to a UK court that he shared a stash of terrorist documents on social media.
The offences relate to two posts sent via messaging service Telegram on January 23 and March 2021 by Kristofer Thomas Kearney, 38, and which contained scores of documents that glorified and encouraged far-right terror attacks.
He was extradited from Spain to face charges in the UK last September. Known online as ‘Charlie Big Potatoes’, the defendant is originally from Liverpool.
Kearney entered his plea at the Old Bailey via video link from Chelmsford prison, according to the PA News Agency.
His defence lawyer Ged O’Connor told the court that his pleas were on the basis that he was ‘reckless’ as to whether the effect of his conduct was to encourage terrorism. But prosecutor Naomi Parsons told the court that the Crown’s case was ‘consistent with intent’, PA reported.
Via his Telegram channel, Kearney is alleged to have posted a list and links to nearly 90 far-right documents. These included the manifestos of Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011, as well as that of Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 people at a mosque in New Zealand in 2019.
He also ran a social media site called Fascist Fitness, where he posted videos. Many of the recordings were made in Marbella as well as on the Costa Blanca.
The Olive Press monitored his activities for nearly a year, as he travelled between a rented villa in Albir in Alicante province and Marbella.
On January 27, he had originally pleaded not guilty to the two charges of dissemination of a terrorist publication.
After entering his guilty pleas, Kearney was remanded into custody until his next hearing at the Old Bailey. The judge overseeing the case said that the issue of Kearney’s motivation would be decided at a hearing in May before a sentence is passed.
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