Far-right extremist jailed after Lake District tunnel plan

The court heard Kurt McGowan was "truly sorry" for what he had done

A far-right extremist group discussed creating an underground Lake District base, a court has heard.

"Chief propagandist" Kurt McGowan, of Workington, Cumbria, was jailed for seven years after pleading guilty to seven terrorist offences.

The cell called him "our very own Goebbels", a reference to Nazi Joseph Goebbels, in a group on messaging app Telegram, Preston Crown Court heard.

Judge Neil Flewitt KC described him as "determined and manipulative".

Sentencing McGowan, the judge said: "You are prepared to educate and encourage others in the use of violence to achieve your goal of white supremacy.

"I have no doubt you are a committed, determined and manipulative adherent to extreme right-wing ideology."

McGowan, 23, pleaded guilty to four offences of collecting terrorist information and three counts of disseminating terrorist publications.

Lake District tunnel

An undercover officer gained access to a number of messaging groups, including the Telegram group on which McGowan used the handle Red Church, the court heard.

Joe Allman, prosecuting, said messages showed the members considered they were - or were in the process of forming - an active far-right cell.

"They actively discussed digging a tunnel as a base for operations, where that might be located and how it should be constructed," he said.

"Mr McGowan suggested the Lake District for what he called its extensive woodland."

The court heard other members of the Telegram group included Matthew Cronjager, who was jailed in 2021 for plotting to shoot an Asian friend because he slept with "white chicks".

Mr Allman said McGowan's cell considered itself a paramilitary unit and shared anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, misogynistic and extremely homophobic views.

They considered "non-white" people inferior and thought they needed to be exterminated, the court heard.

McGowan shared information about fighting techniques, manufacturing ammunition and guerrilla warfare tactics, Mr Allman said.

'Murky world'

A mobile phone and USB stick were found at his home in Hinnings Road in March 2021 and other documents were found on the Telegram app on his phone.

These included a "white resistance manual" and instructions on making pipe bombs and firearms.

McGowan's defence lawyer said he had become "embroiled in a murky world that was fuelled by hate and suspicion of the other" and was "truly sorry".

George Payne, defending, said McGowan's parents, who were both in court, had also written a letter to the court, expressing their belief he was "at heart a good person" and had shown genuine remorse.

McGowan, who has no previous convictions, cried in the dock during parts of his mitigation.

He also made a heart gesture with his hands to his mother, who was in tears in the public gallery, as he was taken from the dock.

McGowan pleaded not guilty to two further counts of disseminating terrorist publications which were ordered to lie on the file.